Rent Smiles of a Summer Night (1955)

A Smile with Needles Underneath - Smiles of a Summer Night review by griggs

You can feel this film’s DNA in Rohmer (and a whole swathe of modern relationship comedies): people talking themselves into knots, trying to sound composed while desire keeps its hand on the tiller. I’m used to Bergman being funny as a side dish with the heavier stuff, so it’s a treat to watch him lean into wit, timing, and social mischief as the main course.

When it’s good, it’s ridiculously good. The opening sets the board with brisk, gossipy confidence — introductions, old histories, fresh temptations — and you can sense the night tightening around everyone like a well-cut jacket. The comedy isn’t about punchlines; it’s about precision. A glance held half a second too long, a polite sentence that lands like a pin, a tiny shift in advantage that changes the temperature of the room.

What really sells it is the people, especially the women. They’re not symbols or props; they’re smart, complicated, and fully awake to the game they’re playing — sometimes enjoying it, sometimes trapped by it, often both at once. The men do plenty of preening and sulking, but it’s the women who steer scenes with appetite, pride, and wicked timing. And the older players get the best material: the sort of lines that sound effortless while doing surgical work.

It does sag in the middle, where the machinery keeps turning but the sparkle dulls — like the party’s paused while someone fetches more candles. Then it rallies for a final stretch that’s both airy and faintly cruel, all charm on the surface and needles underneath.

By the end you’re laughing, but you’re also clocking the cost. It lands like a smile you don’t quite trust — elegant, funny, and sharper than it looks.