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M. Friday | K to the Ansas | 03/02/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"June Night proves that smooth dialogue DOES have an existence. It's clever and very mature in its content, doesn't leave off and have the viewer wondering what it was they might have missed. So often the translation to English comes off as awkward, but not so with this film. It's a smart and emotionally engaging rendition. The words are laid out in a very clean white script for easy reading, (luckily not overly large) so the full picture is clearly visible (a minor pet peeve i have with certain foreign films).And, of course, the performances! Ingrid delivers a hard, knock-down portrayal of Kerstein, the mysterious, alluring girl around town. The supporting cast, Olof Widgren as the potential love interest, and the three lasses whom befriend Kerstein, only heighten the intrigue of Ingrids' character. Per Lindberg is behind the directors chair on this one, and, despite June Night's slow pace (Per took his time), the movie unfurls as it was meant to. The pieces gently fall into your lap until you're left nodding in agreement. It all ends just as it should and you realize the ninety minutes went by much more quickly than you had previously thought.It's a fine display of Bergman's talents and a rare foreign film treat. I happily recommend this."

This slice of Stockholm in the 40's will surprise

Abhijoy Gandhi | Philadelphia, USA | 01/08/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"JUNE NIGHT / Sweden 1940 (2.5 STARS)
16 December 2003: Through the divine Ingrid Bergman is at her prettiest best (we can see why she was lured away to Hollywood very soon after this her last film in Sweden), I could not understand her character's motivations in this film.
* Mise-en-scene: The film starts dramatically with a shoot-out and the rehabilitation that follows. There is intensity in the character's motivations and her crisis is real. I was amazed at how modern Stockholm was way back in 1940.
* The Stockholm community, though lovable has been created more with an eye to theatrical platitudes than to portray real people. Despite this we enjoy their little shenanigans and feel for their individual wants. But by the time we get to the end, we no longer feel the connect with any of the lead characters. It is not so much the fact that we despise Bergman's character for the choices she make as it is a lack of the director's ability to build a real person with real motivations - good or bad.
* Cinematography, Editing & Sound: In contrast with Casablanca made only two years later, the technical finesse is lacking and the sound and editing look more rookie, though none of that stopped me from wondering at how modern Swedish cinematic language was at that time when few other nations were ready to experiment with morality quite in the same way as were the Swedish, way back in the 1930s."