- You treat me like a... - Like a what?
- You can't treat women like humans. - I'm not a human, I'm a servant.
Tonight I'm a wizard and I'm here-
- to transform you into a goddess. - I want to be myself.
Nothing here, nothing there...
Abracadabra!
Come on...
Every woman wants to be a goddess.
The minute they're only women they die of boredom.
Oh, thank you...
Come and sit down. Sit here.
One little leg...
The other one...
Can I put the dress on now?
Charming! May I have the pleasure?
- I'm a goddess! - You're a servant girl!
We do our fighting at home, not on the battlefield.
Anything but war!
You want our soldiers to sit at home lapping milk like castrated tomcats.
- There is other work. - The quack's!
- The gravedigger's. - Must we speak of horrors?
- We men must. - That's how quarrels start.
- Happy Midsummer, Petra. - Come on, girls!
You girls can ride in my car.
You have to make do with what you have in life.
I don't want to!
I'm as good as they are.
It's Midsummer for us, too! Cheers.
My darling. My poor darling...
May I bid you welcome, before we join the ladies.
May I suggest a toast to our common interests?
With war threatening, the market is good.
In my line there's never a slump, it's a popular investment.
- It's no joking matter. - If you can't joke about that-
- you're in danger of taking women seriously.
Never do that! - Has everyone got champagne?
Cheers! Welcome to Midsummer-
- the only time we can behave as we really want to.
A charming speech, my dear. But that's my task, not yours.
If I waited for you to get going, I'd have dried up like a prune long ago.
Stanny...
Don't just sit with your friend. Help entertain the other guests.
- Mama is jealous. - Of whom?
- Of us. - Don't let her treat you that way.
You said yourself, one must fight to become a real person.
- I'm not strong enough. - Everyone is!
Angela!
I found you!
Come and say hello to Papa.
What a charming little place.
It's haunted too, but perhaps you don't believe in ghosts?
- Why haven't you been to see us? - I have to be invited first.
Cecil doesn't quite understand. I avoided teaching him conventions.
- They are silly. - They might have a purpose.
- They provide a little protection. - We've talked of you a lot.
- Your name has cropped up. - This is Aunt Petra.
Papa said you looked alike, but you don't at all.
Let's go and look round.
The aim of marriage, as of war-
- is to teach people how to hate each other.
So solemn you look. Idealists, no doubt-
- who still believe in right and wrong.
But things aren't black or white.
Mix them and you get a dismal grey, which is more realistic.
I hope my son Bernhard comes. He's my only comfort.
Apart from Stanny, of course... in this miserable world.
You, surely, have many other things to make you happy.
There's nothing like stimulus.
It makes even one's most depraved wishes seem innocent.
One forgets convention, one forgets one's age.
Would you like to see me intoxicated?
- I already am. - It's not the champagne. It's youth.
Oh, there's Bernhard.
Hello, my darling son.
- I think we've met before. - Have we?
Or I mistook you for someone else. Mama has so many friends.
Run away and play.
- Is it me or the uniform? - Neither. Champagne?
With pleasure, but not from the bottle.
The noise you hear comes from our private zoo.
I've promised the animals a visit. Part of the Midsummer tradition.
- Quack! - Warmonger!
- It's haunted here. I feel it. - Nonsense, Alexandra.
- Lost souls. - Especially on Midsummer's Eve.
- It's an honour to escort you. - You're in luck, young man.
I won't excuse myself, people never mean it anyway, but let me explain.
I married a woman who helped me in my work. One must accept that.
- I did, but it took a long time. - A very long time?
Many years.
You women scare the life out of us. You're bent on giving us everything.
Sooner or later we must hurt you.
In your heart, you know it. Perhaps you even want it.
- I loved you, Thomas. - Don't say that.
- Scared? - You mean you still do?
This male vanity! Men think their old flames can't forget them.
- Can they? - I can, anyway.
I've discovered a girl, perhaps a thousand years old.
Preserved in a peat bog. Her face as lovely as ever.
She haunts me. I wish I knew what she was thinking.
- It's not hard to guess. - If I were romantic, I'd say "love".
In which case she died before she found it. Many do.
No one told her that time is short.
Angela, don't forget!
- Don't forget what? - To behave.
As I said, time is short.
One must treasure it. When I see how people waste it-
- I think of the girl who longed for love but didn't dare.
- Women are like that. - No, girls are. Women are braver.
Social life is awful. I'm too old to have fun, too young to decline.
- We should have asked her to stay. - Yes, but I'm too selfish.
We women mustn't be selfish. We fight to stand on our own feet-
- till a man comes and ruins it all. - I lie awake thinking of that girl.
She's so lonely, almost a child. There's little one can do alone.
- Except die. - Do you always talk in riddles?
- I like people to be direct. - I like people to stop reasoning.
Feel, for God's sake!
It's high time you joined us grown-ups!
How are you, Jacob? You never say unless I ask.
As usual. Macson ignores my friendship with his wife-
- and borrows money from me. I'm the seducer, he's the pimp.
- I ought to push him off the train. - Female logic!
- And your wife? - An accomplice, through her silence.
Female logic again!
Well I'm damned. I think we need Dutch courage.
What came over me? I feel so funny.
- Good. - I don't usually do this.
- Servants don't get much chance. - Cheeky!
- I must get back. - I have to rest. Sit down.
- What are you giggling at? - I don't know.
- Are you going to be nice to me? - How?
- We must celebrate Midsummer! - You're getting cheeky.
- You like it. Take your dress off. - When it's so new and pretty?
- Do you know what it cost? - I can guess.
Five...
Ten?
- Fifteen... twenty... - That's enough.
For me?
Careful! Mind my dress!
Supper, damn it!
- You forgot your hanky. - Have it as a keepsake.
- But the money, then? - Keep it.
Agda! Come down and sing to us.
Music has nothing to do with class. - Sing, Agda!
- So she can sing? - Quite well.
Good night, sweetheart. - Sing us something nice, then!
"Jesus is my bridegroom dear"
"I am yours"
"Thee alone my heart is near, I am yours"
"I do now the world disdain all its joys for me were vain..."
- What's that? - To buy a new dress with, sister.
You can't get a dress for that!
Then buy a new collar for the dog. Mama hates him, you know.
- She hates everything I love. - Except me.
A conspiracy?
Once I went to a fancy-dress ball as a flower girl.
I went into a flower shop and the first thing I saw was Agda's bosom!
And you know how I love fruit...
- Enforced intimacy improves no one. - Can anything improve a person?
- What's that under the table? - One of Mr Landborg's ghosts!
- If you're selling ghosts, I'll buy! - You can have one for nothing.
A toast to all ghosts! Living and dead.
It's only Stanny's dog! "The best thing about a man is his dog."
Your precious pet's a bother again. To all dog-haters!
Dogs are too human to be worth any love.
To all dog-haters!
Delicious! Come closer so I can reach.
Delicious. Quite delicious.
You're here to enjoy yourself. Try to be like the others.
It looks so easy to be womanly and weak. But I can't.
The day will come when you're all alone and bored like us.
I want to be old. I've been young too long and nothing's happened.
You've been lucky.
- Am I disturbing you? - Terribly.
That awful supper! I wanted to be with you. I saw you go.
- They won't approve. - Be brave, you said.
- You'll regret it. - Feel, you said, too.
- An apt pupil. - A good teacher.
- A teacher that shouldn't lecture. - But that's why I'm here.
But should say that he has a wife in a mental home, a small son-
- and a nasty habit of disappearing when things get hot.
All the traits of a careless seducer. And whose fault is it?
Yours. You are a troublesome girl.
For 18 years they've told me I'm like them. I want a new teacher.
I don't care if you are a seducer.
Yes, I look forward to death. That can change my views on life.
- Very funny. - No, very serious.
Our school system has turned out some weird specimens of manhood.
- Men have so much to talk about. - Anyway, we don't want them here.
- Don't we, darling? - Men's talk is as dull as women's.
Stellan, be an angel and get my feather boa from my room.
- Which room? - My bedroom.
How dull the boy is! My feather boa, in my bedroom.
Mother, he doesn't know your room. Yet.
We boys got a hiding every day. Very good for us.
Then we'll tell him.
- It's the second on the right. - On the right...
Right. Not left. Papa sleeps there, or tries to.
- On the first floor. - Try the second, the maids' rooms.
Were you not an officer and a nitwit that remark might sound coarse.
Stellan, the feather boa is on the bed.
A great big bed... with room for a whole regiment.
...a policy that will humiliate our country!
- Does that matter? - In any civilized country...
What are we waiting for? Of course! Sunrise...
You've muddled the poor boy. He'll look in the room on the left-
- that your papa shares with the maids. I'll go and help him.
- It suits you. - Yes, doesn't it?
Pretty boy. If I were you, I'd fall madly in love with myself.
It's an enormous problem for me.
When I propose to myself I can never make up my mind...
Say "yes". I'm sure you'd be very happy together.
- But supposing I were unfaithful? - What if you caught yourself at it?
Interesting! I'd see myself through the keyhole, mad with desire!
Which knee am I sitting on? His or hers?
- Choose. - Both. I like mixtures.
Champagne alone is so boring. Add a dash of brandy-
- and a pinch of sugar, and what do you get?
Me!
But I'd have to taste it before I give an opinion.
Don't take it off, it's part of me. You can't be just you.
I never am.
- With your waist, I'd never worry. - Yes, you would.
- It's put me in bed with odd people. - Was it your waist they were after?
- My prisoner! - Even prisoners can have fun.
Someone's coming!
Scared?
Well, we've plenty of time.
- How long are you staying? - Not long.
- My painting stuff is in Stockholm. - Can't you go and get it?
- If I had the money. - Loose change for my errand boys.
If they're good, and do their duty.
- You've killed her. Murderer! - Quiet! It's only a dog.
Stop this noise, the guests can hear.
- The dog bit me. - Let me see...
I'll get blood poisoning!
Don't spoil a good scene with needless chatter.
Champagne on the terrace, sir.
- I hate her! - Hate can be enjoyable.
It's so close to love, but much more exciting.
- Hold me tight, Bernhard. - You'll never grow up-
- if you believe in family love. - Not even yours?
- Find someone else. - Who?
Look! Sunrise.
Right! It'll be years before we have such a peaceful Midsummer again!
I know what you want to tell me, but you think I'll be hurt.
I loved Thomas once. He left me.
It's fifteen years ago.
Anyone you like, Angela, but not him. Not him.
Just a few flowers. Did you see the sunrise?
- Yes. And you? - Alone.
- One is never alone then. - No, God is with us.
I wonder if God is with us.
Is it because of Thomas that you... never wanted...
Of course not. It's because I'm a woman.
A man does as he likes, or what he thinks he should do.
- I don't complain. - Why not?
Thomas!
- Idiot! - Tyrant!
Don't do that again.
I'm just finding out how complicated happiness is.
- Happiness is only a part. - You said it's everything.
One for every week we've been together.
I thought lovers forgot time and space.
War!
It's war, father!
Come here, Cecil, don't be silly.
- War! War! - Quiet, you're scaring Angela.
She's not afraid. She'll help us. We're going to war, aren't we?
We'll see.
He won't be back.
But he'll write, and I must go to him.
It's war. He's at war with himself, you, anyone who gets in his way.
- He won't marry you. - I'm carrying his child.
- Are you sure? - Jacob has examined me.
- Does anyone else know? - I have to tell him.
- It's his child, too. - No, it's yours. Yours alone.
Now you must only think of yourself and your child.
Our child.
Our child?
Do you want it too?
You do look happy. Has something happened?
What do you say to this?
- I don't know what to think. - Oh no, it's not me.
Know where I found it?
Up in the big house, where it's all so respectable and nice.
That's right. In Angela's room.
All the years we've respected them. But I saw what the girls were like!
Petra, with her airs and graces, knows nothing.
I'll tell her! And anyone else who'll listen.
I'll pay them back for all my years married to their filthy farm-hand!
Oh, nice to see you again.
- Very nice. - So far, at least.
- Hardly a suitable dress now... - Sewing cheers me up.
- Better think of the baby. - Why? He doesn't think of me.
- You've nothing to put on him. - He won't go to parties for a bit...
- Is there a mirror in the house? - In the gallery.
- How much longer? - Don't know. He'll just pop out-
- some day and say "Here I am!" - He'll have a sense of humour.
I wonder if my child will?
Yes, my child. My artist, my explorer...
...my girl.
I'd prefer a girl.
We can share my baby clothes. I've made far too many.
Agda!
Come and sit for me.
- If you must, bring the kid, too. - I have to work.
Now, now, gently.
You're a mother-to-be, not a little girl.
I've just had a talk with your interesting friend.
I'll see that he does the decent thing.
Although I can't see why I care...
...about someone who can't watch a sunrise without losing her pants.
Sit still, or I'll be angry.
Don't shout at me. I'm a goddess, with a message from heaven.
Goddesses don't have revolting kids in their tummies.
- Want to know a secret? - That Angela has a bun in the oven!
- Could I have a word in private? - No, why in private?
- So that she doesn't... - She won't hear, won't understand.
- Are you her fianc�? - You've got the wrong person.
- This is ridiculous. - And enormously amusing. Go on.
I'm bothered with regard to the injured party whom I cannot marry.
Sit still!
- Oh, why? - A family arrangement. Financial.
Anyway, she's a dashed pretty girl.
So I have a proposal. A life annuity of 10,000 crowns.
Most tempting.
What am I supposed to do in return? - Don't butt in, Agda!
- Merely marry her. - Mama's servant? I
She's your model.
The answer's still no.
How much did you say?
Ten... perhaps fifteen thousand.
- I accept. - Really?
Why not? She's a dashed pretty girl!
Agda, we're getting married!
Wrong person again! This is madly exciting.
Where's the parson? Typical, God always turns up late.
This is a serious rehearsal. Don't be your usual stupid self.
Dear friends, welcome to God's house!
A very unusual wedding.
It's also very unusual to keep one's hat on in church.
- I had to see the happy bride. - I'm not married yet.
It's ages since I got a proper kiss. I don't think I'll get married.
Oh yes, you will.
Calm down, Agda - at any rate until after the wedding.
Watch carefully, my dears. Small, dainty steps...
An entire Christian congregation has their eyes on you.
- I'll be me! - Of course.
This is the most important moment of your life.
No matter if you've led a fast life with other men and women.
- Not me. - Silly of you.
No matter if you intend being unfaithful as often as possible.
Not me.
The bride's not only silly, she's a liar.
You just promise, in the presence of someone you don't believe in...
- Oh, but I believe. - What?
- I believe. - In what?
- In God. - That's just your bad conscience.
So just promise to love one another for better or worse till death-
- or something equally attractive, do you part.
That's that. Not too painful, or?
The ring!
I recognize that!
- I don't think Gustav would mind. - He gave it to both of us.
Bernhard?
Bernhard!
- What are you doing? - Celebrating my freedom.
They say everything's different when you're married. I feel the same.
The reason we got married was to get what you've already had!
Did you hear the baby crying in church? It means bad luck.
Bernhard, my husband refuses to give me any more champagne.
- What you said sounds awful. - He insisted on marrying her.
Noble of him. If only other members of the family were half as decent.
- When is the happy event? - At the same time, if we're lucky.
A sentimental little family party.
Odd to think that at this moment the German army is attacking.
Machine-guns rattling, bayonets flashing.
- Just like at home. - Cake! Bah!
The war has certainly brightened up people's dismal existence.
The wedding service went without a hitch.
The bride and groom fell to pieces!
A good picture of marriage.
Poke it, and it collapses.
- Adele... - It wasn't my fault.
There you are, everybody.
- Take the bits as they are. - Adele!
May I remind you that you're a guest in this house.
So I'm invited to sit and be polite and say nothing?
Who do you think I am?!
Nobody mentions the uninvited guests-
- curled up in the bellies of those two.
Not a word! Why don't you drink their health?
Because it would muck up all your talk of marriage and love.
There is no love! It's just beds, dirt and slime!
Leave me alone, let me go.
I must apologize for her.
Now look what I've done.
When I was dressed up for once.
- And you drag me out in the mud! - Go to bed.
Kind, aren't you?
A real man shouldn't be kind, a real man would give me a child-
- or kill me! No, mind my dress!
Poor Tord! You never dare take what you want.
You missed your chance tonight with Petra!
That woke you up, didn't it? Petra, so ladylike.
She looks like one who has to satisfy herself.
- Those are your tricks. - Because I've no real man!
Go on! Finish me off, that's what you want!
Go on, kill me!
- What went wrong? - Strangled by the umbilical cord.
Help me carry the bride into the bedroom!
Here's to the bridal couple.
I shall sleep like a log. Good night.
On your wedding night!
He tried to trick me out of it. It was really you I married.
- Mind my nighty! It cost a lot. - Of whose money?!
- There now, all over. - It didn't hurt a bit.
Nothing hurts you, does it?
Angela!
Why do you keep running off?
- Are you unhappy? - No.
- Happy, then? - No...
Don't worry. I'll be back soon.
Jacob?
Must one be happy?