Nessieldwi Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Ava-Grace Willis Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Calum Hutton It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

charlesem In A Lesson in Love, Ingmar Bergman seems to be trying to turn Eva Dahlbeck into Carole Lombard. She certainly has Lombard's blond glamour, and she makes a surprising go at knockabout comedy. But where Lombard had the light touch of a Howard Hawks or an Ernst Lubitsch to guide her in her best work, Dahlbeck is in the hands of Bergman, whose touch no one has ever called light. A year later, the Bergman- Dahlbeck collaboration would make a better impression with Smiles of a Summer Night, but A Lesson in Love sometimes verges on smirkiness in its treatment of the marriage of Marianne (Dahlbeck) and David Erneman (Gunnar Björnstrand). They are on the verge of divorce and she is about to marry her old flame Carl-Adam (Åke Grönberg), a sculptor for whom she once posed. David is a gynecologist who has had a series of flings with other women, including Susanne (Yvonne Lombard), with whom he is trying to break up. But Marianne has not exactly been faithful to their vows either. Meanwhile, we also get to know their children, Nix (Harriet Andersson) and her bratty little brother, Pelle (Göran Lundquist), and David's parents (Olof Winnerstrand and Renée Björling), who in sharp contrast to Marianne and David are celebrating 50 years of marriage. While Bergman sharply delineates all of these characters - - especially 15-year-old Nix, who hates being a girl so much that she asks her father if he can perform sex-change operations -- the semi-farcical situation he puts them has a kind of aimless quality to it. I appreciated Andersson's performance the more for having seen her as the dying Agnes in Cries and Whispers the night before, but in this film the role makes no clear thematic sense.

Hitchcoc This would be fine as an Italian farce. It is basically the story of a dull man who is full of testosterone (interesting because he's a gynecologist). Through various affairs and indiscretions, he has lost his connection to his wife. They are a match for one another and fight and spar through the whole thing. There is a little Taming of the Shrew action. First he steals her from his best friend; then he offers her back; then he wants her again. It is clever enough, I guess, but I expect more profundity from Bergman. Some of the banter is clever but ultimately, it's that old story of a man and wife, playing at a game, pretending not to be married and then setting up an encounter.

TheLittleSongbird Ingmar Bergman has many several superb movies. A Lesson In Love is not one of his best, or one of my favourites shall I say, but I found it to be a fine and very overlooked film in many ways. It looks wonderful, the cinematography is especially good in the picnic scene and the scenery and images are all stunning to watch. The script is cynical, charming and funny at the same time, while the story is lighter in tone than most Bergman but is well balanced also with intelligently explored issues within the family especially the tension between David and Nix. The flashbacks are very carefully calculated, and there are some standout scenes, like at the picnic, on the train and with the granddad. Bergman as ever directs superbly. It is the performances that make A Lesson in Love the charmer it is, aside from the writing that is. The ever elegant Eva Dahlbeck and Gunnar Bjornstrand give superb performances that gives A Lesson in Love that extra sparkle. Fellow Bergman regular Harriet Anderssen is also impressive, though went onto even better things. Overall, a charming and funny film, definitely recommended. 9/10 Bethany Cox

mnasmark This movie makes me wonder a number of things: how come Swedish acting is so bad now when it was so good back then, if liberal thoughts like those in this movie made it to the big screen back in the 50's, how come there was a revolution in the 60's, what did the general public think of this movie at the opening. In this movie having a fling is presented as good for the marriage. The girl who strongly dislikes her feminine sides, and much rather wants to be a bay is accepted. I don't really want to go into the plot much more than that, but it is definitely worth watching, I just wish they would have dropped Cupid at the end.