Smiles of a Summer Night Wild Strawberries

A double feature of films by Swedish cinematic giant Ingmar Bergman.

Second film start time: 9 pm. Ingmar Bergman's Smiles of a Summer Night ranks high among the most charmingly bittersweet films ever made. The New Yorker's Pauline Kael called it "a nearly perfect work...an elegy to transient love: a gust of wind nd the whole vision may drift away." Set in a turn of the century country villa, the film follows a group of friends and lovers besotted by each other under the moonlight of a single summer night. It inspired the Stephen Sondheim musical A Little Night Music—and Woody Allen's A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy. (1955; 108 mins.)

Wild Strawberries solidified Bergman's reputation as a towering figure of world cinema. Silent film director Victor Sjostrom stars as an ailing professor traveling to receive an honorary degree and, via flashback, recalling the events of his long life. It's a peerless meditation on aging, mortality, and coming to terms with personal history. (1957; 90 mins.)


support credits

The 2004ñ05 film/video season is presented with support from the Rohauer Collection Foundation and the Corporate Annual Fund of the Wexner Center Foundation.

Contemporary films, international films, and visiting filmmakers are presented with support from the Ohio Arts Council.