Broad daylight at 4a.m.


I don't recall whether it was actually stated in the movie, but it was filmed at least partially in Upssala which is where the story takes place. Is it actually that bright at 4 in the morning in Upssala? I know it's a pretty northern location and so it seems like it might be possible, particularly in the summer. But I wasn't sure if maybe this isn't actually the case there and perhaps this was supposed to be some sort of intentional "effect" Bergman was using to lend a sense of surrealism or something... I can't imagine it would be some sort of Ed Wood-like oversight on Bergman's part...

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It can definitely be that bright at 4, and even at 2 actually. It's not unusual. There's almost no night at all at the end of June. It's pretty difficult for us southerners to understand at what time Scandinavian movies take place isn't it ? For instance, I remember that most of Millenium (which I didn't like but that's not the point) takes place during the day, but is shot "at night".

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An easy way to describe swedish daylight hours is: winter:dark almost all the time, summer: light almost all the time.

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[deleted]

Dinosaur761 despcribed it quite well already, but I'd go a little farther. When you look any Scandinavian movie you can probably make the same assumption. Even in the most Southern locations like Southern Denmark. In there it is not 24h sunlight nor 24h darkness at any time, but in mid-Summer even at the time when it is not daylight, it is still not totally dark and in mid-Winter at the times when there is some daylight present it is not as bright as one could imagine..

And during the midsummer in Uppsala at 4am it would be bright enough to read a newspaper outside.
I know this because I've lived near Helsinki (in Finland) for some time which is about as North as Uppsala.

And of course the difference in brightness during summer/winter grows deeper the northern you go. (I now live in the city of Oulu, Finland where sun shines even more during the Summer and it is even more dark during the Winter. It is not yet 24h sunlight/darkness, though.)
For those that cannot understand what it means, you might want to look an American movie called Imsonmia (2002) (I know it is a remake of a Norwegian film, but that is probably very difficult to find - and obviously more difficult than the American version), which shows well what it might feel like in 24h sunlight.

And for the darkness there are also some other American (meaning popular) films that have had that scenery. The only film that comes in mind right now is 30 Days of Night (2007) (which I haven't seen so I don't actually know if that describes it very well).

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