Summer Interlude (1951)
"Sommarlek" (original title)

While waiting for the night rehearsal of the ballet Swan Lake, the lonely twenty-eight year-old ballerina Marie receives a diary through the mail. She travels by ferry to an island nearby ... See full summary »

Director:

Ingmar Bergman

Writers:

Ingmar Bergman, Herbert Grevenius

Stars:

Maj-Britt Nilsson, Birger Malmsten, Alf Kjellin

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Maj-Britt Nilsson	...	Marie
Birger Malmsten	...	Henrik
Alf Kjellin	...	David Nyström
Annalisa Ericson	...	Kaj, ballet dancer
Georg Funkquist	...	Uncle Erland
Stig Olin	...	Ballet Master
Mimi Pollak	...	Mrs. Calwagen, Henrik's aunt
Renée Björling	...	Aunt Elisabeth
Gunnar Olsson	...	The Priest

Storyline

While waiting for the night rehearsal of the ballet Swan Lake, the lonely twenty-eight year-old ballerina Marie receives a diary through the mail. She travels by ferry to an island nearby Stockholm, where she recalls her first love Henrik. Thirteen years ago, while traveling to spend her summer vacation with her aunt Elisabeth and her uncle Erland, Marie meets Henrik in the ferry and sooner they fall in love for each other. They spend summer vacation together when a tragedy separates them and Marie builds a wall affecting her sentimental life.

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Plot Keywords:

summer vacation | uncle | ballerina | diary | tragedy | 

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Taglines:

An intimate love story - frank, fresh and delightful in its telling!

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

Sweden

Language:

Swedish

Release Date:

26 October 1954 (USA)

Also Known As:

Illicit Interlude

Filming Locations:

Dalarö, Stockholms län, Sweden

Box Office

Budget:

SEK 434,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Svensk Filmindustri (SF)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

96 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Featured in Hey Babu Riba (1985)

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Soundtracks

"Swan Lake"
Written by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

User Reviews

Summer Interlude

This Ingmar Bergman's earlier essay is a dedicative recount of a young ballerina's summer holiday puppy romance with a timid college student which culminated in a tragic accident and the narrative leaps between the reminiscent past and the present (13 years later, when she is preparing her SWAN LAKE premier).

The film is slightly differentiated from Bergman's usual philosophy-heavy, mentally- straining members of his reservoir, a summer vacation in a Scandinavian island, with youth in bathing suits, is a curio to find out. But the die-hard Bergman fans will as always revel in the solemn nuances and formidable expressions from Maj-Britt Nilsson's heroine, whose god-spitting manifesto "I'll hate him till the day I die!"defies any compromise and detour, which could also be Bergman's mouthpiece speaking.

There are many aesthetically haunting shots with utterly perfect structural deployment (which cannot be a surprise since this is the sixth Bergman's film I have watched so far), a witchcraft of radiating the characters' frank and inherent emotion and sixth senses through Black & White lens, the portrait close-ups, the little cartoon on the letter, even the ballet tableaux, all sparkle with resilience of a human soul's elusive fickleness. The wild strawberry, chess playing with the clergyman and the hag with mustache, there are many anecdotes here just for perusing.

Ms. Nilsson captures all the spotlight in the film, although she and Birger Malmsten are quite awkward in pulling off mid-or-late teens in love since wrinkles and creases cannot lie, but it is almost a mission-impossible for any actress since spanning 13 years especially from teenage to adulthood is a great challenge, nevertheless, this blemish can not overthrow the film's majestic study on a psychological case of a lost love soul's selective protection and rejuvenation, although may not be Bergman's best, still a recommendable film from the maestro and furthermore attests his consistency in filmic supremacy.