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Wild Strawberries (1957)

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From Time Out Film Guide

One of Bergman's warmest, and therefore finest films, this concerns an elderly academic - grouchy, introverted, dried up emotionally - who makes a journey to collect a university award, and en route relives his past by means of dreams, imagination, and encounters with others. It's an occasionally over-symbolic work (most notably in the opening nightmare sequence), but it's filled with richly observed characters and a real feeling for the joys of nature and youth. And Sjöström - himself a celebrated director, best known for his silent work (which included the Hollywood masterpiece The Wind) - gives an astonishingly moving performance as the aged professor. As Bergman himself wrote of his performance in the closing moments: 'His face shone with secretive light, as if reflected from another reality...It was like a miracle'.

Author: GA

Time Out Film Guide

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User reviews of this film

Technoguy said...

Posted on Mar 18 2008 21:28 Bergman makes films with the depth and subtlety that a writer uses in writing great novels.This film is a lodestone in it's ability to set the template for all future films.There is a nightmare sequence that is truly astonishing,clocks without hands,people without faces,a coffin revealing himself that has fallen off a carriage.The power of the leading actor(Sjostrom) who himself was one of Sweden's great directors to convey changes of emotion from sadness to joy.The road trip he takes is both external by car to Lund to collect an honorary doctorate for his lifetime acheivements.Its also internal,through dreams and memories into the wild strawberry-patch of the unconscious.With his daughter-in-law Marianne(Tulin) he explores the highways and the by-ways,picking up hitch-hikers enroute,having a minor accident with a squabbling married couple.His dedication to his science has cut him off from the spontaneous springs of innocence,love and happiness.The symbolism is not heavy-handed,it meshes beautifully in with the past,the present and the future of his life.Bibi Andersson plays both his early love Sara,who he loses through his coldness and one of the young hitch-hikers on their way to Italy.The black and white filmography is a superbly executed achieve-
ment.The dialogue has Dickensian power,the narrative is like a beautiful jewel that glimmers,the dream sequences are expressive and surrealistic.All the characters are working, from his cold dowager mother to Von Sydow as a garage mechanic.

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