Having watched only two other films by Ingmar Bergman, it is hard for me to evaluate this film in comparison to his others. But going by the regular notions of this renowned film maker, one expects the film to be more somber. This film entails within it those little nuances that meet with the heart, together with a spectrum of those more hefty emotions. Summer Interlude is a sweet intertwine of love, happiness, loss, loneliness and final freedom.

Marie, a strikingly graceful ballerina played by Maj - Britt Nilsson is the protagonist of the film. The film begins with Marie receiving by mail the diary of her teenage love, Henrik before the rehearsal of an opening ballet performance. While looking at it, Marie travels back in time reminiscing about the time spent with her once in a lifetime love. The movie continues in a series of flashbacks which shows a then playful and endearing Marie of fifteen who during her stay with her wooing uncle Erland, meets to fall in love with Henrik (Birger Malmsten) a slightly dejected and shy young boy.

The two spend a beautiful summer together immersed in an innocent and heart warming romance, plucking wild strawberries (Yes! Bergman refers to his future film here, in a youthful scene where the couple are spending time by the lake), taking playful water dives, going on merry picnics, sketching each other, sharing their fears (which would be growing old for Marie, and stepping into darkness and black for Henrik) and wishing to get betrothed with rings of grass. Towards the end of summer while spending their happy time together, Henrik meets with an adverse accident that leads to his death, and a devastated Marie who is permanently guarded by stiff walls that she has now erected for herself. Marie then gets into an indifferent affair with Uncle Erland, for the next ten years until the film shoots back to present tense.

Although thirteen years have passed since her first love, Marie is still disconcerted, empty and ill at ease with everything around her. Her present boyfriend David is one who tries, and never succeeds due to Marie’s tautness in letting go to relive. It is here, sometime before her final performance where an invoking conversation between Marie and her ballet master takes place. “You see yourself closely only once, when all the protective walls around you crumble… You stand there stark naked and see yourself clearly only once,” is what the ballet master explains to Marie in a nutshell. Soon after this conversation Marie meets David, and gives him Henrik’s diary so that David can access her past and gain insight to Marie’s present condition. It is at this point towards the end of the film that Marie feels rejuvenated and free from her former heart ache and misery. In the end Marie gives a beautiful ballet performance full of grace, openness and freedom. Marie is now ready to live a renewed and re spirited life of love with David.

The film finishes leaving you feeling vibrant and light hearted in contrast to those less mellow moments you feel with Henrik’s death and distress. Some of my most favorite scenes from the film are those in the flashbacks where Marie and Henrik are sweetly coupling. The moments win all those tender spots within you, keeping you all smiles and asking for more.

Growing old, I assume was one of Bergman’s own magnificent fears, thus finding its subtle place in two of the three Bergman films I have watched so far. Those tints of death are where the darker moments of the film lie. Henrik’s death brings Marie to ponder over it in anguish and in moving details. “I don’t believe in God, I don’t believe he exists… And if he does, I hate him. If he stood before me, I’d spit on his face,” battles Marie in anger after Henrik’s death.

The film fulfills all those levels of perfection you expect from a filmmaker like Bergman in terms of its film making, the performances are nothing to complain about by a far shot and even the small fractions of ballet are as charming as can get.

Coming to an end, the film leaves you with the revelation that Bergman was a man of buoyancy and love as much as he was a man of those many other serious things that he is known to be.