User reviews

"A Lesson in Love" was, at least to some extent, an exception in Ingmar Bergman's production which reached its breakthrough one year later with "Smiles of a Summer Night". Then continued with such masterpieces as "The Seventh Seal" and "Wild Strawberries". However, even if "A Lesson in Love" wasn't the film which defined Bergman, it is still very enjoyable, witty and intriguing. In a sense, it meant a follow-up for "Summer with Monika" which gave a kick-start for the sexual liberalization of Scandinavia. In the very beginning, "A Lesson in Love" reveals the essence of its nature, which is veritably ironic: "A comedy for grown-ups. This could just as well be a tragedy. Its protagonist isn't the man nor the women but the unpredictable life itself."

The story centers around a couple who have been married for 15 years. Both have had their affairs but now -- through memories of past and days spent together -- it's time for a possible reconciliation during a train travel where they 'accidentally' come across with each other. Gunnar Björnstrand is fabulous with his sarcastic charm as the man who has lost his faith in enduring, eternal love. In addition, Harriet Andersson plays a fantastic supporting character as the man's charming yet rebellious daughter.

It is no wonder that Bergman chose train as the main milieu for this film which is, for most parts, built on numerous flashbacks, memories and dreams. For isn't train really the milieu which captures the core of our logic -- of our subconsciousness? During the train travel, all that is essential is performed in front of our eyes: the unhappiness of the protagonist's marriage is, paradoxically, due to its harmonic welfare. It lacks on something very substantial, something irrational. It is as if the sterility of bourgeois life had suffocated all genuine emotions which often are the factors that make marriage lively and vivid. That is to say, similar thoughts prevail the mood of this film which were due to characterize all of Bergman's subsequent films.

"A Lesson in Love" is not necessarily your regular comedy of the 1950's but, to my mind, it has several laugh-out-loud moments. In this film, Bergman is at his best striking a few blows at the patriarchal, while depicting marriage as a real purgatory. In fact, Bergman's comedy is so black that, at times, laughter is about to get stuck in one's throat. Such serious matters he makes fun of. The whole ridiculous absurdity of the society, which is built on the unjust institutions of marriage, religion and fatherland, culminates in the dinner party scene where a prayer is rendered, a thigh is flashed and a fight breaks out. Such anarchist criticism bears a striking resemblance to the films of Luis Buñuel who also operated poignant analyses of the western society. By conducting a rather sensual study on sexuality and the contradiction of eroticism and love, "A Lesson in Love" even manages to gather some feminist features, making the film extremely interesting in its historical context.

Although the film includes a few expressionistic images and discusses some existential themes, which have made Bergman so famous, it is still a very unusual work for the director. It is really the thesis of the film which makes it recognizable. For, in the end, the lesson of this session, both gloomy and jolly, isn't left ambiguous: romantic love is impossible unless if structured on the act of deception and severe self-betrayal.

See the lighter side of Bergman in this movie. Marital difficulties and challenges are explored. Even though there's some food for thought, the movie stays on the surface and doesn't go into lenghty analysis. Reminded me about some of Eric Rohmer's films, but without the fine details. Not to worry though, Bergman's lesson in love is still worth watching. It's charming, but mostly funny. It makes for an enjoyable 90 minutes. Great job by the lead actors Gunnar Björnstrand, Eva Dahlbeck and the beautiful Yvonne Lombard. But I would agree with others that the last 30 seconds of the film are questionable.

Seen at home, in Toronto, on January 7th, 2006.

82/100 (***)

A trifling and predictable story, but cleverly presented in non-linear fashion (the gradual revelation of the identity of the female train passenger is ingenious), and further elevated by Bergman's silky direction and the dazzling, lively Eva Dahlbeck (her face is perfection). *** out of 4.

Bergman really liked this reflecting back on summer thing, huh?

After Summer Interlude, Summer with Monika, and Wild Strawberries, it's a well he obviously found some merit in. Here we see it again in a story of a husband and wife taking a train to Malmo, Sweden (and then on to Copenhagen on a ferry) as they reflect back on their marriage.

Tonally, the movie has much more in common with Smiles of a Summer Night than the other three. It's a farce, through and through, and it's rather delightful. However, it's not really Bergman's strength, so while he makes the film entertaining and quite funny at times, he can't commit as fully to the concept as he might like. His instinct tend more towards darker ruminations, which ends up creating some tonal shifts that don't really help the movie at times.

And yet, the movie is still, largely, quite entertaining.

We begin with the dissolution of an affair between David and his lover, the much young Susanne. He's concerned that he's going to lose his family and that his wife will divorce him. The fight ranges from comic to very serious and ends with Susanne unhappily dumped. David, a gynecologist, skips out the rest of his day to catch a train. There he meets a man and a woman. The man, a salesman, bets David that he can kiss the woman before the next stop. After he gets a good slap, we remain with David and the woman and slowly realize through their bit of foreplay that the woman is David's wife, Marianne.

They go back and forth about whether their mutual affairs will continue and whether Marianne will divorce him or not. All through this, the two reflect back on different stages of their marriage, including memories around their children and his father. The memories move from extremely bitter (when Marianne discovered David and Susanne in a hotel together) to their happiest (just the mere summer before when they celebrated David's father's 73rd birthday together). As they spend time together, their memories become warmer towards each other.

The movie ends with a purely farcical display of David igniting Marianne's jealousy in a dingy bar by kissing a strange women (heavily implied to be a prostitute). A slap fight ensues and David drags her out. We see a really funny long shot as the two comically walk up and down a street, each trying to wrangle the other in their own ways. The very last shot is a cheeky moment as a cupid walks up to their hotel room and leaves a sign on the door that repeats the movie's title.

The movie really is quite amusing from beginning to end, but again, the tonal shifts that occur don't help the movie out. It's far from Bergman's best, but it really is quite delightful.

As time escapes before our eyes, the gulf from partners easily prised, distractions from all sides empower, the scent of meadow's other flowers. The grass is always greener there, far more lush to sup, devour, but once you've stepped over the stile, can you return, to reconcile.

David attempts to recover a lost link with his wife Marianne as their relationship has floundered and that link has disappeared, in not the best piece of storytelling from the maestro, although Eva Dahlbeck is always worth devouring wherever she performs and whatever she is in, and Gunnar Björnstrand was never too shabby either.

Ingmar Bergman has many several superb movies. A Lesson In Love is not one of his best, or one of my favourites shall I say, but I found it to be a fine and very overlooked film in many ways. It looks wonderful, the cinematography is especially good in the picnic scene and the scenery and images are all stunning to watch. The script is cynical, charming and funny at the same time, while the story is lighter in tone than most Bergman but is well balanced also with intelligently explored issues within the family especially the tension between David and Nix. The flashbacks are very carefully calculated, and there are some standout scenes, like at the picnic, on the train and with the granddad. Bergman as ever directs superbly. It is the performances that make A Lesson in Love the charmer it is, aside from the writing that is. The ever elegant Eva Dahlbeck and Gunnar Bjornstrand give superb performances that gives A Lesson in Love that extra sparkle. Fellow Bergman regular Harriet Anderssen is also impressive, though went onto even better things. Overall, a charming and funny film, definitely recommended. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Bergman and comedy don't quite go together. Some of his comedies are so naff you almost wince. This film has the odd naff moment - the last 30 seconds being the nadir, but on the whole this is a charming (rather than funny) piece, enjoyable throughout. Bergman casts several of his usual suspects who perform well. There is a great scene on the train between David, Marianne and an uncouth salesman which will stick in the memory. Some of the marriage material is typical, cynical Bergman, but this is Bergman in a light rather than dark mood.

This film has its moments and is worth the 90-odd minutes. Not one of his classics and not the place to start if you want to fall for Bergman.

Bergman is a sublime comedy director and writer. This fact becomes apparent in "En lektion I kärlek", where the comic elements range from pure slapstick to deep, yet very emotional scenes. This movie is paves the way for Bergman's later comedies "Sommarnattens leende" and "Kvinnodröm", all of them starring Gunnar Björnstrand as well as Eva Dahlbeck. This is an excellent movie with which to start your Bergman experience, acutely portraying emotional troubles of the young as well as the old. The cinematography by Martin Bodin is astounding, for instance in the picnic scene. In short, the movie is a perfect example of a successful comedy, with a clarity of depth even surpassing some of Bergman's own comedies.

The theme of "A lesson in love" is more or less the same as the theme of the "Pina Colada" song of Rupert Holmes (1979). A man and a woman have written off their marriage after 15 years and are both hunting for a new partner. During the hunt they rediscover each other.

As the theme already indicates the film has two types of scenes.

Scenes with respect to the worn out marriage (tragedy).

Scenes with both spouses (but primarily the man) on partner hunt (comedy).

As Bergman says at the beginning of the film: "This is a comedy that could have been a tragedy".

To be honest, the comedy element of this film is rather bad. It is old fashioned, over the top and maybe both. Only a year later Bergman would prove that he knows how to handle a comedy with "Smiles of a summernight" (1955).

With respect to the theme of the film the low quality if the comic scenes proves to be a blessing in disguise. Despite all the fights the family scenes are more sincere and even more hopeful than the flirtation scenes. After all to argue with someone means that you care for someone.

By the way, the real lesson in love is given by the grandparents. They show how to live with the imperfections of your partner without hurting his / her feelings or self esteem. They do so already 50 years.

This movie makes me wonder a number of things: how come Swedish acting is so bad now when it was so good back then, if liberal thoughts like those in this movie made it to the big screen back in the 50's, how come there was a revolution in the 60's, what did the general public think of this movie at the opening. In this movie having a fling is presented as good for the marriage. The girl who strongly dislikes her feminine sides, and much rather wants to be a bay is accepted. I don't really want to go into the plot much more than that, but it is definitely worth watching, I just wish they would have dropped Cupid at the end.

This is not one of the great Bergman comedies, not comparable to Smiles of a Summer's Night, Secrets of Women or The Devil's Eye, but it has its pleasures. Chief among them is the partnership of Gunnar Bjornstrand and Eva Dahlbeck; you might call them the Swedish version of Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn (or Cary Grant and Hepburn in Philadelphia Story). He's staid and a little timorous, she's volatile and humorous, with great comic timing. They're beautifully photographed and posed within the frame. I'm ready to forget the incongruous scenes that seem thrown in on a whim--what is that fight between the two women in the bar all about ? it comes out of nowhere.

Harriet Andersson probably wanted to get the sexpot image out of people's minds when she accepted the part, but Nix is a confusing character: tomboy and developed woman in the same body. Her acting shows the unease she must have felt about the character. Ake Gronberg as the bearish Carl-Adam has some funny lines but his part is fairly tiresome in the end. Minor Bergman except for the fabulous main couple.

This was Bergman's first "comedy" featuring a gynecologist and his wife who are preparing to divorce. Marianne was going to marry David's best friend, Carl-Adam, but on the day of the wedding changed her mind and married David instead. After 16 years of marriage David has an affair with Susanne, and Marianne decides to go back to Carl-Adam. David tries to convince her to reconcile, and it all ends happily.

David and Marianne have two children. "Nix" is their 15-year-old daughter, who interestingly is played by Harriet Andersson, who in a previous movie, "Summer with Monika" played a rebellious, seductive 18-year-old. Here she is a tom-boy who plays a realistic 15 year old.

"A lesson in love" is not slap-stick comedy. It is cute and clever in places, which brought smiles to my face. But not Bergman's best effort.

Ingmar Bergman may have made some great films, but this is not one of them. It´s intended to be funny and, I´m sad to say, I didn´t once have a good laugh. It´s a strange mixture between comedy and marital difficulties, which just doesn´t work, but Eva Dahlbeck, as usual, is brilliant. No, if you want to see a good Bergman-comedy, then watch Sweet Smiles of a Summer Night, it´s delightful and funny.

Do all comedies have to be funny? I suppose not but it helps, particularly if you want to distinguish them from tragedies. Ingmar Bergman's "A Lesson in Love" is described as a comedy perhaps to distinguish it from the likes of "Through a Glass Darkly" and "Winter Light". It's certainly one of old sour-puss's lighter films but it's hardly funny. It's another 'Battle of the Sexes' in which a middle-aged couple, (Eva Dahlbeck and Gunnar Bjornstrand, both excellent), try to rekindle their relationship after both of them have had affairs. It's like a Noel Coward comedy but without the comedy. In fact, it's like any other Ingmar Bergman film in which men and women analyse what brings them together and keeps them apart but done in that far-fetched style we call 'theatrical'. It's certainly a very minor Bergman which is probably why it isn't often revived but it's not dislikeable, just a little familiar.

Faced with the inexplicably hostile response to 'Sawdust and Tinsel', Ingmar Bergman felt obliged to make something that would be of wider appeal and the result is a romantic comedy in which Gunner Bjornstrand and Eva Dahlbeck develop the chemistry and comedic timing they had shown in Bergman's earlier 'Waiting Women.' They certainly do justice to his sparkling and intelligent dialogue and he was fulsome in his praise of their invaluable contribution which convinced him that a 'collaborative' style of direction would achieve the best results. Bjornstrand of course remains one of Bergman's most renowned artistes whereas Miss Dahlbeck is alas, one of his most forgotten.

It would not be Bergman of course without a touch of the autobiographical. His affair with Harriet Andersson had broken up his marriage to his third wife who is probably the insiration for the character of Marianne and although he fundamentally believed in the married state, he was all too aware of his failings as a husband.

Bergman's intention here is 'to have fun at mine and my fellow human beings' expense.'

This delectable piece can be savoured as an hors d'oeuvre to the main course of 'Smiles of a Summer Night'.

Extraordinarily good looking, without the baggage of Bergman's earlier seriousness. Also has the colors of The Man with the Umbrella, and Three Strange Lovers, with lots of flashback montages fitting in with the precise pacing for an otherworldly effect.

Eva Dalhbeck and Gunnar Björnstrand's excellent comedic performances are the cornerstones of the film's very dramatic performances. On the contrary, the Bergman lovers have a slightly smaller role in this movie. But somehow the combination of his modernist themes and the precision of his audiovisual language is strangely at odds with the fact that, even though this is Bergman's first movie to make the audience laugh, it doesn't seem to be his style.

Eva Dalhbeck is too good here. There's no sound in the second half of cc.

David and Marianne Erneman's marriage is going through a crisis, after 15 years.Gynecologist David is having an affair with a patient of his.She has gotten involved with her former lover Carl-Adam.On the train they meet again and do some reminiscing.A Lesson in Love (original title En Lektion I Kärlek) from 1954 is a film from Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman.The cast is great.Eva Dahlbeck and Gunnar Björnstrand work great together as Marianne and David.Yvonne Lombard is wonderful as Susanne Verin.Harriet Andersson is terrific as Nix.Åke Grönberg does great job as Carl-Adam.Olof Winnerstrand plays Professor Henrik Erneman.Renée Björling is Svea Erneman.John Elfström is Sam.Birgitte Reimer portrays Lise.The movie has a lot of good.I liked the grandpa's birthday sequence.And when they look back at Marianne's and Carl-Adam's wedding is rather amusing.The dance sequence is quite funny.The temptress takes David to dance and then he prepares to kiss her lovely lips.This represents Bergman at not his best.But even Bergman at not his best is better than many other filmmakers could come up with.

This would be fine as an Italian farce. It is basically the story of a dull man who is full of testosterone (interesting because he's a gynecologist). Through various affairs and indiscretions, he has lost his connection to his wife. They are a match for one another and fight and spar through the whole thing. There is a little Taming of the Shrew action. First he steals her from his best friend; then he offers her back; then he wants her again. It is clever enough, I guess, but I expect more profundity from Bergman. Some of the banter is clever but ultimately, it's that old story of a man and wife, playing at a game, pretending not to be married and then setting up an encounter.

A Lesson in Love, as the intro tells us, is a comedy for adults. That's true only in the sense that the movie is not a tragedy. It's occasionally witty, and the dialogue at times is clever, but the movie is by no means a laugh-generating piece of cinema.

Overall, this is a middling Bergman film. It's not bad, but it's not great. Overall, I found it rather boring and tedious. The father-daughter relationship is an interesting one, though it is not explored as deeply as it could have been, which was a shame. Instead, the film focuses on the marriage, which appears on its last legs through much of the film, but, as a self-proclaimed comedy from the outset, the movie sets us up to expect a happier ending. To the extent the characters develop as the film progresses, those changes seem more on the implausible side.

If you're looking for a Bergman film, I would not recommend this one. It's really only worth watching if you're having some sort of Ingmar Bergman marathon (which you may be, because this film likely is on your radar in the first place only because of something you picked up from the Criterion Collection).