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.
DVD Features
Region 1 Note: Introduction by director Ingmar Bergman Interview with actress Harriet Anderson, conducted by film scholar Peter Cowie Interview with film scholar Eric Schaefer about Kroger Babb and his distribution of Monika, the story of a bad girl as an exploitation film Images from the Playground, a half-hour documentary by Stig Björkman featuring behind-the-scenes footage shot by Bergman, archival audio interviews with Bermgna, and new interviews with actresses Bibi Anderson and Harriet Anderson Trailer Plus: a booklet featuring an essay by film scholar Laura Hubner, a 1958 review by filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard, and a publicity piece from 1953 in which Bergman interviews himself
Full Frame - 1.37 Audio: Subtitles - English Swedish
