Smiles of a Summer Night

Smiles of a Summer Night is a Swedish comedy set around the turn of the twentieth century. Fredrik Egerman, a middle-aged lawyer, has been married to his young wife Anne for two years, but the marriage has not been consummated. His grown son Henrik, studying for the church and close in age to his stepmother, is drawn to her, while the household maid Petra occupies his attention as well. When Fredrik renews contact with Desirée Armfeldt, an actress he once loved, she draws him and others to a weekend gathering at her mother's country estate. There the assembled men and women pair off in ways none of them planned.

Ingmar Bergman directed and wrote the film, the third of the twenty-four features he directed in chronological order. It followed Summer with Monika and preceded The Seventh Seal. Gunnar Björnstrand, Ulla Jacobsson, Eva Dahlbeck, Harriet Andersson, Margit Carlqvist and Jarl Kulle lead a credited cast of thirty-four. Allan Ekelund produced it for SF Studios, and it runs 109 minutes.

On IMDb the film holds 7.7 out of 10 from around 16,000 votes, while on TMDB it rates 7.4 from roughly 280. A critics' rating of 8.6 from sixteen reviews places it above both audience scores. The turnout on TMDB is far smaller than on IMDb, which lends the IMDb figure more weight.