Cinema
Sommerglæder
Svend Methling · 1940
Synopsis
The Brasens' seaside hotel has not a single guest left and is running up debts with the tradesmen of the town. An advertisement in the newspaper reverses the situation: the holidaymakers arrive all at once, numerous and demanding, and the owner, his wife and an improvised staff are overwhelmed. They must lodge, feed and satisfy everyone. Some fifty-seven characters thus cross paths over the summer, bathers, local worthies and townspeople, in a series of episodes.
Context
The film adapts the book that Herman Bang published in 1902, from a screenplay by Gunnar Robert Hansen, with music by Emil Reesen and images by Einar Olsen; it was released on 26 September 1940 by Palladium. Its episodic construction, which parades fifty-seven characters, seeks to render the writer's impressionist manner. Critics have praised the scene where the square in front of the hotel fills with a silent audience listening to a passing artist sing.
Who it is for
About an hour and a half, in Danish. Worth knowing before watching that it comes from a story by Herman Bang, and that it proceeds by small scenes rather than by plot.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as its director's breakthrough in cinema, and considered since then one of the great successes of Danish cinema of its time.
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