A Great Film

Well, as you can see by the post thread, you can't really generate discussion out of something like 'This is a good movie; why don't we talk about it.'

I think that few post on this site in the Bergman category for several reasons. First, many of the most common posters haven't watched these movies. Second, those individuals who do watch these movies might have a case of comparison nerves going on - being that the Bergman crowd is probably a bit snobbier in general (I know, a huge generalization) than other areas of this website, people might be afraid to venture out and offer their necks in discussions. Finally, to return to this particular movie and this thread, there might not be that much TO discuss in this case.

After all, I like Mozart's great comic operas... but I'm not sure what I would sit around and ruminate with friends about concerning them.

I'll try another tactic. I've seen several Bergman movies but wouldn't consider myself an expert. However, I have viewed enough of his work to recognize that there is always the horrible chasm of unknowing despair behind the beautiful and ephemeral effervescence of his happier moments. Simplistically, I always think of the Swedish summer, which is short and sweet, followed by a long, harsh, dark winter. More profoundly, Bergman seems to have captured a way of showing life at its most shimmering and most terrifying - sometimes at the same time. So, to come to my point, when I see a lighter movie like this one, I do get a little bit of the goosebumps when the Grim Reaper shows up (in the rondelle clockwork toward the end). It's like spotting Hitchcock in one of his movies, only more like a poke in the back with a very cold finger. Anyone else agree?

A Good Film.
But lacking the genuine humor found in the truth of other Bergman films. And like the gun, the film was loaded with soot, too.

Yes, certainly the orchestra hits were for humor. We weren't supposed to take these silly faces seriously!

Well, in my experience on IMDb, agreeing with Franz is a rather fraught enterprise, but I find myself in agreement with him sometimes, too. Not that often, though.

Take the observation that this film is "tiresome". That is an all too typical kind of observation, really saying nothing other than that the viewer got bored by the film. Purely subjective.

"just an odd jumble of half-developed trysts" - well here is something substantial enough that it is worth discussing, unlike Franz's post. Left out is the tensions in the family dynamic, the competing pulls of moral virtue and ready at hand eroticism, and also how the social mores played out amidst a mix of sometimes absurd behaviors and asserted social conventions.

Smiles is also unlike towering efforts from Bergman's middle to later period, such as Persona and The Passion, where the thematic is ascendant over the narrative. But Bergman's long career went through stages, and stages of development, and it must be noted here that the intricate plot is quite marvelous, hanging together completely. The veneer of humor is real but also lies over the pathos within, and the plot allows us to see how this plays out. As such it showed development over even the gems of his previous films, SUmmer Interlude and Summer with Monika, smaller films that for all their strengths did not have the creative and unified vision of this film.

The film is a comedy, but that underlying pathos plays out as tragedy here and there. There are different kinds of comedy, but here we are witness to the more illuminating sort, here focused on erotic love as a human experience that can and often does mix, and even confuse, the sublime and the ridiculous. We understand both how the motivations of the characters can be so real and compelling, and yet look silly, often simultaneously. This is the human condition. We have difficulty discerning the difference between the urgings of the sex drive and our seeking love to overcome our loneliness. How that difficulty plays out here is illuminating and thought provoking.

Of course Bergman went on from Smiles to do The Seventh Seal, effectively meaning his style again changed, and arguably moved forward. The great success of Smiles also had the practical effect of meaning Bergman no longer had to struggle for financing, and the favorable reception no doubt inspired him to continue developing his career into that of imo the greatest film director of all time.

Thus can be seen the petty putdowns of this film are rather small minded all things considered. Yes, they missed something alright.