Summer Interlude

The sense of fate that descends over the drama is very much Bergman's own -- cruel, distant, ultimately imponderable.

... a breakthrough for Bergman: his first film built around a strong, assertive, sure woman and the first shot extensively on location, where the natural world becomes a defining reflection of the lives of his characters.

The confidence of imagination and execution demonstrated here make it easy, for the first time, to believe that this filmmaker had medium-defining masterpieces in his future.

Bergman's grasp of the cinematic language is clear, and was honing his craft into something that would soon develop into something legendary.