Ingmar Bergman’s Smiles of a Summer Night is not a typical Bergman film that deals with the usual Bergman themes, such as the existential, psychological, and spiritual suffering and struggle of humans. This film is a romantic comedy that is based on adultery or multiple extramarital affairs. In this film, the couples are attracted to other males or females, they suffer, and eventually, either renew or break off their relationships. Even though the film appears to be a romantic, light-hearted, erotic comedy, it highlights how human desires challenge incompatible relationships. Bergman vividly shows the void in the most intimate human relationships. When the gaps widen beyond repair and rejuvenation, the relationships are bound to collapse. Human souls always strive for freedom and solace.
Smiles of a Summer Night was Bergman’s first international hit and established his name as a filmmaker worldwide. The elegant and witty dialogues caught the viewers’ attention globally. In the film, Bergman vividly shows that human desires can’t be tamed under the formal societal relationships such as marriage. When humans are not satisfied, happy, and content, their desires are bound to create turbulence in the existing relationships. Therefore, they intend to exit those formal relationships and enter a zone of illusion and uncertainty. Marriages and communions are broken off, and extramarital relationships are formed. Humans find their new identities in them.
In Smiles of a Summer Night, Henrik is in love with his nineteen-year-old stepmother, Anne (Ulla Jacobsson), and finally elopes with her with the help of Petra (Harriet Andersson) and Frid. Despite being married to Egerman (Gunnar Bjornstrand) for two years, Anne can’t find solace in him and is reluctant to consummate her marriage. Lonely Egerman finds solace and communion in the stage actress Desiree (Eva Dahlbeck), with whom he had already broken off, and is believed to have a son. Egerman’s maid, Petra, flirts with both Egerman and his son Henrik, but finds true love in Frid. Army officer Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm falls for Desiree despite being married to a loving and trustworthy wife, Charlotte. However, they reconcile in the end. In Smiles of a Summer Night, Bergman dissects the male ego and shows how it affects romantic or marital relationships. Count Malcolm asks Egerman to leave Desiree’s house. When he sees his wife, Charlotte, with Egerman in the garden pavilion at Desiree’s mother’s estate on the midsummer night, he invites Egerman to a Russian Roulette duel in which he beats Egerman. However, no harm is caused as Count Malcolm fills the pistol with soot. Even though the couples face significant turbulence in their relationships, they reconcile in the end. Frid explains that the midsummer night smiles three times; first time between midnight and dawn for the young lovers, which is directed to Young Henrik and Anne, second time for the fools and jesters, which is directed to Frid and Petra, and third time for the sad, lonely, sleepless, dejected, and lost souls, which is directed to Egerman and Desiree, and Count Malcolm and Charlotte.