Summer with Monika

Summer with Monika (Swedish: Sommaren med Monika) is a 1953 Swedish romance film. The motion picture was both written and directed by Ingmar Bergman. This featured Harriet Andersson and Lars Ekborg portraying the main characters. The plot was derived from one of Per Anders Fogelström's novels, of which had the same title, from 1951. Controversial because of one scene portrayal of au naturel and, along with the film One Summer of Happiness from the year before, directed by Arne Mattsson, contributed to an idea of Sweden as an immodest, sexually loose population. The film made a star of its lead actress, Andersson. Bergman had been intimately involved with Andersson at the time and conceived the film as a vehicle for her. The two of them would continue to work together, even after their romantic relationship had ended, in films like Sawdust and Tinsel, Smiles of a Summer Night, Through a Glass Darkly, and Cries and Whispers.