Summer Interlude [Sommarlek] [Illicit Interlude] **** (1951, Maj-Britt Nilsson, Birger Malmsten, Alf Kjellin) – Classic Movie Review 7354

Co-writer/ director Ingmar Bergman’s early lyrical, delicate and sensuous 1951 black and white film Summer Interlude (Sommarlek) hauntingly recalls the bitter-sweet memories of a prima ballerina’s tender first love affair at the age of 15.

Bergman tells his film in flashback with the heroine now a lonely 28-year-old, and the transition from young adolescence to adult experience is sensitively observed. Maj-Britt Nilsson is delicious as Marie and Birger Malmsten compelling as her first love Henrik, with Alf Kjellin also essential as David Nyström.

Maj-Britt Nilsson (1924–2006).

In order to drum up a bit of business on its belated US release on 26 October 1954, it was was given the sexy title Illicit Interlude and advertised as ‘The most INTIMATE love story ever told’. But then Bergman was always happy with a bit of controversy. However, he cannot have been happy that the distributor spliced in unrelated scenes of naked bathing filmed at a nudist colony on Long Island.

Also in the cast are Annalisa Ericson, Georg Funkquist, Stig Olin, Mimi Pollak, Renée Bjorling and Gunnar Olsson.

Summer Interlude (Sommarlek) is directed by Ingmar Bergman, runs 97 minutes, is made by Svensk Filmindustri, is written by Ingmar Bergman and Herbert Grevenius, is shot in black and white by Gunnar Fischer and Bengt Jarnmark, is produced by Alan Ekelund, is scored by Erik Nordgren and Bengt Wallerstöm, and is designed by Nils Svenwall.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7354

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