Director: Ingmar Bergman
Nowadays we've got fairly low expectations of our romantic comedies. It's incredibly rare to see one that actually is funny and has something interesting to say about romance and love. But this film is a romantic comedy more in the sense of Woody Allen's movies (more accurately, Allen's movies have a Bergman-esque sensibility). This is a film about the never-ending game between the sexes, specifically the upper class. They treat marriage like a game, and respect fidelity only on the surface. The only reason the individuals in this film don't like being cheated on is because they have agreed not to cheat, and they believe that both "lovers" in a relationship should merely hold up their end of the bargain.
The film has a surprisingly modern sensibility towards marriage, especially concerning the lack of seriousness when it comes to marriage. The movie seems like it was written by a person who knows how it feels and has been in similar situations, and from what I know about Bergman, this seems to be the case. The movie is simple, but the characters are real, and Bergman treats the subject matter with class and responsibility. It might sound like a downer, but by the end it's a film about finding love and faith in the midst of the chaos of infidelity.
Grade: A-
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