Summer with Monika (1953)

 Ingmar Bergman's "Summer with Monika"


After the existential experience of watching Ingmar Bergman's 1951 film "Summer Interlude," I return back to Bergman and back to a film dealing with themes of "summer." Like in "Summer Interlude," Bergman's exploration of the summer months in "Summer with Monika" are also explorations of youthful respite from the harsh realities of adult life. 

The film finds two young lovers who run away from their harsh and abusive working class lives. The young lovers, Harry and Monika, steal Harry's dad's boat and spend the summer at the Stockholm Archipelago. Their summer is full of youthful adventure and carefree living. After a while, they begin to get restless and hungry, especially after Monika reveals that she believes herself to be pregnant. After returning back to the city and back to 'reality,' Harry gets a job to support the new baby, while Monika takes the responsibilities of a housewife. However, Monika continues to yearn for excitement and adventure in the midst of financial trouble, childcare, and marital tensions. After Harry finds out the Monika cheated on him while he was out of town for work, he hits her in a fit of rage. Monika flees town, leaving Harry with the baby. Harry continues to fantasize about the summer he spent with Monika. 

In the beginning, Monika and her youthful abandon offers a respite to both Harry and the viewer amidst the frustrating realities of modern life. Through Monika, we find a getaway. However, this getaway begins to become shallow. Reality begins to set in. You need to grow up at some point. You need to get a job. You need to raise your family. You need to be a provider. You need to struggle. That restless want for abandon remains, but its merely a fantasy. It merely the yearning for youth once again. But the summer only lasts temporarily. That carefree and impulsivity in the beginning only grows out of place when life gets hard. It mocks you now. Its a bright, shiny toy beckoning you to come play with it. But alas, it cannot save you. And your desire for it only holds you back from the responsibilities you have and the reality of your modern life. 

The film begins hopeful and playful and ends tragic and bitter. It is a coming-of-age story. It's a story of disillusionment. It's a story of how quickly time goes. It's a story of our youthful desires turning into nothing but hollow, unfulfilled frustrations. Bergman somehow manages to infuse the totality of life into all of his films. "Summer with Monika" is a simple story of two youths running away together to find happiness. However, in the hands of Bergman, it becomes a story of youth, love, and the aggregate of our lives. His work transcends the screen and there's a reason he is such a beloved filmmaker. "Summer with Monika" is an early work of his, but it already shows how spiritual a film can be and tell so much with so little.



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