En lektion i kärlek (1954)

Gynecologist David Erneman argues with his mistress, Suzanne. They are at his clinic. David wants to end their affair, and before Suzanne leaves, she gets her front-door key back. David is driven by his chauffeur, Sam. David falls asleep, and in a flashback we see his first meeting with Suzanne: it takes place at David’s clinic. Suzanne confesses that she loves him. At first, he responds by talking about marital fidelity—but then admits that he wants her. They kiss. David wakes up in the car. Then there is another flashback: David and Suzanne are sitting in a sailboat. They have spent the summer together. Now he is tired of their monotonous life together, and she gets him to admit it. David tells Sam to meet him with the car in Copenhagen. Then David gets out of the car and rushes into a railway station. The station sign says Mjölby. David takes a seat in a train compartment where a man and a woman are already sitting, apparently not travelling together. When the woman leaves the compartment after a while, the excited man proposes a bet to David: before they reach Tranås, he will have kissed her. David accepts the bet, which is for five kronor. A couple of photographs tucked inside a book bring back a memory for David: he has a wife and children at a summer house outside Helsingborg and is now on his way there alone when he meets his daughter Nix. She is unhappy, and David promises that they will spend the whole day together. They visit Uncle Axel and Aunt Stina, who run a pottery. There, Nix says that she thinks love is disgusting. She never wants to love anyone—certainly not a man. She also says that her mother has a lover in Copenhagen. He is the sculptor Carl-Adam. The woman returns to the train compartment. The man follows her, holding a hand to his cheek. He gives David a five-krona note. David strikes up a conversation with the woman, who is also on her way to Copenhagen. Eventually, the conversation reveals that the woman is David’s wife, Marianne. On his way to the dining car to get Marianne cigarettes, David meets in the next compartment the man who has just lost a five-krona note. David proposes another bet, this time for ten kronor. He will have kissed the woman before they reach Älmhult. In the compartment, Marianne remembers: By chance, she discovers that David is lying to her. He says that on a certain day he has to attend a conference in Uppsala—but a note hidden away instead mentions a room reservation at the Havsvik Hotel. Marianne goes to Havsvik and sees David’s affair with Suzanne with her own eyes. In the compartment, David tells Marianne that he wants her back. He asks for one more chance. She says no. It is quite possible she will soon marry Carl-Adam. But David will still get to kiss her—in the corridor. She has heard about his bet and wants half of the ten kronor. David remembers how things were in Copenhagen 15 years earlier: Marianne and Carl-Adam are about to get married. Carl-Adam waits nervously, but Marianne never arrives. He sends David to look for her, and David finds her at home in bed, distraught. She does not want to marry Carl-Adam. She loves David. And David admits that he loves her. Together they go to Carl-Adam’s, where a wild, physical argument soon breaks out in front of the wedding guests and the priest. But the violence ends as quickly as it began, and Carl-Adam invites everyone to sit down to dinner. In the train compartment, David and Marianne talk about the divorce that lies ahead. “The worst part will be telling your parents,” she says, “the ones who’ve been together for 50 years.” She recalls her father-in-law’s birthday a year earlier: Professor Henrik Erneman’s 73rd birthday is an idyllic family celebration in midsummer. That day, David and Marianne’s marriage seems an outstanding example of happiness and harmony. David and Marianne get off the train at Malmö Central, where Carl-Adam is waiting. Together they take the ferry to Copenhagen, then head to a restaurant in Nyhavn to say their final goodbyes. At the restaurant, David asks Marianne to dance. While they dance, Carl-Adam orders drinks—a whole bottle of whisky for himself, and “The Galloping Volcano” for the gentleman in glasses. Then he spots an old acquaintance, Lise, and asks her to help him look after the bespectacled gentleman. Noticeably invigorated by “The Galloping Volcano,” David dances so passionately with Lise that Marianne rushes onto the dance floor and pulls David away. Alarm spreads among the guests, who hurriedly leave the place. As police cars honk nearby, David and Marianne walk along one of Nyhavn’s quays. They argue loudly, when a car pulls up beside them. It is Sam, who says he has been searching all over town for the couple. Surrounded by a large retinue of attendants, David and Marianne are escorted to a luxuriously laid-out hotel suite with an inviting double bed. “David, you scoundrel,” Marianne says. “You were so sure.” A sign hangs on the suite door: “Do not disturb!” A little Cupid walks down the hotel corridor to the door, turns the sign around, and opens it. Through the opening, David and Marianne can be seen sitting on the edge of the bed, raising glasses of champagne. As the door closes, the sign on the other side can be read: “Silence! A Lesson in Love.”