The Cinematheque

“Bergman uses his cinema of reflection—self and other are met and merged in mirrors, windows—to show love as a function of projection.”

Judy Bloch, BAMPFA

Bergman’s fifteenth feature is an enjoyable work in a trademark mode: the insightful, well-acted ​“women’s picture.” Dreams (“Women’s Dreams” in the original Swedish) has two stylish Stockholm women travelling to a fashion shoot in Gothenburg, where each has a Bergmanesque encounter with the vicissitudes of desire and romance. Susanne (Eva Dahlbeck), the chic head of a fashion agency, hopes to rekindle an affair with a married man. Doris (Harriet Andersson), a young model, is being wooed by a much-older diplomat (Gunnar Björnstrand). Bergman parallels the two affairs, detailing in seriocomic fashion the disappointment and disillusionment of his two heroines. The director’s next feature was Smiles of a Summer Night, his international breakthrough.