Summer Interlude

This film hit me square. Despite it being one of his earlier works, it has a lot of the Bergman stereotypes as we now know them: desolate landscapes, surreal flashbacks, meditations on the passage of time, astonishing beauty and grace cut liberally with despair and shadows, old people playing chess, and lots of scenes near water. Here, he applies those talismans to the life of a ballerina, nearing the end of her prime, remembering a time when she was young, beautiful, and in love. Life is fleeting. Love is ephemeral. Days last forever, and then pass in a blink. Joy is eternal, until suddenly, one day, it isn't. Enjoy your round, lustrous, pearl-like days while you have them. Don't build walls against them. Let them in.