Summer with Monika (Swedish: Sommaren med Monika) is a 1953 Swedish film directed by Ingmar Bergman. It sparked controversy abroad for its frank depiction of nudity, and along with the film One Summer of Happiness from the year before, directed by Arne Mattsson, it started the reputation of Sweden as a sexually liberated place. (This and other films lead to the concept of “Swedish sin” in then Puritan Christian nations like the United States.)
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Summer with Monika (Swedish: Sommaren med Monika) is a 1953 Swedish film directed by Ingmar Bergman. It sparked controversy abroad for its frank depiction of nudity, and along with the film One Summer of Happiness from the year before, directed by Arne Mattsson, it started the reputation of Sweden as a sexually liberated place. (This and other films lead to the concept of “Swedish sin” in then Puritan Christian nations like the United States.)
The film made a star of its lead actress, Harriet Andersson. Bergman had been intimately involved with Andersson at the time and conceived the film as a vehicle for her. The two of them would go on to make several other films together, even after their romantic relationship had ended, most notably Sawdust and Tinsel (1953), Smiles of a Summer Night (1955), and Through a Glass Darkly (1961).
The film's story begins in the bleak working class milieu of Stockholm. Harry (Lars Ekborg) and Monika (Harriet Andersson) are both in dead end jobs when...
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