This film explores the emotions of love affairs that are ultimately doomed, hopeless dreams if you will, in a pair of interwoven stories. In one, the owner of a modeling agency (Eva Dahlbeck) has been dumped by the married man she's had an affair with for a year, but finds she can't give him up and keeps pursuing him. In the other, one of her models (Harriet Andersson), freshly after having broken things off with her boyfriend, is approached by a man old enough to be her father (Gunnar Björnstrand), who begins showering her with presents. There is something very sad in the characters of Dahlbeck and Björnstrand - she's a strong woman who is reduced to practically begging for crumbs of affection from a man who's decided to stay with his wife, and he's an affluent man who deludes himself into thinking he's young enough to start a relationship with a young woman. They are both touching and yet pathetic, and they begin to realize this through the eyes of others who confront them - in Dahlbeck's case, the man's wife, and in Björnstrand's, his estranged daughter.
Ingmar Bergman was 37 when he made this film, on his third marriage and just transitioning from an affair with Harriet Andersson to one with Bibi Andersson. Just as in the films that sandwich it, A Lesson in Love (1954) and Smiles of a Summer Night (1955), it deals with themes of love, marriage, and longing. It seems likely that he drew on his own experiences, and while the confrontation with the wife in this film seems staged, the dialogue and emotions of these characters is incredibly honest and authentic. Dahlbeck and Andersson are both terrific, perfectly capturing their characters, and they lead a strong cast. Dahlbeck's scene on the train, where she opens up the window and puts her head out into the rain, stands out, and I liked the playfulness of seeing Andersson on the rides at the amusement park. Andersson played a variety of roles for Bergman, e.g. young lover, tomboy, bombshell, schizophrenic, model, and maid all come to mind, and I love how she seems to effortlessly slip into all of them, while at the same time, projecting a certain spark and great screen presence. Bergman balances the playfulness and magnetism with weighty themes of pathos, and it's a combination I find irresistible.
