Summer with Monika

The black-and-white world of the Stockholm proletariat. Dirty streets, cramped housing, second-rate pubs. Hard work and a growing sense of despondency. A couple of young lovers named Harry and Monika decide to escape from all this. Using a stolen motorboat, they set off for a holiday during which they travel carefree from shore to shore, swimming, sunbathing, and enjoying their bodies. They also envision, naturally, a happy life together. When their dreams eventually meet reality, however, it is like a speeding car crashing into a concrete wall. This early work by cinematic master Ingmar Bergman was first acclaimed for its moral courage. In time, however, it also started to be appreciated for its artistic qualities. No one praised it more than Jean-Luc Godard, who, in a 1958 review, wrote that it was to contemporary cinema what The Birth of a Nation was to classic cinema.