Cast:
Victor Sjöström (Professor Isak Borg), Bibi Andersson (Sara - Isak's cousin / Hitchhiker), Ingrid Thulin (Marianne Borg), Gunnar Björnstrand (Evald Borg), Jullan Kindahl (Agda, Isak's housekeeper), Folke Sundquist (Anders, hitchhiker), Björn Bjelfvenstam (Viktor, hitchhiker), Naima Wifstrand (Isak's Mother), Gunnel Broström (Berit Alman), Gunnar Sjöberg (Sten Alman / The Examiner), Max von Sydow (Henrik Åkerman), Ann-Marie Wiman (Eva Åkerman), and Gertrud Fridh (Karin Borg) Written and Directed by Ingmar Bergman (#777 - The Seventh Seal and #1427 - Hour of the Wolf)
Review:
"One thread goes through the story in multiple variations: shortcomings, poverty, emptiness, and the absence of grace. I didn't know then, and even today I don't know fully, how through Wild Strawberries I was pleading with my parents: see me, understand me, and - if possible - forgive me."
Okay, so sometimes you pick a film because of its reputation. I had a feeling that it was about time again to return to watching an Ingmar Bergman film, particularly one that happens to involve the last performance of another noted name and happens to be a really, really well known film. Bergman wrote the film while spending time in the Karolinska Hospital for problems related to the stomach and general stress. One can only imagine the qualities that come out in writing when also dealing with divorce and shaky relationships with their parents. Bergman stated different things upon the ideas that formed his film, with one book of interviews (Bergman on Bergman, released in the 1970s) relating a detail about a sudden impulse to visit his grandmother's house and experience the idea of going back into his childhood...only for him to say in a later book (Images: my life in film, written by Bergman in 1994) that in reality, he is "forever living in my childhood...living permanently in my dream, from which I make brief forays into reality." At any rate, being released on the cusp of films such as Smiles of a Summer Night (1955) and The Seventh Seal (1957) heightened the attention given to this film, which is considered by some to be one of his most moving films. As you might expect, this was the swan song performance for its lead actor in Sjöström, who as you may remember was an acclaimed director in his native Sweden (Bergman loved The Phantom Carriage (1921) enough to see it at least once every summer and noted its influence on his own work) before he reverted back to acting on a fulltime basis, particularly within the theatre. Regardless of how he came to be in this film (whether as one that came to mind from the screenplay or on the suggestion of a producer), he was on the cusp of turning 78 with this film, which was actually his second collaboration with Bergman, who directed him with To Joy [Till glädje] (1950). Bergman had his doubts about the reliability of Sjöström when it came to his age, but things eventually went well for all involved (interestingly, Bergman's parents seemed to enjoy what they saw when it came to Sjöström, because a letter exists detailing the gratitutde sent by his father about his career). Sjöström died at the age of 80 three years after the release of this film.
What can only really say about certain films of world cinema that other people of better qualification can say? Well, the only words worth saying are the ones you come up with after seeing it for yourself, particularly when it comes to interpretations and what you find from certain imagery. Right and wrong only matter when it comes to watching it in the most comfortable setting possible, not really so much about interpretation (unless you think all films are part of some sort of deep lobbying group, of course). To me, this is a basically a two-sided road movie, since we are talking about a film detailing the road of a man's life and the road to get to an actual location with a group of folks on the road. The road involves contradictions and complications because that is how life goes for people, regret or no regret. Being stuck with the images and memories of the once-lived moments is far more interesting than being stuck in the same ways of the "because it is". Undeniably, Sjöström is the best actor in the film, one with such a commanding presence that runs the gamut of the qualities that come through a great flawed man in contradictions that come in icy coldness (well, the name is a pun, but that doesn't make it corny), one that has to reckon with who they are and what that has created for themselves in the people around them and that in the end, all things must pass. Andersson makes a useful double role of a sweetheart of the would-be past and a hitchhiker sweetheart with their own suitors that is warm and obviously useful comfort to remember in the long run (judging by that final sequence that sees the pilgrimage reach its end). Thulin and her own part to play in this pilgrimage is one of persistence, one of moving confidence in who they are and how that strikes different when matched with Sjöström in nature and in practice that makes the eventual ending all the more useful. What seems obvious for some viewers in looking upon symbolism may seem elusive for others, but as long as one gets an actual feeling emanating from these films of existential questioning, they are on the right track, because the answers that matter are ones that are found in clarity, much in the same way that peace is found only through looking inward rather than running from affirming one's existence. The journey to Lund is not really one for ceremony but instead one for meaning beyond simple ceremonies. There is more to journeys beyond the milage and that involves people beyond words. In short: wild strawberry patches of one's youth in one thing, having the peace of mind to reach for closure is another. The man or woman with a long life to live will have one full of memories to look back upon in pain and pleasure, but the thing that matters most is the fact that we have the choice to move where we want to go with it in affirmation. All things will pass and we have the choice to go where we want to go on the multi-sided road.
Overall, I give it 10 out of 10 stars.
Next time: Germany and 1924.
