Lustgården

The movie was written by Ingmar Bergman, but directed by Alf Kjellin. From 1961, it falls between Glass Darkly and Winter Lights, so one can imagine how Bergman would have had great fun writing this, while not intending to direct it in that period. It is a fresh, satirical comedy about petty bourgeois covert romance and social barriers. The direction is quirky, fun, but uneven, with several dead or awkward passages. Altogether very pleasant though. The story entails the secret year-long romance between a small town teacher and a waitress, taking place at a time when the waitress already has a 20-year old daughter which no one knows who has fathered. Bergman fans are into a real treat with Bergman superstars Gunnar Björnstrand and Bibi Andersson, and also minor Bergmanians Stig Järrel and Kristina Adolphsson. Björnstrand is the teacher, sporting an improbable moustache (did he have moustache in any Bergman movies?). And male Bergmaniacs better braise themselves for the sight of Bibi Andersson as the daughter, at the age of 26, in COLOUR! Not wanting to venture into borderline sexism, let me only say that just her hair color is an incredible golden/pearl white that cannot really compared with anything else in the world, but goes extremely well with her immensely blue eyes and... well 'nuff said, you should be ready to sell a family member to see this movie just once.

This film is the sixth of seven directed in Sweden by Alf Kjellin, before he went to Hollywood and worked on a couple of films and a lot of TV. He'd been a screen idol in Sweden during the Forties, appearing in "Summer Interlude", one of the best early Bergmans, and before that in "Frenzy," the first Bergman script to be filmed.

"Pleasure Garden" is very much a Bergman film. He wrote it with Erland Josephson, his friend and a frequent lead in his later films. The stars include Gunner Bjornstrand and Bibi Andersson, both Bergman regulars, and Stig Jarrel, the sadistic schoolmaster in "Frenzy." The excellent colour photography is by Gunnar Fischer, the music by Erik Nordgren, the sets by P. A. Lundgren and the editing by Ulla Ryghe: all Bergman regulars. No doubt they welcomed the chance to work on a rare Bergman comedy.

I share romdal's enthusiasm. This isn't as sublime as "Smiles of a Summer Night" (few films are), but it's more fun than Bergman's other two comedies, "The Devil's Eye" and "Now About these Woman", though admittedly it's decades since I saw those. A particular pleasure was discovering Sickan Carlsson as the object of Bjornstrand's affections, an attractive and sympathetic actress.