Swedish Summer à la Bergman

Even though Summer Interlude was Bergman's tenth feature, he sometimes referred to it as his 'first Bergman film.' A must-have, in our humble opinion. The release of the more well-known Summer with Monika includes a newly-written essay on the infamous American exploitation version Monika – Diary of a Bad Girl as well as a new interview with Harriet Andersson, our own Images from the Playground (helmed by Stig Björkman), and much more.

Both releases are of course digitally restored and look absolutely beautiful. We can only agree with the New York Times review of Monika:

The high-definition image does much to recapture the extraordinary skin textures registered by Bergman’s first great cinematographer, Gunnar Fischer; at times it seems possible to inspect every pore of Ms. Andersson’s flawless complexion. The play of the summer light over land and sea is also caught with an ease and directness that seems almost miraculous.

The heroes of the Criterion Collection have done it again.