One of Bergman's early triumphs.
Monika (1952)
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Reviews Counted:8
Fresh:8
Rotten:0
Average Rating:7.9/10
Runtime: 82 mins
Genre: Foreign Films
Synopsis: MONIKA is an intense, sensual drama, adapted by Ingmar Bergman from a novel by Per Anders Fogelström. In an often-praised, stellar performance, Harriet Andersson, on her way to becoming a Bergman... MONIKA is an intense, sensual drama, adapted by Ingmar Bergman from a novel by Per Anders Fogelström. In an often-praised, stellar performance, Harriet Andersson, on her way to becoming a Bergman regular, plays the fiery teenager Monika, and Lars Ekborg is Harry, a sensitive youth who becomes her lover. Together they escape to a remote island off the coast of Sweden, where they spend a carefree summer exploring nature and giving in to their own passionate instincts. When Monika finds herself pregnant, the young couple is forced to return to the city, where they settle down to a dull domestic life together, with the prospect of a bleak future in a drab working-class environment. The impulsive Monika soon decides she wants more out of life...Because of the occasionally erotic nature of the material (and Bergman's uninhibited rendering of it), prior to being released in this country the movie was edited, retitled MONIKA: THE STORY OF A BAD GIRL, and marketed as a racy sexploitation film by its U.S. distributor, in turn earning the director the disapproval of those who considered the finished product obscene. [More]
Starring: Harriet Andersson, Lars Ekborg, John Harryson, George Skarstedt
Starring: Harriet Andersson, Lars Ekborg, John Harryson, George Skarstedt
Director: Ingmar Bergman
Director: Ingmar Bergman
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Reviews for Monika
A fully realized Bergman psychodrama, rather than an early model for his later work.
More than 50 years after its first screening in America, Monika arrives in New York again to light up the screen, this time without a trace of impropriety.
Bergman's tale of heedless teenage love is a sort of neorealist Rebel Without a Cause -- except that sex is acknowledged and the outlaw is a girl.
Bergman would be no more adept a pornographer than he would be at filming hip-hop, but his camera did stare at the human surface with an intentness unmatched since von Sternberg rhapsodized over Marlene Dietrich.
Subtle but sharply observed, it remains one of Bergman's most watchable and rewarding dramas.
His first film with Andersson shows a developing ability to probe the psychology of a rich, vital woman without losing his objectivity.
Thanks to international distributors sensationalizing its sexual frankness, this bittersweet drama of ill-fated first love helped establish Ingmar Bergman as a filmmaker.
Latest News for Monika
July 30, 2007:
Through Bergman's Past, Brightly
With the passing of Ingmar Bergman Monday, the world of cinema lost one of its most unique and important voices. Thus, we at Rotten Tomatoes decided to pick our favorite Bergman... More...
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