Ingmar Bergman-Sommarnattens leende (1955)

After fifteen films of mostly local acclaim, the 1956 prize-winning comedy Smiles of a Summer Night at last ushered in an international audience for director Ingmar Bergman. Set in turn-of-the-century Sweden, four women and four men attempt to juggle the laws of attraction amidst their daily bourgeois life. When a weekend in the country brings them all face to face, the women ally to force the men's hands in their matters of the heart, exposing their pretentions and insecurities along the way. Chock full of flirtatious propositions and sharp-witted wisdom delivered by such legends of the Swedish screen as Gunnar Björnstrand, Eva Dahlbeck, Harriet Andersson, and Ulla Jacobsson, Smiles of a Summer Night is one of film history's great tragicomedies, a bittersweet view of the transience of human carnality. criterion.com




A small town at the turn of the century. Lawer Fredrik EGerman has an ingenue-wife, Anne, and a grown-up son, Henrik, from an earlier marriage. His wife is still untouched, and instead he meets his former mistress Desiree after her performance at the theatre. They leave the theatre together and EGerman falls in one of the puddles. Desiree takes him to her home and EGerman changes into a night-shirt, owned by count Malcolm, Desirees present lover. Suddenly the count comes for a visit and throws EGerman out. (http://imdb.com/title/tt0048641/plotsummary)




In the beginning of the Twentieth Century, the successful fifty years old lawyer Fredrik Egerman has been married for three years with his naive nineteen years old wife Anne, who is still virgin. His adult son from his former marriage, Henrik, lives in celibate preparing to be a priest. (http://imdb.com/title/tt0048641/plotsummary)




Their servant is the young and futile Petra, who easily falls in love for every man. When Frederik goes to the theater with Anne, he sees the actress and his former mistress Desiree Armfeldt and he meets her alone in her dressing room after the performance. They go to her house, Frederik falls in one puddle and she gives the robe and the pajamas of her present lover, the military Count Carl Magnus Malcolm, who is married with Anne's friend Countess Charlotte Malcolm. However, Malcolm unexpectedly arrives and after the unpleasant encounter of the trio, Desiree ends their relationship. (http://imdb.com/title/tt0048641/plotsummary)




On the next morning, Desiree plots a weekend in her mother's summer real state with Frederik, Anne, Henrik, Malcolm and Charlotte, with the intention of seducing Frederik again. Along the night, with the three smiles of love, four couples are formed. (http://imdb.com/title/tt0048641/plotsummary)