Doc Films
1212 E 59th St
773.702.8575
This event has passed.
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Smiles of a Summer Night
- When
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Wednesday Oct 22, 2008 (7 & 9:15pm)
- Where
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- Price
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$5
- Links
Ingmar Bergman cemented his rep as the master of Nordic miserablism with existential chin-strokers like Seventh Seal and Wild Strawberries, so it's easy to forget that he actually broke internationally with Smiles of a Summer Night, a (relatively speaking) lighthearted comedy of sexual manners. Six guests in a Swedish country house play romantic round-robin, tossing themselves into fresh beds and rotten misunderstandings. Still, Porky's it ain't — class warfare and mortal dread seem to drive the characters as much as their libidos do. Cerebral horndog Woody Allen upped the farce with A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy (1982), which was based on Smiles, but nothing tops Bergman's deceptively frolicking original.
