Product Details

• Actors: Harriet Andersson, Lars Ekborg
• Directors: Ingmar Bergman
• Format: Blu-ray, Black & White, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: Swedish
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region A/1 (Read more about DVD/Blu-ray formats.)
• Aspect Ratio: 1.37:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Criterion Collection
• DVD Release Date: May 29, 2012
• Run Time: 97 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B007A9EGC2
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #109,853 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Released in 1953, Monika, an early Ingmar Bergman-directed melodrama, did much to establish the reputation of Swedish cinema, and perhaps Swedish women in general, as leading the vanguard in sexual liberation. The film attracted the wrath of the censors and one scene of lovemaking had to be cut. While subsequent generations will look at the film and wonder whatever the fuss was about, it retains a vivid and frolicsome sensuality, before submitting to the inevitable Bergman bleakness.

The film tells the story of a young couple, Harry (Lars Ekborg) and Monika (18-year-old Harriet Andersson, with whom Bergman would fall in love), stuck in lousy jobs in Stockholm. Harry is beset by parental responsibility--his mother died young and his father is ill--while Monika is fed up with her drunken, violent father. They escape in a motorboat to spend a blissful summer on an island in the archipelago. Once Monika gets pregnant and they're forced to steal food, however, the idyll concludes and they return to Stockholm, where the relationship disintegrates. Visually ravishing, Monika would have a deep impact on French New Wave cinema. --David Stubbs

Product Description

Inspired by the earthy eroticism of his muse Harriet Andersson (Through a Glass Darkly), in the first of her many roles for him, Ingmar Bergman (Wild Strawberries) had a major international breakthrough with this ravaging, sensual tale of young love. In Stockholm, a girl (Andersson) and boy (The Magician's Lars Ekborg) from working-class families run away from home to spend a secluded, romantic summer at the beach, far from parents and responsibilities. Inevitably, it is not long before the pair is forced to return to reality. The version originally released in the U.S. was reedited by its distributor into something more salacious, but the original Summer with Monika, as presented here, is a work of stunning maturity and one of Bergman's most important films.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 37 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars The Story of Romeo and Juliet Told by Bergman March 27, 2007

By Galina

Format:DVD

What started as a story of idyllic summer of love and journey, shared between very young Harry and Monica, became an interesting study of relationship that had to survive the demands of real world after the journey was over.

I kept thinking while watching this film what would've happened to Romeo and Juliet (who were close by age to film's heroes Monica, 17 and Harry, 19) had they been given a chance to live happily ever after. Would they be able to love each other after the reality of marriage would fight with their eternal love, when the baby is crying all night long and there is no money to pay a rent, and young and tender Juliet has learned about power and pleasures of sex but her Romeo is always out working, trying to make enough money to support her and the child? Would Juliet get bored and angry with Romeo for leaving her home alone? Would she start looking for fun elsewhere? Would be Romeo left heartbroken and bitter or would the memories of that unforgettable summer with his Juliet - Monica still stay with him as the best time of his life?

Beautiful film with wonderful Harriet Andersson as a sultry teenager Monica, full of life, rebellious against her boring existence at home, ready for all pleasures of adult life but not ready for responsibilities of a wife and a mother. Will she learn? Will she remember the summer with Harry? Bergman, as usual, does not answer the questions. He never does. He tells the story - we are the ones who are left with unanswered questions.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Sommaren med Monika March 1, 2006

By Patrik Lemberg

Format:DVD

This 1953 film is available on region free Tartan DVD from amazon.co.uk as "Summer with Monika" (almost directly translated from the original title "Sommaren med Monika".) It's an OK edition, worth obtaining especially for Bergman fans. The film is also available on NTSC VHS as "Monika." Renaming the title of this film yet another time as "Monika, the Story of a Bad Girl" is just ridiculous. Even if the studio that will provide this DVD is going to be Criterion, I will certainly have to think twice whether or not I want "Bergman's Story of Monika the Bad Girl" on my bookshelf...who the hell is handing out these additional/optional movie titles over 50 years in retrospect, anyway...?
Aside from unaccredited roles in past Ingmar Bergman films, Harriet Andersson is introduced in a leading role alongside Lars Ekborg (both in their twenties playing 17 year old Monika and 19 year old Harry.) As often in Bergman's films the story has a deeper meaning than its basic plot, and has a stable shifting of multiple emotion. This is also one of few Bergman films to feature so many beautiful Swedish archipelago images. Among his better from the early era.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars INGMAR BERGMAN, OPUS 12 November 24, 2007

By Daniel S.

Format:DVD

**** 1953. Co-written and directed by Ingmar Bergman. Two teenagers spend the summer in the country after having left their job and their family. When they return to Stockholm, Monika is pregnant and Harry must now find a way to support his family. Two years after Summer Interlude (Sommarlek) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.0 Import - Great Britain ], Ingmar Bergman describes another figure of woman. But if the summer Marie spends with Henrik will leave a lasting souvenir in the youg woman's heart, Monika will soon forget the idyllic weeks spent with Harry and will not bear the prosaic return to the real world. A movie about innocence and responsibility that will leave you hating reality. Once more.