Arne Lindblad Movies

In this drama set in a Scandinavian hospital in 1915, the individual stories of three pregnant women about to give birth are presented. The women come from a different social classes and have disparate views about the impending births. The middle-class woman married a servant of a wealthy family. She doesn't love her husband, nor does she care much about her child, whom she conceived out of spite. The baby is stillborn, and the woman sheds nary a tear. The second woman became wild and sexually irresponsible after she was seduced as a young woman by a much older man. Dividing her time between modeling and robbery, the woman ends up sleeping with the son of the family the middle-class woman's husband works for. The son is willing to support his bastard provided the wild woman marry his homosexual friend and pretend the child is his. She agrees. The third woman is introverted. As a youth, she had a short-lived lesbian affair in school. She then fell in love with an archaeologist who impregnated her. He refuses to acknowledge the child as his. This enrages the woman who joins a feminist movement and dedicates her life to removing the stigma of having babies out of wedlock. Of the three, she is the only one who really wants her child. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

En Lektion i Kärlek constitutes one of Ingmar Bergman's more overtly entertaining films. In this highly engaging comedy, Bergman reunites Gunnar Bjornstrand and Eva Dahlbeck, who had already teamed to great effect in the final, comic episode of Secrets of Women (1952), and he once again casts them as an amusingly antagonistic husband and wife. Bjornstrand's character, David Erneman, is a successful gynecologist who has jeopardized his sixteen-year marriage by entering into an affair with one of his patients. In retaliation, his wife, Marianne, departs for Copenhagen to revive relations with a former fiancé. David initially seems only slightly disturbed by his wife's action, but when his affair ends and he enjoys an afternoon with his inscrutable daughter (Harriet Andersson, in an especially plucky turn), he determines to embark for Copenhagen and win back his wife. But his initial efforts at a reunion hardly bring him success, and only after a barroom altercation with his brutish rival does David seem to rekindle his wife's affection for him. En Lektion i Kärlek is a pivotal film in the Bergman canon, reviving his fortunes after the critics' rejection of Gycklarnas Afton (Sawdust and Tinsel) (1953) and spurring him toward his comic masterpiece, Sommarnattens Leende (Smiles of a Summer Night) (1955). Bergman came to regard En Lektion i Kärlek as a divertissement, but the film is of a greater magnitude than usual comedies of domestic life, and Bergman concludes it with the endearing image of Cupid strolling past the hotel room of the reunited couple. ~ Les Stone, Rovi

Originally released in Sweden as Musik I Morker, Night is My Future is a seminal effort from director Ingmar Bergman. Blinded during a wartime training accident, aspiring-musician Birger Malmstein refuses all efforts by well-meaning outsiders to help him. Malmstein hires Mai Zetterling as his companion and "eyes," though he still fiercely defends his independence. They become closer as both Malmstein and Zetterling learn about new aspects of life from each other. Disappointed in his efforts to make a living as a pianist, Malmstein enrolls in a school for the blind, assuming that Zetterling will be waiting for him when he graduates. Upon learning that Mai already has a boy friend, Malmstein attempts to kill himself. Only when he gets into a fistfight with Zetterling's beau does Malmstein feel as though he's "whole" again. Night is My Future is based on a novel by Dagmar Edqvist; while entertaining, it is frankly an "entertainment," with few of Bergman's distinctive touches. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The Swedish Sol over Klara (Sun Over Klara) stars Edvard Persson as a "starving" artist named Ararat. Comfortably ensconced in a bohemian painter's community, Ararat looks on in amusement -- and bemusement -- as his friends suffer mightily for their muse. Because of his easygoing nature, he is called upon to arbitrate when two of his comrades begin battling over the affections of a pretty model. But he is less even-tempered when a wealthy patroness of the Arts begins pursuing him. Moderately amusing, Sol over Klara proved a bit too long and drawn-out for American tastes. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Soliga Solberg (Sunny Sunberg) is as light and airy as its title. The title character, played by Swedish film favorite Ervard Persson, is a former opera star who retires to operate a small cafeteria. A young would-be thief named Per (Goran Bernhard) tries to knock over the place, but Solberg talks the boy out of it. Per eventually falls in love with Solberg's daughter Lotten (Anna Greta Krigstrom), a contingency not altogether to the old man's liking. Still, it is Solberg who manages to square Per with the authorities, thus paving the way for a happy ending. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi