Mai Zetterling (1925-1994) was nearly 40 when she made her feature film directing debut with this drama of three young women from vastly different backgrounds - a housemaid, a farmer's wife and an aristocrat - about to give birth in a maternity clinic shortly before World War I. As they recall their lives and the events and relationships that brought them to their present, unwelcome circumstances, a powerful portrait emerges of a woman's place in society. Zetterling, who had been acting on stage and screen in her native Sweden for two decades, chose as her source material a controversial seven-part work of feminist literature, The Miss von Pahlen series, by author Agnes von Krusenstjerna, regarded as "the Swedish Proust." Zetterling adapted the script (far too loosely, some critics carped) with her then husband David Hughes.

Featuring nudity, homosexual characters and themes, and a frank, daring examination of female sexuality, the film caused a scandal at Cannes, despite its nomination for the Palme d'Or prize. When she turned to directing in the 1960s, Zetterling was often compared to Ingmar Bergman. Early in her career, she appeared in the Alf Sjöberg film Torment (1944), written by Bergman. Several years later, Bergman starred her in one of his earliest pictures, Music in Darkness (1948). That led to international attention and a busy acting career.

For this production, she hired his frequent cinematographer Sven Nykvist and cast several actors who had worked with Bergman, including the three leads in Loving Couples, Harriet Andersson, Gunnel Lindblom and Gio Petré, as well as Gunnar Björnstrand, Eva Dahlbeck, Jan Malmsjö and several others. On its release in New York in 1966, A.H. Weiler of The New York Times called it "an arresting, serious drama that proves she knows the directorial craft and is a welcome addition to it." Kenneth Tynan gave it high praise as "one of the most ambitious debuts since Citizen Kane" (1941). Zetterling went on to direct seven more features, plus several shorts, TV series and anthologies, before returning to acting late in life, most notably as the kindly grandmother Helga in Nicolas Roeg's The Witches (1990).

By Rob Nixon