This is a film school movie; one of the greatest ever made, or so say the experts. I was told to read the play (The English title is "Wild Strawberries") in a lit class in college and then we were given the chance to see the film. I watched both showings and it changed my thinking about what makes a good movie. This was in the stone age back in '75. I was a wild boy about campus who's taste for films was more action/adventure, western and mystery/suspense. The funny thing about Wild Strawberries is there's a little of all those genre's in it (if you understand what a cowboy Bergmann was at this point in his career).
This is the story about the late-life introspection of an elderly physician. It really appears on the surface to be about as dull a concept for a film as one could ever want to suffer through. But this is a story about facing reality, and reality is rarely dull. The plot moves seamlessly through many phases, but much of it involves a road trip through the Swedish countryside.
I recently bought a DVD of the 70's cult car-chase flick "Vanishing Point"; I hadn't seen it since the drive-in in my college years. I also own a Criterion Collection copy of Wild Strawberries and I've watched both recently. I realized that Wild Strawberries is a car chase flick as well. But Bergmann's Isak is not running from war weariness but from a life of nihilism cloaked in the old-world respectability of a family doctor. The chase is his lifetime of self-certainty, agnosticism and increasing isolation finally catching up to him. He realizes that he has been a walking dead man for much of his life (something he partially inherited from his mother). Getting too far into the details may fall into the category of being a spoiler, although there is enough complexity in this plot to keep literature classes struggling for an A for a long time (note: the stage play script is exactly the same as the screenplay script).
There are a number of notable scenes in the movie that make this day a turning point in the life of the doctor. The ground-breaking dream sequences in the beginning is Hitchcock-like and terrifyingly surreal (or is Hitch being Bergmannesque?). Of great beauty is the reverie scene, where Isak relives some of his childhood while making a stop at his families' deserted summer lake house. The dialog scenes between Isak and his daughter-in-law, and later with the Almans (including another disturbing dream sequence) and with the "children" (hitchhiking college-age kids) are all filled with symbols and conversation pointing to Isak's living-dead existence.
It's interesting that Bergmann himself, at this point in his young career, was much like Isak; agnostic, distant, self-absorbed, incapable of intimacy. Yet his conclusion to Wild Strawberries is much more hopeful than what Bergmann's own life has been.
The turning point of the movie, easy to miss if you're not paying close attention, is the love-promise from the young hitchhiker Sara; a moment of incredible sweetness and innocent passion that is a regeneration, a salvation experience for Isak. Unlike Bergmann, Isak closes his eyes that night with the hope of a life of meaning, of love in service, not just service for maintaining personal dignity and image. Unlike Bergmann, Isak has a hope of seeing God when his death does arrive, and has demonstrated a new life has begun. This is Isak's Today; his day of repentance, of stopping the tortuous task of hardening his heart against the call of life, yielding in submission to love, mercy and grace.
Watch this one several times. Bergmann's troupe of actors are incredible, his cinematography is spartan and overwhelmingly effective; his location shooting in the beautiful Swedish summer is fascinatingly effective in giving a foreign yet "down-home" feeling that's almost Mayberry like, if that's not too extreme a comparison.
This movie shows the dichotomy of living for self versus living for the service of others. Isak thought he lived to serve but discovered that service is only of meaning to the server if it is from the heart. It is ultimately a hopeful picture that we can all learn from if we watch with an open heart. Otherwise, we see the wasted tragedy of existential living with no greater good than one's own dead image. Does YOUR watch have any hands?
This is the story about the late-life introspection of an elderly physician. It really appears on the surface to be about as dull a concept for a film as one could ever want to suffer through. But this is a story about facing reality, and reality is rarely dull. The plot moves seamlessly through many phases, but much of it involves a road trip through the Swedish countryside.
I recently bought a DVD of the 70's cult car-chase flick "Vanishing Point"; I hadn't seen it since the drive-in in my college years. I also own a Criterion Collection copy of Wild Strawberries and I've watched both recently. I realized that Wild Strawberries is a car chase flick as well. But Bergmann's Isak is not running from war weariness but from a life of nihilism cloaked in the old-world respectability of a family doctor. The chase is his lifetime of self-certainty, agnosticism and increasing isolation finally catching up to him. He realizes that he has been a walking dead man for much of his life (something he partially inherited from his mother). Getting too far into the details may fall into the category of being a spoiler, although there is enough complexity in this plot to keep literature classes struggling for an A for a long time (note: the stage play script is exactly the same as the screenplay script).
There are a number of notable scenes in the movie that make this day a turning point in the life of the doctor. The ground-breaking dream sequences in the beginning is Hitchcock-like and terrifyingly surreal (or is Hitch being Bergmannesque?). Of great beauty is the reverie scene, where Isak relives some of his childhood while making a stop at his families' deserted summer lake house. The dialog scenes between Isak and his daughter-in-law, and later with the Almans (including another disturbing dream sequence) and with the "children" (hitchhiking college-age kids) are all filled with symbols and conversation pointing to Isak's living-dead existence.
It's interesting that Bergmann himself, at this point in his young career, was much like Isak; agnostic, distant, self-absorbed, incapable of intimacy. Yet his conclusion to Wild Strawberries is much more hopeful than what Bergmann's own life has been.
The turning point of the movie, easy to miss if you're not paying close attention, is the love-promise from the young hitchhiker Sara; a moment of incredible sweetness and innocent passion that is a regeneration, a salvation experience for Isak. Unlike Bergmann, Isak closes his eyes that night with the hope of a life of meaning, of love in service, not just service for maintaining personal dignity and image. Unlike Bergmann, Isak has a hope of seeing God when his death does arrive, and has demonstrated a new life has begun. This is Isak's Today; his day of repentance, of stopping the tortuous task of hardening his heart against the call of life, yielding in submission to love, mercy and grace.
Watch this one several times. Bergmann's troupe of actors are incredible, his cinematography is spartan and overwhelmingly effective; his location shooting in the beautiful Swedish summer is fascinatingly effective in giving a foreign yet "down-home" feeling that's almost Mayberry like, if that's not too extreme a comparison.
This movie shows the dichotomy of living for self versus living for the service of others. Isak thought he lived to serve but discovered that service is only of meaning to the server if it is from the heart. It is ultimately a hopeful picture that we can all learn from if we watch with an open heart. Otherwise, we see the wasted tragedy of existential living with no greater good than one's own dead image. Does YOUR watch have any hands?