Ingmar Bergman: A Tribute in Film continues with a screening of Smiles of a Summer Night (1955). In turn-of-the-century Sweden, four men and four women attempt to navigate the laws of attraction. During a weekend in the country, the women collude to force the men’s hands in matters of the heart, exposing their pretensions and insecurities along the way. A melancholy and wise comedy of manners and dalliance, the film stars Swedish screen legends Gunnar Björnstrand and Harriet Andersson delivering flirtatious propositions and razor-sharp witticisms, and later inspired works such as Stephen Sondheim’s musical A Little Night Music.
The first Ingmar Bergman film to be reviewed in the New York Times, Smiles of a Summer Night at last ushered in an international audience for the filmmaker following its U.S. release in 1957, after 15 films that had received mostly local acclaim. Only two years later, The New York Times Magazine published a long article on Bergman that recognized him as one of the most revered and influential foreign-language filmmakers in America, celebrated for three subsequent films that appeared in New York cinema in rapid succession: The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, and The Magician.
Ingmar Bergman: A Tribute in Film
On the centenary of Ingmar Bergman’s birth, Scandinavia House presents a tribute to the late artist with screenings of seven films organized by Laurence Kardish (former Senior Curator of Film, MoMA), beginning with a special event with Liv Ullmann, the celebrated actress, director, and partner of Bergman. On September 26, Ullmann joins us to present an introduction to a screening of Bergman’s final film Saraband (2003), the sequel to the iconic Scenes From a Marriage (1974), which returns to Marianne (Ullmann) and Johan (Erland Josephson) thirty years after their divorce. Following the film that evening, Ullman will hold a special discussion with Kardish.
The series continues with a series of six classic Bergman titles that established not only his reputation in America, but contributed to the establishment of an art house cinema in the U.S.
Ullmann on Bergman
An Evening with Liv Ullmann & Saraband (TICKETS SOLD OUT)
WED—September 26—6:30 PM
Smiles of a Summer Night /Sommarnattens leende
FRI—September 28—6:30 PM
Wild Strawberries /Smultronstället
WED—October 3—7 PM
The Magician /Ansiktet
FRI—October 5—6:30 PM
Ingmar Bergman Through the Choreographer’s Eye
SAT—October 6—3 PM
The Virgin Spring /Jungrukällan
WED—October 10—7 PM
Through a Glass Darkly /Sasom I en spegel
FRI—October 12—7 PM
Persona
SAT—October 13—3 PM
1538159400
1538166600
FRI—September 28—6:30 PM
$12 ($7 ASF Members)
108 min. In Swedish with English subtitles.