MovieChat Forums > Sommarlek (1954) Discussion > So... She was banging her uncle; who al...

So... She was banging her uncle; who also banged her mom?


Obviously, it was never explicitly stated and its obvious that he really wanted to bang his niece. But to me its HEAVILY implied, perhaps even flat out stated without actually having the characters say it.

-Her statements about his hands being dirty
-when he's drunk he tries to come in her room violently but the door is locked so the knob just... well you know if you're reading this.
(its later repeated later when her bf shows up- she is dancing making you think its the uncle).

It seems while never actually clearly stated, its hard to say 'no'. Especially with how much hatred she has towards the uncle when we see them present day and she doesn't even want to be near him.

Also, it seemed he even had an affair with her mother(who I'm assuming was his sister-in-law). That monologue he has while sitting at the piano... its more then just a man remembering. Even the way its shot, its so intimate its like Bergman is trying so hard for us to read between the lines.

I see it as the Uncle has an affair with her mom. Then molested the daughter- who was too young to understand but as she got older and fell in love with a boy, eventually realized how she was raped. It seems like subtext to the character arc, and in the 1950s would not of been tolerated in a film. I more then anything wonder what the BF's diary stated about their relationship, since he seemed to be jealous of her and the uncle.

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I think at minimum he had an attraction to Marie and her mother. I don't think he had ever touched Marie before that summer with Henrik. Marie isn't frightened or intimidated by him and even finds it fun to flirt with him.

But something definitely happened between them after Henrik's death. They went away for a while together, travelling, and he taught her how to become cold. I'm pretty sure that Uncle Erland took advantage of Marie during her grief and took her away and had a relationship of sorts with her, one that she regretted and found disgusting later in life.

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I agree with Margin's take on the nature of the relationship between Erland and Marie. There's nothing to indicate any actual physical activity BEFORE Marie fell in love with Henrik. It is after his death, with Marie in her grief and feeling anger at God and the world that leaves her to not care enough to avoid Erland's advances, that the film strongly implies is what happens. Erland in effect took advantage, and most likely did have a sexual relationship with her at that point (also implied in the encounter that occurred the day of Marie's revisit to the island). But it was only after that Marie felt that the hardness that her relationship with Erland gave her, and that she likely wanted to develop in herself at the time, that she ended up regretting having done so.

I am of the opinion that in fact Marie could move beyond the hardness. Her memories of her time with Henrik were not mere taunts, referring back to a time when she was a person she no longer was, and could not again be. I think it does not take too much optimism to believe she could again be that person. It is a rather dark period that she lived through, but I don't think Bergman thought the damage done her was to be understood by us as irreversible.

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I completely agree that the Marie-Erland relationship that we see early in the flashback sequences doesn't fit at all with the supposition Erland had molested Marie when she was younger.

I would also mention that I got the impression that Erland was a friend-of-the-family pseudo-"uncle" rather than an actual blood relative of Marie's. My 4 year old goddaughter always addresses me as "uncle" even though there is no blood relationship. I know plenty of such cases, too. Marie's level of flirtatiousness with Erland (and her aunt's acceptance of it, smiling happily while they playfully flirted), Erland's casual suggestion that she should stop calling / referring to him as "uncle" now that she is no longer a child, and her lack of objection to that suggestion (all of which happen in their first scene together) all combined to make me think Erland wasn't a blood relative.

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Gross

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