When it comes to Ingmar Bergman, I find him to be a mixed bag. I love The Seventh Seal, perhaps because it has that fantasy element, but couldn’t get into Fanny and Alexander and Cries & Whispers. Admittedly, those are the only Bergman films I’d seen. I’d always heard that Wild Strawberries was good and one of his more accessible films. Having finally watched it I can say that I did like it, but don’t know if I’d revisit it.
The film follows 78-year-old retired doctor Isak Borg. He is going to be honored by his alma mater and has to travel from him home to the University several hours away. He decides to drive there himself. His daughter-in-law, Marianne, has been staying with him and asks to come along, since she and her husband, his son, live in that town. Isak and Marianne don’t seem to like each other very much. Isak is a little cold and opinionated while Marianne is resentful of him and believes he is too hard on his son and emotionally cut off. As they travel Isak decides to make a stop at a beach house his family had when he was young. This is where the wild strawberries grow that gives us the title. While there is recalls the cast of characters that were his family and the cousin he had a crush on, but who ended up marrying his brother. They also meet three hitchhiking young people who he invites along for the ride. The young woman in the group reminds him very much of his childhood crush, she’s also played by the same actress. Then they come across a bickering married couple whose car has broken down and give them a ride. Only to drop them off down the road due to all their nagging at each other. Before reaching the school Isak stops to visit his 97-year-old mother, who is still a bit cold and judgmental of her son. After the road trip adventure and receiving his honor, we get the impression that he has decided to not miss out on the life he has left to live and will be a more open and happier person moving forward.
There isn’t really a plot, per se, it’s more a character study of Dr. Borg and his gradual realization that he has not been the kindest person to those he cares about and would be happier himself if he opened up and enjoyed life. Toward the beginning of the film in his conversation with his Daughter-in-Law, he comes off a pretty sexist and selfish. But he finds his remarks to be humorous. Over the course of the film, he meets people who personify what he would like to be and what he is, making him confront his behavior and we see him slowly come around to being a happier person. A little like Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, but less mean at the beginning and no ghosts. There are also a couple of dream sequences. The first I liked very much. Both are a bit Surreal, the first one being the weirdest, and my favorite. I imagine that this film had to have had some impact on a young David Lynch when he saw it. Especially that first dream sequence. In the dream Isak is walking through an empty town. He then notices a clock with no arms. Then looks at his watch. It also has no arms. Then he witnesses and accident and it turns out the victim is him. The second dream is his dream of doubts. In it he is taking his physicians exam but doesn’t know any of the answers. All while being watched by everyone who had been riding in his car. It’s weird but not as good as that first one. I can’t find any mention of Lynch talking about Wild Strawberries, but Stanley Kubrick considered it one his favorites.
Isak Borg was played by Victor Sjostrom, who was a hero of Bergmans, as a star of silent films. Bergman said that if they could not get Sjostrom then there would be no film. I enjoyed Sjostrom’s performance. Especially his light moments. He knew how to deliver line with a twinkle in his eye and with cold stillness. He understood the humor Bergman put in the script. His expressions when the annoying couple is bickering in the care are priceless and the look on his face each time, he sees himself in each of them. Bergman was right to fight to cast him. I also have to give credit to Ingmar Bergman for a script, aside from the dream sequences, that sounded like the way people really talk. The conversations are alive with humor and darkness making them very relatable. Even though the flashbacks take place during the turn of the century all the characters were very relatable. Even today. While I don’t think I’ll revisit this one like I do The Seventh Seal, I will be much more likely to check out more Ingmar Bergman films in the future.
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