Wild Strawberries

1957
8.1| 1h31m| en| More Info
Released: 26 December 1957 Released
Producted By: SF Studios
Country: Sweden
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
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Synopsis

Crotchety retired doctor Isak Borg travels from Stockholm to Lund, Sweden, with his pregnant and unhappy daughter-in-law, Marianne, in order to receive an honorary degree from his alma mater. Along the way, they encounter a series of hitchhikers, each of whom causes the elderly doctor to muse upon the pleasures and failures of his own life. These include the vivacious young Sara, a dead ringer for the doctor's own first love.

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njp-76097 I think Dr. Borg's car deserves a credit too. It seems to be a Packard 1937. Thank you.
thinbeach Wild Strawberries is at once a road trip film, and a trip down memory lane. 78 year old Isak journeys through idyllic forestry on the way to a ceremony that celebrates his life achievements as a doctor. He travels with his daughter-in-law, picks up a young trio hitching their way to Italy, and briefly, an arguing couple who they were involved in a car accident with. He recalls past memories of his younger days, and has bad dreams. It plays out less like narrative fiction than a hodge-podge diary entry, things occurring spontaneously. This means no one mood is ever built upon in layers, rather it ebbs and flows almost without structure. There are themes of death hanging over the film, unanswered questions regarding God and science, bickering and co-operation between men and women, the contrast of expression between young and old, and an appreciation for the beauty of life and the honour of career based achievements, contrasted with incidents recalling great sadness, and a failure in personal relationships - from lost loves, cheating partners, and forgotten family. Although Isak appears quite endearing and the film takes a sympathetic viewpoint, he is nonetheless faulted for his past cold aloofness which caused the women to cheat, yet the women and the partners they took up with are also faulted for their lack of principal. And when Isak attempts a greater warmth towards his maid in the final scene, she rebuffs him, long set in her own manner. In this fashion Bergman veers away from giving cliché or easy answers, and manages to capture the complexities of human relationships.Aside from hints that Isak's remaining days are limited, there is not a great deal of tension in the film, meaning it is more poem than a blockbuster. Yet it manages to maintain interest due to the emotional sway, and all encompassing themes - which are ever present, yet never preached. It is a quest for meaning, where the filmmakers wish not to give the answer, but capture the journey - for which a road trip proves a suitable metaphoric vehicle. The freewheeling nature of it helps prevent the weighty themes from becoming too morbid, and feels just as though they would on any road trip spent staring out the window. Vivid and distant at the same time.
federovsky The first time I saw this many years ago I wasn't particularly impressed. I couldn't see how it appeared on so many 'best films of all time' lists. I still can't. There's really very little here. An old man has a few wistful memories. Uh huh...and...? The main problem is that the old man is simply not worthy of interest. He has had a distinguished career as a doctor and is on the way to pick up an honorary degree. Are we supposed to sympathise with such a successful life? And, quite amazingly, his mother is still alive, a sprightly woman in her nineties. Life and death doesn't really come into context until both your parents have died (so I found), so the mere existence of this old woman undermines much of the poignancy the old man is supposed to be feeling. This women is even older - let's hear about her instead.Then we have the white-flannelled folk in the dacha about whom we learn more than we want to know but not enough to make them interesting. None of it was adding meaning or emotion or even an introspective feeling about life and death.There isn't even any sense that the old man is going to die any time soon - he looks good for another ten years or so. Nor does he come to any startling Scrooge-like conclusions of his own past. He is supposed to be crabby and antisocial but he doesn't appear that way at all - another thing that undermines the film's own intentions.And Bergman is guilty of using too-obvious metaphors again: the three young hitchhikers are so clearly intended to represent youthful devil-may-care that they are impossibly idealised and behave like no human beings you will ever come across in your lifetime - no more than cartoons.At best, it's a decent little chamber piece, but it's intellectually impoverished and misses it's own targets by a mile. I can't see anything great about it. Sorry Ingmar.
Kyle Perez "Wild Strawberries", or Smultronstället (the original title), was one of two absolute gems Ingmar Bergman wrote in 1957, the other being The Seventh Seal. In both films, we witness the journey of a disillusioned man in pursuit of life satisfaction, an explanation to their existence. We are then introduced to a series of flashbacks, which will reveal a great deal about how they have been shaped into who they have become.The story is of aging professor Dr. Isak Borg and his feelings of remorse near the end of his life compelling him to seek out answers or at least some type of meaning. "I hate resentful people" he ironically mutters, though we are given the brief impression that it is all people he despises. As he travels to Lund with his disarmingly candid daughter-in-law, Marianne, to accept an honorary degree, he will encounter both people and places that will elicit memories, both the good and the bad, of his past, as we watch his feelings of melancholy gradually morph into the affirmation of life of which he was always searching for.So much of "Wild Strawberries" is, at its core, extraordinarily nuanced, with each new experience revealing another layer of our grouchy protagonist. "The place where wild strawberries grow", he gaily reminisces about at the film's beginning. I like to believe that, like 'Rosebud' in Citizen Kane, the wild strawberries serve as an emblem of the innocence in our youth, a memory that evokes hope and sheer joy, parts of life that many people will, as they grow older, seek to regain in some form or another.This film had me in a complete lost for words. It is able to connect with you on such an emotional, profoundly deep level beyond explanation. The cinematography is done with such care, with each detail almost emerging with a consciousness of its own. There is so much life in every frame, whether it being in the forest, the wild strawberry field. The acting and direction is subtle and true-to-life, as we feel that we are witnessing the telling of a genuine life story rather than observing a film. It is, in simplest terms, pure cinematic art.