Ingmar Bergman's Sommaren med Monika (Summer with Monika)

In Cahiers issue no. 85, July 1958, director Jean-Luc Godard (JLG) wrote Bergmanorama, a long review of Summer with Monika, directed by Ingmar Bergman. This Swedish director has become one of the most important filmmakers, admired by the Cahiers throughout his career.

According to JLG, Bergman was the most original director of modern cinema. After the release of Sommarlek (Summer Interlude) two years before, which he crowned the most beautiful movie, he was especially excited about the release of Summer with Monika. "It is to modern-day cinema what The Birth of a Nation is to classic cinema." Cahiers issue no. 583.

"So what were we expecting when Summer with Monika was released in theaters in Paris? Everything we were still criticizing French moviemakers for not doing, Bergman had already done. Summer with Monika was like Et Dieu … Créa la Femme (And God Created Woman), but done to perfection." Cahiers issue no. 85.

Bergman went against the narrative and stylistic conventions of the 1950s to flirt with raw social and psychological realism, as well as taking an introspective and naturalistic approach to cinematic language.

It was a fascinating cinematic language, as the processes Bergman used were "not wanton tricks of the camera or exploits of the director of photography. On the contrary, Bergman always knows how to integrate them into the psychology of his characters at the precise moment he needs to express a specific emotion." JLG, Cahiers issue no. 583.

According to JLG, "you have to see Summer with Monika, if only for these extraordinary few minutes where Harriet Andersson stares intently at the camera, before going back to bed with a man she's dumped, her smiling eyes clouded with dismay, making the audience witness the contempt she has for herself by involuntarily choosing hell over heaven. It's the saddest shot in the history of cinema."

Harriet Andersson's performance opened the door for more authentic representations of women in cinema. The result was a palimpsest that left a lasting impression on French New Wave moviemakers such as François Truffaut and JLG.

The photo stolen by Antoine and René in Truffaut's Les Quatre Cents Coups (The 400 Blows) in 1959 comes from Summer with Monika. It was the chosen image for the cover of issue no. 96 in June 1959.

And so Bergman started a new form of expression and infused his movies with themes that would shape cinema for decades to come, such as personal freedom and rebellion against social norms, the aspirations and disillusionment of youth, and the inner turmoil caused by sexuality.

From JLG's Pierrot le Fou (Crazy Pete) in 1965 to Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom in 2012, as well as the prologue in Maurice Pialat's À Nos Amours (To Our Loves) in 1983, the ghost of Summer with Monika is implicitly felt.

Cahiers chose Monika once again for the cover of issue no. 811 reflecting on the history of moviemaking as a symbol of twentieth century cinema.

Discover the special issue of Cahiers in which Bergman shares the front page with Michelangelo Antonioni, as well as a video contribution by Martin Scorsese about the cinematic artistry of this architect of psychological drama.