Who would have thought that august Sweden would be sending us a film comedy as witty and cheerfully candid about the complexities of love as any recent French essay on l'amour?

The characters in this film take themselves and their love lives very seriously, but Bergman’s gently arch tone suggests that we needn’t do likewise.

Late in 1955 Ingmar Bergman made a nearly perfect work -- the exquisite carnal comedy Smiles of a Summer Night.

For all that it's a frightfully well-made object, it's breathtakingly light, a breezy whirlwind of human foibles.