Summer with Monika

Inspired by the actress Harriet Andersson, in the first of her many roles for him, Ingmar Bergman had a major international breakthrough with this sensual and ultimately ravaging tale of young love. A girl (Andersson) and boy (Ekborg) from working-class families in Stockholm run away from home to spend a secluded, romantic summer at the beach, far from parents and responsibilities, but it’s not long before the pair are forced to return to real life. The version initially released in the US was reedited by its distributor into something more salacious, but the original cut presented here is a work of stunning maturity and one of Bergman’s most important films.