June Night was the last film Ingrid Bergman made in her native
Sweden before moving permanently to Hollywood. This 1940 Per Lindberg picture is pretty straight soap opera, with Bergman
playing a girl named Kerstin Norbäck who, in the movie's first scene, is shot
by her sailor boyfriend Nils Asklund (Gunnar
Sjöberg) when she tries to walk out on him. A trial and small-town scandal
follows, so Kerstin changes her name to Sara Nordana and moves to Stockholm to
start over. She swears off her wanton ways, but her resolve will be tested when
she catches the eye of a handsome doctor Stefan von Bremen (Olof Widgren) and also runs across the
nosy reporter Willy Wilson (Hasse Ekman)
who sensationalized her story and dubbed her the wounded swan. Both men become obsessed with her, and both are
dating female friends of Sara's. Stefan is dating the nurse Åsa (Marianne Löfgren) who helped Sara when
she arrived in Stockholm, and Willy is dating Nickan (Marianne Aminoff), one of Sara’s roommates. All these affairs come
to a climax the night Nils Asklund finds Kerstin/Sara working at the Swan
Pharmacy, pays her a visit, and the several romantic plotlines intersect.
June Night is a little slow.
The script, written by Ragnar
Hyltén-Cavallius from a novel by Tora
Nordström-Bonnier, relies heavily on suspension-of-disbelief coincidences
and never delves very deeply into its characters. Unfortunately, this is
especially true for Kerstin/Sara, who gets less introspection and development
than the supporting characters; Bergman's charisma and screen presence are all
that fuel her portrayal, and the actress brings a gravitas to the role that
wouldn't otherwise be there. I suppose Lindberg and Hyltén-Cavallius could be
striving to make Kerstin/Sara an unknowable and mysterious figure, which might
lend some explanation to why everyone is so fascinated by her (and why she does
so much damage without even trying), but if so, it doesn't really work.
Labels:
drama, Ingrid Bergman
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