☆ ☆ ☆ ½
A
Lesson in Love (1954) – I. Bergman
A screwball comedy of remarriage (popular
in Hollywood in the 1930s and 40s) is hardly something you would expect from
Ingmar Bergman (especially prior to his great comic hit, Smiles of a Summer
Night, 1955) – but he pulls it off. With
the help of witty stars Gunnar Björnstrand and Eva Dahlbeck (who later starred
in that more famous comedy), Bergman keeps things as light as air, even as the
onscreen events descend into chaos (as they always do in the screwball genre). That’s not to say that Bergman (also the
screenwriter) doesn’t throw in a few philosophical barbs (because he does) but
these are mainly in keeping with the primary themes of this genre: the needs
and roles of men and women and the value (or lack of value) of marriage
itself. I can see that the blu-ray
boxset next turns to Scenes from a Marriage (1973) where Bergman undoubtedly
shows us marriage through a less comic lens (we shall see soon) and there are
traces of that view here too (Björnstrand offers the usual one-liners about
marriage quelling passion). Bergman’s
own marital life (five wives and numerous affairs) was anything but
stable. Both husband and wife have
extramarital partners as the film starts; but as is traditional, by the end,
they will have found themselves back together and their relationship (if not
the sanctity of marriage itself) reaffirmed.
An enjoyable trifle from the great auteur.
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