User reviews

Bergman has been seen by many as being a depressing film makes, who speaks above the heads of most people. Thank God someone does! In this piece of genius, we are asked to consider who God is; what makes a life worthwhile; and whether human nature alters through the generations, or is it just the costumes that change? As usual, the answers are to be provided by the audience. We must chose for ourselves what we think is 'right' or 'just'. Bergman uses the usual pattern for him - a man is on a journey (life) and meets people who are going along the same road (friends and family), and they all head toward the end of their trip (death). They stop in for obligatory visits with relatives and for food (as we all do), receive an honourary degree (fame & success?), and then send the children off to a party held in our honour that we do not attend (funeral). What happens along the way is important, but we always end up in the same place - the end. Wonderful editing techniques, good story, good images, fantastic acting, and more ideas and questions to ponder than one film can hold - or so you thought. It's only after the film ends that these ponderings come to you. During the film, you simply watch a man travel from his home to another city, but this is far from what the film is about. See this film once, think about the questions it poses, then rewind and see it again. You will be rewarded for doing so.

Although I'm not the biggest Ingmar Bergman fan, I have really enjoyed some of his movies--especially the one that are not so pessimistic. Although the underlying theme of this movie is aging and impending death, the movie is NOT all pessimism. If it had been, it would have lost my interest early on. Instead, I really enjoyed the film--particularly the fine acting by Victor Sjöström as Professor Borg.

The professor is well-respected for his work as a doctor. However, despite his success in his career, he is a failure in his personal relationships. His emotional baggage over the years has prevented him from allowing himself to be close to those he truly loves. This theme mirrors one of the subplots of Through a Glass Darkly, where a father is being destroyed inside by his daughter's mental illness but he CANNOT allow himself to show his anguish--choosing instead to hide in his room with his tears. It is interesting that the same man playing Borg's son (Gunnar Björnstrand) plays the father only a few years later in Through a Glass Darkly.

Fortunately, unlike Through a Glass Darkly, there IS evidence that the professor is willing to change his persona, as he begins to open up more through the course of the movie. This appears to be assisted through extensive soul searching and dreams the professor has concerning his past and his own mortality--along with experiences he has during a long drive down the coast of Sweden. Because of this, even his extremely strained relationship with his son appears to hold some hope of improvement by the film's end. This hope for change lifts this movie above some Bergman films that only wallow in hopelessness.

FYI--The Criterion version of this DVD is nice due to its running commentary as well as the accompanying documentary. Get this version if you have the chance.

Also FYI--After watching many Bergman films and reading about his life, I detect quite a bit of autobiography in this film and his own stuggles with intimacy.

I'd seen "Wild Strawberries" as a college freshman when it was first released, and knew right away I'd be a Bergman fan from then on.

I watched it again just last night, January 2004, at age 63, and needless to say got a whole different perspective on the film. Where the surrealist touches, moody photography, and incredibly smooth direction had made the big hit with me as a near boy, as an aging man I found myself--I hesitate to say painfully, but...well, closely--identifying with old Isak Borg in his strange pilgrimage, both interior and exterior, the day he receives his honorary degree at the cathedral in Lund.

In the last twenty minutes or so of the movie, I found tears running down my face, not from any thrilling sentimental browbeating (I doubt if Mr. Bergman shot five seconds' worth of sentimentality in his whole long career!) but simply from the cumulative emotional impact of this simple, powerful story and its probing revelation of human character, desire, and chagrin.

By the time the film ended, I felt wrung out, disoriented, happy and deeply sad at the same time: it's the experience the Greeks wanted their tragedies to convey to the spectator; they spoke of "katharsis." I experienced it firsthand when I had the great good fortune to see a production (in English) of "Medea." I walked away in tears and scarcely able to think straight for an hour or so.

The same thing happened with "Wild Strawberries." This is one of the handful of films I unhesitatingly rate a "ten."

A side note: I watched the Criterion Collection DVD. Before the film itself, I watched the hour-long interview conducted in 1998 by Jorn Donner included on the disc. It was remarkable to see how the film Bergman shot ca. 1957 contains many elements that were to be present in his later life--like a foreshadowing of his own old age.

In this symbolic tale of an old man's journey from emotional isolation to a kind of personal renaissance, Ingmar Bergman explores in part his own past, and in doing so rewards us all with a tale of redemption and love.

Victor Sjostrom, then 80 years old, stars as Professor Isak Borg whose self-indulgent cynicism has left him isolated from others. Sjostrom, whose work goes back to the very beginning of the Swedish cinema in the silent film era, both as an actor and as a director, gives a brilliant and compelling performance. All the action of the film takes place in a single day with flashbacks and dream sequences to Borg's past as Borg wakes and goes on a journey to receive a "Jubilee Doctor" degree from the University of Lund. Bergman wrote that the idea for the film came upon him when he asked the question, "What if I could suddenly walk into my childhood?" He then imagined a film "about suddenly opening a door, emerging in reality, then turning a corner and entering another period of one's existence, and all the time the past is going on, alive."

Bibi Andersson plays both the Sara from Borg's childhood, the cousin he was to marry, and the hitchhiker Sara who with her two companions befriends him with warmth and affection. The key scene is when the ancient Borg in dreamscape comes upon the Sara of his childhood out gathering wild strawberries. Borg looks on (unnoticed of course) as his brother, the young Sigfrid, ravishes her with a kiss which she returns passionately; and, as the wild strawberries fall from her bowl onto her apron, staining it red, Borg experiences the pain of infidelity and heartbreak once again. Note that in English we speak of losing one's "cherry"; here the strawberries symbolize emotionally much the same thing for Sara. Later on in the film as the redemption comes, the present day Sara calls out to Borg that it is he that she really loves, always and forever. Borg waves her away from the balcony, yet we are greatly moved by her love, and we know how touched he is.

The two young men accompanying Sara can be seen as reincarnations of the serious and careful Isak Borg and the more carefree and daring Sigfrid. It is as though his life has returned to him as a theater in which the characters resemble those of his past; yet we are not clear in realizing whether the resemblance properly belongs in the old man's mind or is a synchronicity of time returned.

Memorable is Ingrid Thulin who plays Mariana, the wife of Borg's son who accompanies him on the auto trip to Lund. She begins with frank bitterness toward the old man but ends with love for him; and again we are emotionally moved at the transformation. What Bergman does so very well in this film is to make us experience forgiveness and the transformation of the human spirit from the negative emotions of jealousy and a cold indifference that is close to hate, to the redemption that comes with love and a renewal of the human spirit. In quiet agreement with this, but with the edge of realism fully intact, is the scene near the end when Borg asks his long time housekeeper and cook if they might not call one another by their first names. She responses that even at her age, a woman has her reputation to consider. Such a gentle comeuppance meshes well with, and serves as a foil for, all that has gone on before on this magical day in an old man's life.

See this for Bergman who was just then realizing his genius (The Seventh Seal was produced immediately before this film) and for Sjostrom who had the rare opportunity to return to film as an actor in a leading role many decades past him prime, and made the most of it with a flawless performance, his last major performance as he was to die three years later.

(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon!)

I first saw "Wild Strawberries" many years ago at one of the special screenings in the small theater in Moscow. It was the first Bergman's film I ever saw. This picture is amazing in its emotional impact and in my opinion is one of Bergman's most optimistic, profound, and warm films.

"Wild Strawberries" provides sincere, intelligent, and emotional contemplations of life's disappointment, regrets, and losses. The main character, seventy-eight-year-old Professor Isak Borg is forced to see his life in a true and painful light, but he also would learn that there is hope.

Sparkling cinematography by Gunnar Fisher and superb acting of Bergman's regulars – Ingrid Thulin, Bibi Anderson, Gunnar Bjornstrand, Max von Sydow and especially, the great silent film director, Victor Sjostrom as Professor Borg add to many delights of "Wild Strawberries" which also include Bergman's writing/directing with his famous mixing of conscious and unconscious, dreams and reality, the past and the present in the same scene.

Wild Strawberries can be praised for so many reasons, but chief among them in my own mind is the way in which the film so perfectly conveys its themes of self-examination and the contemplation of one's own mortality (particularly through its stunning use of flashbacks). Bergman's autobiographical story also benefits from the brilliant casting of Swedish film legend Victor Sjostrom as Isak Borg, whose towering performance is essential to the success of Wild Strawberries. I read that Bergman based the coffin dream sequence on a frequent nightmare that he had -- and it never ceases to amaze me just how effective it remains even after all these years. Wild Strawberries seems like a quiet, thoughtful, introsepective movie -- and it is; it is also one of world cinema's most impressive motion pictures.

"Wild Strawberries" profoundly moved me. The theme -- an old man coming up fast on death and wondering if his life has had any meaning -- is an old one for Bergman, and one which he explored ad nauseum throughout the subsequent decades. But here Bergman approaches the question with an uncharacteristic optimism and sense of hope. For once, he seems to come close to finding some peace with the unknowns of life that obviously preoccupied him as an artist, and the movie he gives us is sad but immensely warm; resigned but calm and reflective.

An unequivocal masterpiece, and only one of a handful of Bergman films ("Persona" and "Cries and Whispers" being two others) that don't drive me over the edge when I watch them now.

Grade: A+

During the first scene of "Wild Strawberries," I didn't think I'd be able to get through it -- the Swedish was so alien to me it sounded almost comical; it seemed as if every word ended with an "eer" sound. But quickly the beautiful black and white photography caught my eye and I was drawn into Isak Borg's story, or rather, his self-examination.

The progression of the film is fantastic. Early in the film, Isak has an apparition within a dream and the small events leading up to it, within the dream, are quite brilliant. Throughout the rest of the film there are dreams and recollections; newly discovered secrets of the past that Isak sees for the first time. As he says in the film, "Dreams, as if I must tell myself something I won't listen to when I'm awake."

How Bergman shows us the characters is terrific. It's a like a relaxed puzzle that doesn't emphasize any sort of urgency to figure things out. The story unfolds beautifully as we get a deeper sense of Isak, who I assume is an alter ago of Ingmar Bergman at that stage of his life (he was thirty-nine when the film was released).

It pains me to know that the majority of people my age would rather watch an Adam Sandler movie or "The Rock" than something like this. Hey, I liked "Big Daddy" and I love Nicolas Cage, but "Wild Strawberries" is one of the few films I've seen that could possibly change the way I live my life. I'm always interested in listening to what aged people have to say about their own life because, well, it can only give me tips about my own, and that's what this film does in a way.

There is one sequence in the film that is frightening and "arty," and I don't completely grasp what it means beyond Isak's deterioration and his realization of how people actually feel towards him (he's told earlier in the film as well, but he seems to accept this "verdict" more readily), but it doesn't take away from the film; rather, it's an interesting addition to an otherwise satisfying experience. In fact, it's probably the most vital part of the movie -- Isak may not like it, bbut once he gets past it, he has the option to develop.

I don't know if the film is a masterpiece -- it's my introduction to Bergman, so once I see "Cries and Whispers," "Fanny and Alexander," "Persona" and "The Seventh Seal" (if I can get through it, this time) I'll come back to this film with a new perspective, or at least see it as a part of Bergman's whole. I do think this is a great film of its type. It's the kind of film that may require viewings every five or so years, as a sort of reminder.

Pauline Kael once said that she didn't think much of Bergman because she'd done her share of soul-wrestling and it wasn't that difficult. The film isn't as challenging as I was expecting it to be, in fact, it's a walk in the park. It's pleasant and rich and beautiful, and the title seems perfect after you've seen the film. It's all about wild strawberries.

****

¨ Wild strawberries¨ is a spellbinding masterpiece by the great Ingmar Bergman with brilliant acting by Victor Sjostrom (Sweden first movie filmmaker and star , best known for his silent work , who died three years later , aged 81) and awesome cinematography by Gunnar Fischer ; showing a rich tapestry of fears , dreams , anxieties , memories and occasionally over-symbolic frames . This Bergman's landmark film is developed in Sweden , after living a life marked by coldness, an aging professor is forced to confront the emptiness of his existence , taking place a sentimental voyage . This the story about an aging scientist on the rout to accept a prize and he must come to terms with nightmares , surrealist dreams and guilt .

The movie displays haunting and powerful scenes ,it's plenty of intellectual images which stay forever in the mind ; resulting to be one of Bergman's warmest and therefore finest movies . Brooding and thought-provoking screenplay , Ingmar Bergman wrote the script while he was in hospital and thought the movie with Victor Sjöström in mind and riddled with a real feeling the joys of youth , age and nature . Although sometimes is slow moving ,however the thoughtful screenplay is narrated with intelligence and sensitivity but are developed ethics and moral issues as death , God , religion , family and aging . Surrealist and impressive images as when the coffin falling from the hearse , one of Bergman's own recurring dreams . Victor Sjostrom , Swedish cinema's best known pioneer and in his final screen appearance , gives a surprisingly moving interpretation as a professor on a touching journey to his redemption . The movie is marvelously paced and acted , and realizes an excellent Sweden reunion actors with usual Bergman's players (Ingrid Thulin , Bibi Andersson , Max Von Sidow as a gas station keeper and Gunner Lindblon, among others) , showing the different characters and exploring their apprehensions , ambitions, fears and circumstances .

Glimmer and riveting cinematography by Gunner Fischer (The seventh seal) , he's deemed by many to be one of the world's greatest cameraman , he achieved give the movies on the most natural and simplest look imaginable . Cinematographer Gunnar Fischer says that several scenes had to be shot indoors due to Victor Sjöström's poor health , "We had to make some very bad back-projection in the car because we never knew if Victor would come back alive the next day." Gunnar was subsequently replaced by Sven Nykvist (won an Oscar for Fanny and Alexander) as Bergman's cinematographer . ¨Smultronstället¨ is wonderfully directed by Bergman ,it's a real masterpiece who made his major impact gaining international acclaim and winning Gloden Globe 60 , for the best Foreign film . His realization was during an impressive golden period from 1957-1968 when Bergman made stunning masterpieces, plenty of richly observed characters : The seventh seal , Persona, The communicants , The silence , Virgin spring , Hour of wolf . Rating: Magnificent, but is considered by many (along with The seventh seal) to be the Bergman's best .

A gorgeous movie about memory and hope. A trip and a form of catharsis. It is not a story of an old man who discovers images of his past, about a marital crisis or some teenagers. It is not a confession. It is a mirror. The same crisis is the "gift" of everybody. The same silence, fear and desire are the refuge of a man, a woman, a n American or Irakian. At a moment, at a single moment, you discover your past like only reality. Like your real skin, your only voice, your essential eye. It is not strange. We are the fruits of some experiences. Some books, some people, a family, a child or a wife are the Ganymedes of our hours, our evolution, our death. Our freedom, our gestures, our smile are the trees of their presence. Isak Borg is the image of a age. Our age who grow-up in the noise of every day. The isolation is only way to be yourself. The way to Lund, the relation with Agda, the empty attitude, the projection in Evald, the words are the symbols of a clock who is seed of our conscience. Childhood is only reality of our life.

After living a life marked by coldness, an aging professor (Victor Sjöström) is forced to confront the emptiness of his existence.

Star Victor Sjöström had been a gem of Swedish cinema for decades. He worked primarily in the silent era; his best known films include "The Phantom Carriage" (1921), "He Who Gets Slapped" (1924) and "The Wind" (1928). Bergman said this film could not have been made without him, and it makes sense. Not only was Bergman influenced by these early Swedish films, but it makes sense to have a man at the end of his distinguished career.

The real standout performance (besides Sjostrom) is Bibi Andersson, who plays Sara. Is it any surprise she starred in more than ten Bergman-directed pictures, including "Smiles of a Summer's Night", "The Seventh Seal", "Brink of Life", "The Magician", "The Passion of Anna", "The Touch" and "Persona". If Bergman had a muse, it was Andersson.

Bergman has been a strong influence on Woody Allen, and "Wild Strawberries" has influenced a whole series of Allen films: "Stardust Memories", "Another Woman", "Crimes and Misdemeanors", and "Deconstructing Harry". No less a person than Stanley Kubrick said this was his second favorite film of all time.

As I look at all the 10 star reviews that others have given this film I wonder if I am being foolhardy in daring to say something to the contrary. I am and have been for many years a Bergman fan. I eagerly saw most of his films as they were released. I love nearly all of them - this one being an exception. Certainly the film is worth seeing - any Bergman film is. But this one is often cited as his best, and there I would strongly disagree. It is about an academic and although professor Borg has to face some of his demons, he comes out on top in then end. I understand why this film is so popular. Academics see themselves in professor Borg and academics have a lot of influence on what is considered art and what isn't. Borg ends up looking good at the end of the film, and academics, although they have their faults like anyone else, like to think that they are worthy of the respect that their position commands. In many, many cases they are - and this is not a diatribe against academics. I just think that Bergman let this character off too easily, particularly when you compare the way he treats his other characters in movies like "The Hour of the Wolf", "The Silence", "Shame" and so on. He plumbs the depths of the soul and takes no prisoners. "Wild Strawberries" starts out that way, when the professor flashes back to the key points in his life where he turned away from love, life and reality in favor of academic honor. But ultimately Bergman backs down. The professor, having seen the errors of a lifetime in a few short hours, is shown to be wiser and a better man now as he receives his honorary award. Bergman does not do this in his other films. For me this gives a certain falsity to "Wild Strawberries" that I don't see in "Persona" for example. Well, everyone will probably disagree with me, - this is such an acclaimed film - but sometimes it is valuable to hear a contrarian opinion even when you don't agree with it.

(Slight Spoilers) A man's life journey is all seen through a number of dreams and hallucinations on his trip, some 400 miles, to the town of Lund where he's to receive a lifetime achievement award for his 50 or so years of service to his fellow man as a doctor and a professor of medicine at his alma mater the Cathedral of Lund.

Disturbed by a dream he had the night before Isak Borg decides to take a ride by car, not plane, to Lund for a ceremony thats to be in his honor for his work as a man of medicine. Isak's maid for some 40 years Agda is very upset with her boss' and good friends decision and decides to stay at home, she'll eventually show up at the ceremony, feeling that the old man has somehow lost control of his senses. It turns out that the long car trip together with his daughter-in-law Marianne was one of the best decision that he made in his long life, Isak is 78 years old. The trip that Isak takes will bring back past memories that he so desperately tried to hide from himself. That past will in effect make him not only a better person but bring back the feeling of humanity that he lost not only for himself over these long and empty years. Not only for Isak but for those close to him whom he more or less also lost contact with. Isak,in both his dreams and memories, is seen as a man who is unable to show any real feelings for those around and close to him in the fear of either being rejected as well as showing himself to be hurt by their negative responses.

This defect in Isak personality has cost him the love of his life Sara when he was a young man who rejected him for his handsome and openly aggressive older brother Sigfried. We also see that Isak's marriage to his wife, who had long since passed away, Karin was anything but happy with her disgusted with his inability to show her any real feelings and emotions as a husband. Were also shown, in one of Isak's dreams, that she had an affair with another man Ake Fridell, who was anything but passive with her like her husband Isak was, some 40 years ago behind his back. That may have possibly resulted in the birth of his only child his son, who's also a doctor, Evald Marriane's husband.

Seeing his 96 year-old mother on his way to Lund we see in her the same human defect that he has in that all of her ten children, who with the exception of Isak are now deceased, never bothered to visit her in her old age. The only time that they had anything to do with her was when they wanted money from the old lady. This coldness and inability to have any attachment to her children is shown not only in both Isak and his mother but in his son Evald who's so disgusted with life and what it had to offer him, like a beautiful and caring wife like Marianne. Evald threatened to walk out on Marianne when after he found out of her being pregnant, I guess by him, she refused his demand of her getting an abortion.

Isak is helped on his long trip to Lund not only by Marianne but a number of people they meet and in some cases give a ride along the way. This included a young girl and two of her friend going on a trip to Italy ironically named Sara, a virtual twin of the Sara that he loved and lost as a young man. Later Sara together with Anders and Victor who later as a singing group serenade a surprised and grateful, to the point of tears, Isak after he received his award. Meeting among others along the way to far flung Lund a bickering couple Mr. & Mrs. Alman, who almost had Isak and his passengers killed in a head-on car crash. Isak also met a gas station attendant, Henrik, who was so impressed and grateful by what he did for him and his wife in the past , delivered their first child, that he refused to get paid for filling up Isak's gas-tank.

By the time Isak got to Lund and received his lifetime achievement award to the attendance and cheering of the entire town he not only realized all the good that he did as a man of medicine all these years but also all the hurt that he gave to others, if unintentional. With the little time that he has left, Isak was to pass away three years later at the age of 81, Isak is determined to make up for it.

Sweet touching yet simple little film about one man's journey back in time who sees how he missed out on the many wonderful things that life had to offer him by being blind to them. Now given a second chance Isak would try as best as he can to both re-live and at the same time correct his past mistakes.

In Ingmar Berman's film masterpiece Smultronstallet (or ‘Wild Strawberries' B&W, 1957), the protagonist, an elderly professor who is facing death, has to come to face to face with a long life that has failed to answer the important questions. He is old now and faced with his own inadequacy and impotence.

Bergman introduces three young people into the drama to introduce life's most important question – that of the existence of God. The old man gives them a ride. One of the young men is thinking about becoming a parson; the other argues that God doesn't exist. The old man offers no opinion to the debate. He is silent, but it is a loud silence. It's a silence that reveals an amazing dimension of loss – the loss of year upon year of not coming to terms with this all-important question.

In one of the final scenes, Bergman masterfully closes in tight on the aged face of Professor Isak Borg (played by Victor Sjostrom). In that shot, we can see the whole universe in his eyes and all of its cares in the bags beneath them. Only Bergman could have directed that scene – only him. It makes Smultronstallet one of the most important films ever made. That one scene, better than any other that I know, captures ‘loss' on celluloid for all future generations to witness. If you see it, you may find yourself having to look away.

The imagery in Smultronstallet is unparalleled, except by Bergman's own Sjunde inseglrt, Det (The Seventh Seal, 1957). Look for the handless watch, the corpse wagon, the sparseness of the first scene, the car windows turning to black – ominous signs are everywhere. Notice the clues that point to Bergman's existential philosophy (the twins write a song for a deaf man – as futile as Sisyphus' labor!) and the redemption themes (Izak pierces his hand as he looks into the window, or the line: `A doctor's first duty is to ask for forgiveness.'). Notice also the outright defiance of the divine presence that he has bred into his son (`I will not be forced to live one day longer than I want to.').

Izak is ready to die, but it seems that, for him, life is more forbidding than death. He is a living corpse, dead already in nearly every way. All of these factors conspire to create a masterwork of pure art, and one that gets richer with each repeated viewing.

The film is also cathartic in the sense that Greek drama was cathartic – a warning to the men of ancient Greece to avoid the tragic flaw that undoes the hero - and may be a fateful knock on the door of your undoing as well. Have we answered the question that Izak has not? If not, Izak is us. Look hard - very hard - at Izak. Do you like what you see? To quote a line from the film: `Is there no mercy?' `Don't ask me.' I hope that all of us will fare better when confronted with the film's important question.

The laws of life are hard to follow, they'll often lead to mournful sorrow, because there are no hard set rules, except those conjured by naive fools. So when the hands fall off the clock, the sands of time run out and stop, it's far too late to contemplate, your influence on your own fate. So as your winters fast approach, cold days of melancholic reproach, observe the worlds that could have been, compare them to the ones you've seen. It's seldom late to change your mind, free yourself from pedantic grind, to avoid worst case scenario, having scattered seed, in sterile furrow.

Victor Sjöström is outstanding as the reflective pedant who's missed the boat.

Quite simply one of the very, very best movies I have ever seen. Saw it recently for the second time, some 15 to 20 years after seeing it for the first time. First time round I was the age and stage of the traveling youngsters and saw the world through their eyes. This time I could identify more with the son and daughter-in-law characters with just as much conviction. The subtlety and sophistication of this movie defy description. It simply has to be seen to be believed. If you've never seen it, don't just sit there, go see the movie.

Bergman's films, to state the blindingly obvious, are the complete antithesis of the mindcandy (A Beautiful Mind) presented to cinemagoers in sterile multiplexes. They are almost like cinematic art forms, meditations on life and its meanings but, like many works of art, they can be obscure, challenging and demand patience to understand their underlying subtexts. Even after a 2nd viewing!

'Wild Strawberries' deals with the past, memories & regrets. It's about an inner journey about one man's subjective state of mind as he sees nostalgic memories of childhood & lost love (regret), surreal visions of denial (mortality) and unsettling weird dreams which hint at a self-awareness and truth that he cannot face in reality.

I was touched by Victor Sjostrom's performance as the elderly Prof. Isak Borg reflecting upon his life, and moved by the final emotional scenes where he achieves an inner peace. Is it slightly deceiving, a cop-out that Borg finds peace at the sight of his father and mother, 'the point before betrayal, before the messiness of life' intervenes as another reviewer stated? Well, I think it's commonly accepted that most people, as they grow older, tend to remember more from their past & childhoods. Why? Perhaps because it reminds them of a time of lost innocence.

What I found quite difficult to understand was how Isak is supposed to be this cold-hearted rationalist; Sjostrom's touching depiction makes this troubled old man quite endearing (viz the young travelling companions affection for him). Perhaps, as the opening suggests, this is a man who has shied away from intimate contact, whose coldness drove his unhappy late wife into the arms of another and who has approached life solely on his own (egotistic) terms leading to loneliness.

This is where the allusion to wild strawberries becomes significant as it is the symbol of regeneration: through his inner journey, mixing dream & reality, Borg sees the truth about his life and its emptiness. The film charts his growing intimacy with his daughter-in-law and an eventual inner peace.

The film sounds typically Scandinavian in its gloom but it is also a celebration of youth as well as a study of mortality and one man's mind. It's also not without comedy, particularly the old Prof's relationship with his housekeeper Agfa and the absurd boxing match about 'God'(Bergman parodying himself) between the two young hitchhikers.

What makes the film so intriguing is how characters/situations often reflect one another (Borg & his son, their coldness and attitude to life); these parallels extend to the point where characters even play dual roles: Bibi Andersson as Sara (the lost love & then the young vivacious traveller) and a cruel husband who later appears as the stern examiner in an unsettling dream. It's a highly complex pattern of subtle connections (stream of consciousness)that, as Borg states at the end, forms some sort of logical order. ....................................................................................................................

2021 addition. I recently heard Charles Causley's poem 'Eden Rock' which is about the older poet encountering his parents as he remembers them when young, and they beckon him to cross the drifting stream (the passage between life & death).

'Crossing is not as hard as you might think."

I'm not sure I understand all the meanings in this film, but feel the above poem illuminates the final scene of the film, perhaps with the old Professor coming to terms with his life & mortality.

Ever since I first saw Wild Strawberries, like with The Seventh Seal, Fanny and Alexander and Cries and Whispers, I was blown away by how well made and thought provoking it was(it is one of his more accessible films too). Ingmar Bergman's direction as ever is superb, there is a certain warmth to how he composes and conveys everything. Wild Strawberries looks gorgeous, it is beautifully shot with atmospheric lighting and scenery. It isn't a Bergman film either without memorable images, and Wild Strawberries has those certainly. Some people may find the symbolism of the nightmares with the handless clocks and runaway hearses somewhat overpowering, I didn't think so, I found them very haunting and even fascinating to watch. It is the more beautiful images where Wild Strawberries really drew me in, the memories of the idyllic summers are among Bergman's most beautiful and finest moments. The score fits perfectly, while the script is incredibly thought-provoking, and the story contrasts innocence with the expectancy of youth with bitterness with the regrets of old age very movingly. Victor Sjöström is on magisterial form being both frosty and vain as his character seizes the chance for redemption. Overall, one of Bergman's finest, a wonderful film in all regards. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Ingmar Bergman is the quintessential, existential filmmaker. To me, he is the black angel of cinematic death, and please, I mean that in the best way possible. He's most famous for attempting to answer the questions that all of us want answered. What is the meaning of life? What happens when we die? Is there a god? Is there a heaven or a hell? Bergman is always asking these questions in his film, and always, does he find interesting answers and hypothesis formed by these questions. He uses his actors and his framing abilities to help drive home the main idea of these films, and thus, his movies are notoriously not very hard to understand. Most importantly, he has an ability to make us understand the answers, and to help us understand ourselves. Bergman is an introspective filmmaker by definition, and because of that, his films have become so cherished and remembered for being so. In a period slightly before his heyday, no film makes a better example of his unique cinematic mission than "Wild Strawberries"

"Wild Strawberries" focuses on an elderly professor, Dr. Isak Borg, who lives by himself with his common-law wife in Stockholm. After a lifelong journey of achieving greatness in himself and academia, he has been invited to Lund University to receive an honorary degree. He gets in a car with his daughter-in-law, Marianne, and together they travel to Lund. Through the travel, Isak is haunted by his own thoughts and dreams that have accumulated after years of isolation and reflection. At the not-so-ripe age of 78, Isak want's to understand what led him to this strange point of his life, where he went wrong, and what on Earth will happen next? He is remembered of the place of his childhood, where the wild strawberries grew. A time when he romanced his young, beautiful cousin, Sara, before being stolen from him by his older, arrogant brother Sigfrid. Before going on the trip, he has a vivid, terrible nightmare of being old, as a dead body follows him through a city street and a hearse crashed in front of him, revealing a clone of himself in a casket. Through the ways of the trip, and through the hitchhikers he meets along the way, his mind keeps racing and the dreams of his past and future keep following him. The journey becomes so strenuous and visceral to his memory, that by the time he arrives at his destination, his psyche is entirely cleansed, and he is greeted with the memory of a peaceful fishing trip with his family.

What Bergman is doing here is experimenting with time and space, through memory and reflection. His style reminds me of "Hiroshima Mon-Amour", considering that there is no clear pattern between what happens in the moment, and what happens in the past. Bergman is giving us a deconstructed narrative that in essence, gives us a clear indication of the kind of crisis that Isak is going through. As a man that has been through everything and nothing, his mind is racing, much like our own, of scenarios that did and didn't happen. This is quite an interesting introspective device that Bergman uses. He is making movies about people, the exact way that we think about each other. Bergman typically uses characters that wrestle with their own identity, and bravely ask questions that might have no answers. Thus, it doesn't take much interpretation of the audience to understand, because all of the questions and answers are presented on screen.

"Wild Strawberries" is a very entertaining, beautiful piece to that effect. The entire time, I was haunted, confused, and rightfully engaged with Isak and the characters he meets. My favorite scene of the film is the nightmare at the beginning. The surrealism of this section is frightening and so wonderfully imaginative. I loved the giant eyeglasses that appeared over his head, as well as the dead man with no face that appears to him in the middle of the street. Bergman was really experimenting with some wonderful visual concepts, especially for the 1950's. I thought the acting, was also very real and interesting to watch. Bergman was always known to be a director for actors, and in this film especially, he makes his actors play these characters as real people, not merely as stage personas. What we get because of that is a real, frightening portrayal of an older man, and seeing that alone is fascinating.

In conclusion, "Wild Strawberries" is a dark and interesting classic about the struggle of understanding our fate, and without question, it should regarded as one of the great films of Ingmar Bergman.