It should be the height of British summertime so we've got the perfect film to get you yearning for better weather and intense summer romances on the Swedish coastline. For July we're watching Ingmar Bergman's outstanding romance Summer with Monika (1953).
The film follows Harry, a young man who meets the spritely and free-spirited Monika in Stockholm. Entranced by her, the couple flee to the idyllic Stockholm archipelago where they spend the season carefree and deeply in love.
Summer with Monika contributed to widespread ideas of Sweden as a sexually liberated nation, however, the narrative addresses the perils of 'tying down' women in marriage and motherhood.
The film is known for both its stunning cinematography and the free-spirited character of Monika. At the time of release, in the US the film was advertised as being borderline pornographic with advertising flyers for the feature reading 'nineteen and naughty' and referring to the character as a 'very bad girl'.
Cold-war era attitudes toward female sexuality deemed the film to be sexually degenerative, which saw the creation of the term 'Swedish sin' and contributed to ideas of Scandinavia being overly sexually progressive.
Harriet Anderson (Monika) was a long-time companion and collaborator of Bergman, starring in almost all of his cinematic works. The high-waisted shorts and slouchy cardigan she wears throughout her adventure create the perfect summer silhouette. Pair your HADES knits with a pair of Monika-esque vintage shorts to recreate her looks, perfect for these windier days on the coastline.
'His Strindberg-like conviction that marriage (äktenskapet) is hell on earth, and his recurring doubts about God gudstvivlet were not much more than a summary of the Scandinavian cultural tradition at the time, with its budding sexual freedom and its already far-reaching secularisation,' says the The Ingmar Bergman Archives. 'Yet abroad at the time, not least in the catholic European and South American countries or in the morally conservative United States and Eastern Europe, Bergman's films appeared revolutionary.'
A beautiful and intimate film about the human desire for companionship and romance backdropped against a glowing summer landscape that we are yearning to see over our summer holidays. Take a break and be transported into Summer with Monika.
Best, Ula
