From Terence Malick’s Badlands to Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom, one of the most beloved sub-genres cinema’s great auteurs inevitably explore is stories about young lovers on the run. Ingmar Bergman went there when he was 35, a bit before all the big titles in his filmography, but nonetheless Summer with Monika did achieve its own unique sort of infamy: two years after its Swedish release, a Time magazine article about “Sin & Sweden” inspired an edited-down version of the movie to be released in the US, where it was a poster child Swedish exploitation films. Hard to believe that was ever a thing! Against all odds did Ingmar Bergman of all people make an early erotic masterpiece? And can a movie from 73 years ago still titillate audiences in 2026?
One fateful day in working-class Stockholm, two 18-year-olds meet and go on what seems like a pretty mundane a date to a movie. Harry (Lars Ekborg) lives with his sickly father and works doing something involving putting glassware in crates. But someone else hammers the crates shut, that is very important! Monika (Harriet Andersson) lives in a crowded home with her siblings and drunken, abusive father and works at a grocery store where she is relentlessly sexually harassed. Understandably, Monika decides to run away from her life and Harry puts her up in his father’s boat. The next morning, Harry impulsively decides to quit his job and he and Monika sail out into the archipelago. They spend the summer going from island to island, happy and free.
In the movie’s most infamous scene, Monika takes off her clothes before going skinny dipping. She invites Harry to touch her breasts and caress her face and then jumps in the water. It’s over pretty quick, and shot in such a way that mostly you just seen Harriet Andersson’s back with maybe a fleeting glimpse of something. And that’s it for nudity in Summer with Monika. I wouldn’t call anything else in this particularly steamy either. But apparently it was enough to drive people wild in 1955? Or, more likely, I bet those American audiences were really disappointed by the misleading advertising. Especially since this happens at about the halfway point in the story and everything that follows is the crushing, unromantic reality of the situation Harry and Monika put themselves in.
The American release, Kroger Babb’s “Monika: The Story of a Bad Girl,” was only 62 minutes long compared to the 96-minute original Swedish Summer with Monika. I have to assume most of what they cut is the end of summer, when things start getting weird and sad. Like there’s one scene where Harry and Monika stop on an island that has one other occupant, another young man with a canoe and a tent. The couple play music and dance because Harry’s self-conscious about his moves, and while they’re busy this weirdo climbs in their boat, throws all their stuff in the water, and sets it on fire. They notice and run over and beat him up and… the fire goes out on its own and they let him go. Yeah! Life’s unpredictable and it’s not always just gonna be cake by the ocean (unless you are Joe Jonas).
In the end, Ingmar Bergman seems to have made a movie about how young love might be the best thing that ever happens to you, but also it sucks. At least, that’s true if you’re more of a Harry. Monika is a free-spirit who won’t let an oppressive, shitty world break her… but that, sadly, is shown as a selfish way to live. It’s that thing where you understand exactly where these characters are coming from and why they are behaving the way they are and you’re just like stop it! Be better! You’ve got something here “but take your time, think a lot; why, think of everything you’ve got for you will still be here tomorrow, but your dreams may not.”