Smiles of a Summer Night (1955) on Netflix
Around 1900 in Sweden, lawyer Fredrik Egerman's two-year marriage to Anne, nineteen, is unconsummated. His former lover Desiree Armfeldt plans a Midsummer weekend at her mother's estate.
- Netflix4.4/5
- IMDb7.7/1015,877 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes100%
Trailer
Plot summary
Fredrik Egerman, a lawyer, has been married to Anne, nineteen, for two years without the marriage being consummated; he wants to give her time. His grown son Henrik, a seminary student home from his exams, is drawn to Anne, and he carries on an awkward flirtation with the household maid, Petra. Fredrik once had an affair with the stage actress Desiree Armfeldt. Desiree is now involved with Count Carl Magnus Malcolm, an army officer whose wife, Charlotte, is a friend of Anne. Desiree arranges for her mother to invite the whole company to a country house for Midsummer, the year's shortest night, when guests traditionally stay awake until dawn.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Smiles of a Summer Night (1955)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The film's plot, about couples who swap partners on a summer night, has been adapted many times, notably as the Broadway musical A Little Night Music by Stephen Sondheim, Hugh Wheeler and Harold Prince in 1973, and as Woody Allen's film A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy in 1982.
- The philosopher Stanley Cavell was so affected by seeing Smiles of a Summer Night that he went home and wrote about it for the rest of the night, an experience that led him to explore where his field, philosophy, meets film.
