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Smiles of a Summer Night



After fifteen films that received mostly local acclaim, the 1955 comedy Smiles of a Summer Night (Sommarnattens leende) at last ushered in an international audience for Ingmar Bergman. In turn-of-the-century Sweden, four men and four women of different classes attempt to navigate the laws of attraction. During a weekend in the country, the women collude to force the men’s hands in matters of the heart, exposing their pretensions and insecurities along the way. Chock-full of flirtatious propositions and sharp witticisms delivered by such Swedish screen legends as Gunnar Björnstrand and Harriet Andersson, Smiles of a Summer Night is one of cinema’s great erotic comedies.

Disc Features

- Digital restoration (with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
- Video introduction to the film by director Ingmar Bergman
- Video conversation between Bergman scholar Peter Cowie and writer Jörn Donner, executive producer of Fanny and Alexander
- Original theatrical trailer
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by theater and film critic John Simon and a 1961 review by film critic Pauline Kael

Criterionforum.org user rating averages

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Here is my DVD comparison of the Criterion and the German Kinowelt DVDs with a lot of screen shots. The PAL-DVD shows more picture information, detail and has better contrast. It contains a German audio commentary, but this one is not worth listening. Unfortunately no English subtitles.

What a big difference! How could the CC version get the director's approval?

@4LOM: Are you planning to become a German speaking DVD Beaver? Congratulations to the quality of your review.

I created a thread here for further discussion of the German release.

mingus wrote:Are you planning to become a German speaking DVD Beaver ? Congratulations to the quality of your review.

Gary's site was the inspiration for building a German speaking review- and comparison-website. Gary and I are now sharing screen shots and he plans to release the "Smiles of a Summer Night" comparison on DVD Beaver for his English speaking readers.

This is a very sexy film.

I'm surprised Gary didn't note that there is slightly more information visible on the top and both sides of the screen in the BD than in the DVD.