Carnal comedy is a peculiarly difficult genre: when it is good, the most sophisticated males and females are trapped by the beast; when it is bad, sex becomes silly. Bergman achieves one of the few classics of the type: a tragic-comic chase and roundelay that is the wittiest thing of its kind since Renoir's The Rules of the Game. But where Renoir carried his house-party beyond boudoir farce to surrealist frenzy, Bergman carries his into elegance and lyric poetry. Bergman (he both wrote and directed) gathered the most stunning cast we've ever seen. There are four beautiful and talented actresses: the great Eva Dahlbeck, appearing on stage, giving a house party, and singing "Freut Euch des Lebens"; Ulla Jacobssen as the lawyer's virgin wife; Harriet Andersson as the impudent, love–loving maid; Margit Carlquist as the Countess. And there are Gunnar Bjornstrand as the lawyer who takes Bjorn Bjevelstam as his son, Jarl Kulle, and Naima Wifstrand carried about for her game of croquet. Grand Prix for Best Comedy, Cannes, 1956.