Writer and sceenplay 

Ingmar Bergman and Birger Malmsten had travelled down to the French Riviera on holiday.

"Then I met some friends down there - painters and so forth - they were hardly ever quite sober - so there I sat, and began to feel all romantic about my marriage - my then marrige, that is to say one I'd just taken extreme delight in ripping to pieces in Three Strange Loves. I got a bit sentimental and began thinking about my time in Hälsingborg, what fun it had all been, the symphony orchestra, and how I wasn't such a genius as I'd imagined. The first real setbacks, you see, had begun to put in an appearence. But I thought to myself: 'even if one is only a mediocrity, still one must function'. So then I made up some sort of consolation for myself. That's the infantry who are important in culture, not the more dashing cavalry. It all turned out into quite a harmonious film. The only trouble was, I couldn't find an end to it. So I made up that operatic ending with the kitchen stove blowing up." (Bergman on Bergman)

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