Film:
Sommaren med Monika (
Summer with Monika)
Format: Streaming video from Hulu+ on laptop.
Before I started watching The List, I didn’t know much about the films of Ingmar Bergman. I’ve seen a number of them now because a big part of The List is its specific fawning over certain directors. For instance, nearly 20 Hitchcock films have shown up at one time or another (with 16 currently ensconced). There’s a lot of Kubrick, Howard Hawks, Bunuel, Johns both Ford and Huston. Bergman ties for third with Kubrick with 10 films. Sure, that’s a small part of his nearly 70 films, but I think cases could be made for a few others. Anyway, I can’t say I was shocked when another of Ingmar’s works appeared. If I had to guess, I’d have gone with
The Virgin Spring, but instead, it’s
Sommaren med Monika (
Summer with Monika).
The story here is almost painfully simple. Harry (Lars Ekborg) is stuck in a dead-end job he’s not very good at or with which he is very happy. One day he meets the eponymous Monika (Harriet Andersson) who is similarly underemployed and unhappy. At work she is frequently sexually harassed by coworkers and at home, her drunken father sometimes hits her. The two fall hard and instantly for each other, and begin spending a great deal of time together. When Monika, tired of the abuse, runs off from home and comes to Harry for help, he takes her to live on his father’s boat.
