# Smiles of a Summer Night
**Smiles of a Summer Night** (Swedish: *Sommarnattens leende*) is a 1955 Swedish comedy film written and directed by [Ingmar Bergman](https://www.edgepedia.org/ingmar-bergman), in which a group of mismatched couples sort themselves into new pairings over a midsummer weekend at a country estate in turn-of-the-century Sweden. Produced by Svensk Filmindustri, it premiered on 26 December 1955 at the Röda Kvarn cinema in Stockholm and became Bergman's first major international success when it was honored at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival.[1](https://www.ingmarbergman.se/verk/sommarnattens-leende) • [2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/29921/smiles-of-a-summer-night)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original title / year | *Sommarnattens leende*, Sweden, 1955; black and white, 108 minutes[1](https://www.ingmarbergman.se/verk/sommarnattens-leende) |
| Premiere | 26 December 1955, Röda Kvarn, Stockholm[1](https://www.ingmarbergman.se/verk/sommarnattens-leende) |
| Setting | Turn-of-the-century Sweden; the manuscript opens "Detta är en vårdag anno 1901" (a spring day in the year 1901)[1](https://www.ingmarbergman.se/verk/sommarnattens-leende) |
| Cannes 1956 | Sweden's festival entry; awarded the Prix de l'Humour Poétique[1](https://www.ingmarbergman.se/verk/sommarnattens-leende) |
| Principal cast | Gunnar Björnstrand (Fredrik Egerman), Eva Dahlbeck (Desirée Armfeldt), Ulla Jacobsson (Anne Egerman), Harriet Andersson (Petra), Margit Carlqvist (Countess Charlotte Malcolm), Jarl Kulle (Count Malcolm), Björn Bjelvenstam (Henrik Egerman), Naima Wifstrand (Mrs. Armfeldt)[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/29921/smiles-of-a-summer-night) |
| Key crew | Cinematography Gunnar Fischer; music Erik Nordgren; editing Oscar Rosander; producer Allan Ekelund; production design P.A. Lundgren[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/29921/smiles-of-a-summer-night) • [3](https://www.acmi.net.au/works/115726--sommarnattens-leende-smiles-of-a-summer-night/) |
| Best-known adaptation | Broadway musical *A Little Night Music* (1973), book by Hugh Wheeler, music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim[1](https://www.ingmarbergman.se/verk/sommarnattens-leende) |
## Spoilers
### Story and structure
The plot centers on a middle-aged lawyer, Fredrik Egerman, his young wife Anne, his son Henrik, his former mistress (the celebrated stage actress Desirée Armfeldt), her new lover Count Malcolm, the count's wife Charlotte, and Desirée's mother Mrs. Armfeldt. All gather at a country house, where entanglements follow and the characters end up paired in new combinations.[4](https://www.ingmarbergman.se/verk/adaptioner/sommarnattens-leende) Bergman described the construction as a technical challenge: a comedy with a "mathematical" ratio of man–woman, man–woman, four couples to be mixed together and the equation then solved.[1](https://www.ingmarbergman.se/verk/sommarnattens-leende)
The film is Bergman's comic variation on his recurring theme of the ridiculous man who seeks salvation from women.[4](https://www.ingmarbergman.se/verk/adaptioner/sommarnattens-leende) Critics have read it as a love roundelay in the tradition of Boccaccio's tales of sexual and moral justice, and comparisons have been drawn with Renoir's *La Règle du jeu* and Ophüls' *La Ronde*.[3](https://www.acmi.net.au/works/115726--sommarnattens-leende-smiles-of-a-summer-night/) • [5](https://www.austinfilm.org/films/smiles-of-a-summer-night/) The critic [Pauline Kael](https://www.edgepedia.org/pauline-kael), whose 1961 review is collected in *I Lost It at the Movies*, wrote that Bergman found a high style within boudoir-farce conventions, so that "boudoir farce becomes lyric poetry," and called it a tragic comedy in which the man who thought himself "great in guilt and in glory" falls and is revealed as "only a bumpkin."[6](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/322-smiles-of-a-summer-night)
## Production
Bergman made the film at a low point in his career. His previous film *Kvinnodröm* (Dreams) had failed, and he had promised Carl Anders Dymling, head of Svensk Filmindustri, that his next film would not be a tragedy; needing money, he decided a comedy was the prudent choice.[1](https://www.ingmarbergman.se/verk/sommarnattens-leende) According to BFI program notes, Dymling provided a generous budget that made it Bergman's most expensive production to date, with the hint that a failure might cost him the studio's backing. The story's origin was an abandoned script idea called "An Ancient Chinese Proverb," about a young man who falls in love with his father's new wife.[7](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/big%20screen%20classics/2022/01/09/smiles-of-a-summer-night/)
**Shooting.** [Principal photography](https://www.edgepedia.org/principal-photography) ran from 28 June to 29 August 1955, with two days of additional work in November 1955, at Filmstaden in Råsunda, Jordberga Castle near Anderslöv, and Ystad.[1](https://www.ingmarbergman.se/verk/sommarnattens-leende) Bergman recalled it as the hottest summer in living memory, with sweat wiped from the actors before each take; he described the 55-day shoot as pushing everyone to the edge of nervous breakdown, made during one of the darkest periods of his life.[1](https://www.ingmarbergman.se/verk/sommarnattens-leende) It was his third and last comedy with the pairing of Eva Dahlbeck and Gunnar Björnstrand, following *A Lesson in Love* (1954) and the episodic comedies of infidelity that preceded it.[1](https://www.ingmarbergman.se/verk/sommarnattens-leende) • [6](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/322-smiles-of-a-summer-night)
## Reception
Svensk Filmindustri's management expected failure. Bergman recalled that after seeing the finished film the head office told him they were deeply disappointed: the film was not funny, it was stylized, too limp, too long, and it was a costume picture, and costume films did not sell.[1](https://www.ingmarbergman.se/verk/sommarnattens-leende)
The public and critical response went the other way. The film received generally glowing reviews, was chosen as Sweden's entry at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival, and won the Prix de l'Humour Poétique. Bergman said he did not even know the film had been entered; he learned of the award from a newspaper headline while sitting in the toilet, reading "Swedish film prize-winning in Cannes" and not believing his eyes.[1](https://www.ingmarbergman.se/verk/sommarnattens-leende) • [7](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/big%20screen%20classics/2022/01/09/smiles-of-a-summer-night/) The Cannes acclaim was the first to bring Bergman international recognition.[8](https://www.encyclopedia.com/movies/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/sommarnattens-leende) Bosley Crowther of *The New York Times* remarked on how "French" and un-Swedish the film's erotic frankness seemed, and *Variety* noted its "unusual lusty comedy manner."[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/29921/smiles-of-a-summer-night) On contemporary aggregate sites the film holds a 100% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes (17 reviews) with an 89% audience score, and 7.7/10 on IMDb from about 16,000 users.[9](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/smiles_of_a_summer_night) • [10](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048641/ratings/)
## Legacy and adaptations
The film's most famous adaptation is the Broadway musical *A Little Night Music*, with book by Hugh Wheeler and music and lyrics by [Stephen Sondheim](https://www.edgepedia.org/stephen-sondheim), which premiered in New York in February 1973 and has since been staged widely, including a London production in 2008/2009 directed by Sir Trevor Nunn that transferred to Broadway.[1](https://www.ingmarbergman.se/verk/sommarnattens-leende) • [4](https://www.ingmarbergman.se/verk/adaptioner/sommarnattens-leende) In 1977 the musical itself was filmed in Austria, directed by [Harold Prince](https://www.edgepedia.org/harold-prince) with [Elizabeth Taylor](https://www.edgepedia.org/elizabeth-taylor) as Desirée Armfeldt; the Bergman Foundation's account calls it a well-deserved failure. More favorably regarded is Woody Allen's *A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy* (1982), which borrows substantial parts of the film.[1](https://www.ingmarbergman.se/verk/sommarnattens-leende) • [11](https://cinephilia.net.au/show_movie.php?movieid=1246) Bergman's original screenplay also works as a stage play in its own right, with roles for four men and seven women.[4](https://www.ingmarbergman.se/verk/adaptioner/sommarnattens-leende)
Within Bergman's career the film marks a turning point: made just before *The Seventh Seal* (1957), it showed a lyrical, Mozartian register far from the existential gloom he is usually associated with, and Pauline Kael called it the culmination of his "rose" period, a style he never returned to.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/29921/smiles-of-a-summer-night) • [6](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/322-smiles-of-a-summer-night)
## References
1. [Sommarnattens leende, 1955 – Verk, Ingmar Bergman Foundation](https://www.ingmarbergman.se/verk/sommarnattens-leende)
2. [Smiles of a Summer Night, Turner Classic Movies article by Felicia Feaster](https://www.tcm.com/articles/29921/smiles-of-a-summer-night)
3. [Sommarnattens leende = Smiles of a summer night, ACMI collection](https://www.acmi.net.au/works/115726--sommarnattens-leende-smiles-of-a-summer-night/)
4. [Sommarnattens leende – Adaptioner, Ingmar Bergman Foundation](https://www.ingmarbergman.se/verk/adaptioner/sommarnattens-leende)
5. [Smiles of a Summer Night, Austin Film Society](https://www.austinfilm.org/films/smiles-of-a-summer-night/)
6. [Smiles of a Summer Night by Pauline Kael, The Criterion Collection](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/322-smiles-of-a-summer-night)
7. [Smiles of a Summer Night – BFI Southbank Programme Notes](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/big%20screen%20classics/2022/01/09/smiles-of-a-summer-night/)
8. [Sommarnattens leende, Encyclopedia.com](https://www.encyclopedia.com/movies/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/sommarnattens-leende)
9. [Smiles of a Summer Night, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/smiles_of_a_summer_night)
10. [Smiles of a Summer Night (1955) – Ratings, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048641/ratings/)
11. [Smiles Of A Summer's Night movie review, Cinephilia](https://cinephilia.net.au/show_movie.php?movieid=1246)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Comedy and romantic films (individual works) › Comedies of the 1950s*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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