Dotsthavesp I wanted to but couldn't!

Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

filippaberry84 I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Raymond Sierra The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

elvircorhodzic SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHTS is an intelligent, honest and very funny comedy about complicated love relationships between men and women.One prominent lawyer, who is faced with problems in his marriage, requires the help of his former mistress. The famous and beautiful actress wants her former lover. The young man, who was on his way to becoming a priest falls in love with his stepmother. One officer wants to be a good husband and a better lover at the same time. His wicked wife wants him for herself at all costs. There is also a naughty little housemaid who knows her way around an old coachman.This film is full of witty romantic incidents. Philosophic conclusions are attractive and they reflect with a certain elegance. The director skillfully presented a conflict between young (inexperienced) and mature (experienced) form of love. The series of personal complications makes up for the content of the film. This leads to a series of comic situations, criss-crossed love and even explicit scenes. Despite the cynical views on love and sexuality by Mr. Bergman, the end of the film is still happy and all the protagonists are "satisfied".Characterization is commendable. Men are strictly "pompous" figures, while women are sweet and impressionable. Male dignity is exposed to a „serious" satire.Gunnar Björnstrand as Fredrik Egerman is elegant, tough and cunning lawyer. Jarl Kulle as Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm is fun, a bit self-centered and arrogant officer. Ulla Jacobsson Anne Egerman is beautiful and even more naive young wife. Eva Dahlbeck as Desiree Armfeldt is a impatient mistress and a single mother. Harriet Andersson (Petra) is lively and merry maid and Åke Fridell (Frid) is a coachman who explains to us the existence of three types of love on a summer night.This is a playful comedy in which love conquers frustration and tragedy turns into farce.

gavin6942 In the lat 19th-century, a slightly-aging and totally amoral actress invites to her country-house party two married men---a lawyer and a count---who have both been her lovers in the past. She also asks them to bring along their wives. She has plans on taking one of them away from his present wife, but also ensure that all her guests leave paired up. The math doesn't work out until an uninvited guest also shows up.The film's plot—which involves switching partners on a summer night—has been adapted many times, most notably as the theatrical musical, A Little Night Music by Stephen Sondheim, Hugh Wheeler and Harold Prince, which opened on Broadway in 1973, and as Woody Allen's film "A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy" (1982).What actually strikes me about the film is how generally upbeat it is. Bergman is best known for dark, moody existential films. And this is not one of those. Others have noted the same (how can you not?) and point out the strangest thing of all: this was during the darkest period in Bergman's life. So tragedy makes comedy?

kenjha In early 19th century Sweden, a group of people gathers at a country estate and romantic entanglements ensue. A Bergman comedy? Sounds like an oxymoron. Who knew Ingmar could be funny? He shows quite a flair for comedy when he puts his mind to it. There are stretches of playful and witty dialog in this enjoyable film, but it is interspersed with dramatic scenes that are more in line with what this director is famed for. The cast, featuring a quartet of lovely actresses, is terrific, and includes such Bergman regulars as Andersson and Bjornstrand. Kulle is hilarious as a pompous count who tries to find a happy medium between his wife and his mistress.

evanston_dad Ingmar Bergman lightens up considerably to deliver this romantic comedy of manners set in a magisterial country estate. The film contains all of the elements you would expect from a bedroom farce: young foolish lovers; older, wiser ones; arch rivals; a duel. It's by far Bergman's most accessible film and it makes one wish the super-sober director had let his hair down more frequently.Woody Allen aped "Smiles of a Summer Night" in "A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy," but that film does not do justice to the original material. Stephen Sondheim, on the other hand, improved greatly on Bergman's original film in his Broadway musical "A Little Night Music." It's more magical, more wistful and much funnier than Bergman's version.Grade: B+