Summer Special Subject – Summer with Monika (1953) & A Summer Place (1959)

Summer comes even to a virus-ravaged northern hemisphere, and we're here to celebrate with two teen movies that have a surprising amount in common: Ingmar Bergman's Summer with Monika (1953) and Delmer Daves' A Summer Place (1959). The former turns out to be much less about sex than its reputation would have you believe, while the latter is much more about sex than you'd imagine for a movie starring Troy Donahue and Sandra Dee. Grease got it all wrong! Discussed: Harriet Andersson's granny panties, Bergman's ambivalence toward women's freedom, Sandra Dee's acteur qualifications, and the weakening late-phase Hays Code (dealt bawdy blows by "racy" foreign films like Summer with Monika). Time Codes: 0h 01m 00s:       Summer with Monika (1953) [dir: Ingmar Bergman] 0h 40m 45s:       A Summer Place (1959); [dir. Delmer Daves]        1h 35m 32s:       Elise Goes Wilder II   +++ * Check out our Complete Upcoming Episode Schedule * Catch up with Dave's fledgling Précis du cinema efforts on the Anagramsci Blog or on Letterboxd * Find Elise's latest film piece on Depression era film romance *And Read lots of Elise's Writing at Bright Wall/Dark Room, Cléo, and Bright Lights.* Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at [email protected] Theme Music: "What's Yr Take on Cassavetes?" – Le Tigre