Die Zeit mit Monika (1953)

Die Zeit mit Monika: Directed by Ingmar Bergman. With Harriet Andersson, Lars Ekborg, Dagmar Ebbesen, Åke Fridell. A pair of teenagers meet one summer day, start a reckless affair and abandon their families to be with one another.

“Sommaren med Monika, often translated as Monika, the Story of a Bad Girl, but directly it is Summer with Monika, I prefer the latter. Summer with Monika is Ingmar Bergmanu0026#39;s early masterful classic. Itu0026#39;s European modernism and as many of Bergmanu0026#39;s films of that era, this film too dealt with social issues. Even that Ingmar Bergman himself was from a bourgeois family, Summer with Monika builds around the working class. Itu0026#39;s a story about two youngsters who fall in love and start living a life of their own.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eMonika is a minor girl who doesnu0026#39;t get along with her parents. Her only escape from the harsh family life is romantic cinema and her boyfriend, Harry. In result of the distressing life Monika and Harry escape the city to archipelago for the summer. When the summeru0026#39;s over and they come back, the love between them starts to fade.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI have yet not seen as strong film about young parenthood as this. It shows the truth in a very realistic light, Bergman doesnu0026#39;t add any glamor to its charactersu0026#39; lives, which he never does. This is the social theme of Summer with Monika, young parenthood and the subject is still very current, which makes the film timeless. No director of today has succeed in making as good description of the life like that.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSummer with Monika is so beautifully made that it delights you. The plot also has some points that delight the audience, but I was mostly touched by the beauty of the narrative and cinematography. Both of these are clearly European modernism in Summer with Monika. The camera goes behind the reality, it shows the true emotions of the characters. A very impressive scene of the film is when Monika watches directly to the camera. This shocking destruction of the fourth wall and the illusion of cinema, was probably the first one ever made. My information of this is not accurate or reliable, but at least Summer with Monika was one of the first ones, that did this.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eA very powerful film of love, youth, parenthood, frustration and life.”