What was interesting to me as soon as I started up this movie was the fact that the title didn't seem to match the translation. Kvinno Drom, the opening title said. The Swedish surely don't have a two word phrase for the word dream, do they? So, as the titles kept running, I pulled out my phone and used Google to translate the original Swedish, and Google says it comes to Female's Dreams. The literal translation of the title does seem to fit the movie better, but it's an interesting change that seems rather unnecessary.
Anyway, this feels like a continuation of the theme at the center of Summer with Monika, and the way Bergman extends the theme cements my suspicion that he wasn't lionizing Monika's choice to abandon all responsibility and leave her new family. In Dreams, we follow two women, a model (Doris) and the manager of a fashion photography studio (Susanne). As implied by the title, both have their dreams on which they cling, dismissing more realistic parts of their own lives. Doris has a nice, unremarkable boyfriend that she dismisses because he's angry she's suddenly cancelling their plans for the evening because she must take the train with Susanne to do a new photoshoot in Gothenburg. In Gothenburg, Susanne has concocted a photoshoot in order to try and see her former lover, a married man with children.
So sets the stage for two largely unrelated adventures. Doris meets an older man who immediately starts buying her things (an expensive dress, shoes, a string of pearls), but he is very much an old man. He physically cannot keep up with the young model and ends up collapsing at one point. Doris lets the fantasy fall away when the man's adult daughter comes and berates him for having abandoned her mother in a mental institution and strips the artifice of Doris's expensive day away by calling her .. Doris meekly gives the dress back and returns to her hotel.
At the hotel, Susanne begs and pleads until her lover comes. He plans on breaking it off, but she wears him down to making love to her. They plan on meeting again in Oslo a few weeks later when the wife appears and emasculates him in front of Susanne. He's a weakling who cannot leave his wife but cannot abandon Susanne at the same time. The scales fall from Susanne's eyes.
When the two women return home they find that their illusions no longer have any power over them. Doris reconnects with her man, and Susanne tears up a letter from hers. They've both moved on from the more childish notions they had of love and have grown.
Now, the movie, I think, is certainly good, but it's odd structure (which keeps the two women completely separated for nearly half the movie) really undermines it, keeping it well short of greatness. I really liked it, finding the individual stories involving, well-acted, well-photographed, and interesting, but the package as a whole suffers from the distance between the two.
Anyway, this feels like a continuation of the theme at the center of Summer with Monika, and the way Bergman extends the theme cements my suspicion that he wasn't lionizing Monika's choice to abandon all responsibility and leave her new family. In Dreams, we follow two women, a model (Doris) and the manager of a fashion photography studio (Susanne). As implied by the title, both have their dreams on which they cling, dismissing more realistic parts of their own lives. Doris has a nice, unremarkable boyfriend that she dismisses because he's angry she's suddenly cancelling their plans for the evening because she must take the train with Susanne to do a new photoshoot in Gothenburg. In Gothenburg, Susanne has concocted a photoshoot in order to try and see her former lover, a married man with children.
So sets the stage for two largely unrelated adventures. Doris meets an older man who immediately starts buying her things (an expensive dress, shoes, a string of pearls), but he is very much an old man. He physically cannot keep up with the young model and ends up collapsing at one point. Doris lets the fantasy fall away when the man's adult daughter comes and berates him for having abandoned her mother in a mental institution and strips the artifice of Doris's expensive day away by calling her .. Doris meekly gives the dress back and returns to her hotel.
At the hotel, Susanne begs and pleads until her lover comes. He plans on breaking it off, but she wears him down to making love to her. They plan on meeting again in Oslo a few weeks later when the wife appears and emasculates him in front of Susanne. He's a weakling who cannot leave his wife but cannot abandon Susanne at the same time. The scales fall from Susanne's eyes.
When the two women return home they find that their illusions no longer have any power over them. Doris reconnects with her man, and Susanne tears up a letter from hers. They've both moved on from the more childish notions they had of love and have grown.
Now, the movie, I think, is certainly good, but it's odd structure (which keeps the two women completely separated for nearly half the movie) really undermines it, keeping it well short of greatness. I really liked it, finding the individual stories involving, well-acted, well-photographed, and interesting, but the package as a whole suffers from the distance between the two.