#0000A/#139: BERGMAN, Ingmar: Wild Strawberries (1957)
BERGMAN, Ingmar (Sweden)
Brilliant essay. Near the end, Le Fanu writes:
Introduction
Wild Strawberries [1957]
Spine #0000A/Spine #139
Blu-ray/DVD
2002 synopsis
The film that catapulted Bergman to the forefront of world cinema is the director's richest, most humane movie. Traveling to receive an honorary degree, Professor Isak Borg (masterfully played by the veteran Swedish director Victor Sjöström), is forced to face his past, come to terms with his faults, and accept the inevitability of his approaching death. Through flashbacks and fantasies, dreams and nightmares, Wild Strawberries captures a startling voyage of self-discovery and renewed belief in mankind.
2018 synopsis
Traveling to accept an honorary degree, Professor Isak Borg — masterfully played by the veteran filmmaker and actor Victor Sjöström — is forced to face his past, come to terms with his faults, and make peace with the inevitability of his approaching death. Through flashbacks and fantasies, dreams and nightmares, Wild Strawberries dramatizes one man’s remarkable voyage of self-discovery. This richly human masterpiece, full of iconic imagery, is one of Bergman’s most widely acclaimed and influential films.
91 minutes
Black & White
Black & White
Monaural
in Swedish
1:33:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2002/2018
Director/Writer
Ingmar Bergman is one of cinema's greatest directors. He made more than 60 films — many are considered masterpieces, from all different phases of his long career.
Other Bergman films in the Collection:
The Film
“ . . . we could talk about power
about Jesus and Hitler and Howard Hughes
or Charlie Chaplin’s movies
or Bergman’s nordic blues ...”
(Joni Mitchell — “Talk to Me” from Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter [1977])
Blues, indeed. For this is a sorrowful film, despite occasional bursts of optimism. It is also a stunningly beautiful film — indescribably beautiful, touching and memorable.
There is no need here for any exposition of plot other than the above synopses. What follows is a list of the filmic devices Bergman uses throughout the film:
- 0:00:50. Narration. Isak Borg (Victor Sjöström) reminisces about his lonely, but satisfying life. [note the initials: I.B.; Isak Borg literally means “ice palace.”]
- 0:01:58. Agda (Jullan Kindahl) interrupts him to announce dinner.
- 0:02:05. Narration continues.
- 0:02:41. FTB. Credits. Erik Nordgren’s score begins. Lush, sentimental and ultimately lightly tragic.
- 0:03:52. Iris up. Very subtle. Narration continues over Dream #1. Note cinematographer Gunnar Fischer’s bright lighting.
- 0:06:44. Note the carriage, an obvious homage to Sjöström’s 1921 film, The Phantom Carriage (Criterion Spine #579). Disorienting ECUs as the dream ends.
- 0:12:34. After Isak and Agda argue, dissolve to breakfast scene.
- 0:13:30. Marianne (Ingrid Thulin) asks if she can come along for the ride. Dissolve. High-angle view of the car.
- 0:13:48. Dissolve. The car moving along the highway. As Isak and Marianne talk, Bergman interrupts the excellent rear-projection with several interesting cuts; an ECU of the highway pavement and an upwards shot of trees.
- 0:18:03. Dissolve. The car pulls off the highway onto a side road.
- 0:18:16. Dissolve. They get out of the car in a long shot.
- 0:18:31. Dissolve. Closer.
- 0:18:41. Dissolve. Closer still.
- 0:19:39. Narration. As he sits down in the wild strawberry patch.
- 0:20:09. Very subtle Dissolve, as the country house changes from old to the new of his childhood.
- 0:20:20. Three quick Dissolves to trees shaking in the breeze;
- 0:20:24. Dissolve to clouds;
- 0:20:26. Dissolve to the strawberry patch; and
- 0:20:31. Dissolve to Sara (Bibi Andersson) picking strawberries.
- 0:21.12. Sara doesn’t seem to hear old Isak talking to her; Sigfrid (Per Sjöstrand), Isak’ brother, appears, which presents Sara with the opportunity to introduce us her family: Uncle Aron (Yngve Nordwall) and the rest of the Borgs: Sigbritt (Gio Petré), Charlotta (Gunnel Lindblom), Angelica (Maud Hansson), Anna (Eva Norée), and the twins, Kristina (Lena Bergman, Ingmar’s daughter IRL) and Brigitta (Monica Ehrling).
- 0:25:02. Dissolve. Old Isak enters the house.
- 0:25:45. Aunt Olga (Sif Ruud) claps everyone to attention.
- 0:26:04. and tells Benjamin (Göran Lundquist) told to go wash his hands.
- 0:26:20. Hagbart (Per Skogsberg, his sole IMDb credit) is told to pass the bread.
- 0:31:17. Narration. Isak remembers these old, tender times, but is interrupted by a woman’s voice in the present: Sara #2 (also played by Andersson).
- 0:32:44. Dissolve as they make their way back to the car. We meet Anders (Folke Sundquist) and Viktor (Björn Bjelfvenstam).
- 0:33:17. Dissolve to car interior.
- 0:34:34. Dissolve to road view, as the Volkswagen comes into view. The accident is shown in very quick cuts. We meet Sten (Gunnar Sjöberg) and Berit Alman (Gunnel Broström).
- 0:37:24. Dissolve to car interior, with the Almans now along for the ride.
- 0:40:38. Narration. After the Almans are kicked out, Isak remembers the area; his 96-year-old mother lives nearby.
- 0:40:54. Henrik (Max von Sydow, in a minor role here) and Eva Åkerman (Ann-Marie Wiman) are the gas station attendants who remember Isak fondly. They refuse to let him pay for the gasoline.
- 0:43:20. Dissolve to a location; high-angle crane shot of a beautiful lake, tilting down to reveal the five characters having lunch.
- 0:43:27. Narration. Isak describes his good mood.
- 0:46:22. Dissolve to Isak’s mother’s house.
- 0:46:32. Dissolve as they enter the mother (Naima Wifstrand)’s room. (Wifstrand was actually 10 years younger than Sjöström!)
- 0:51:40. Dissolve to Sara, with her pipe, as Marianne and Isak exit the mother’s house.
- 0:53:29. Series of Dissolves to the calm lake, with the sound of thunder;
- 0:53:33. to car interior, looking out the windshield at the rain;
- 0:53:39. to the three youngsters in the back. Anders is playing his guitar.
- 0:53:48. Narration. Isak is sleepy in the passenger seat, and
- 0:54:11. Dream #2. Four consecutive Dissolves. Birds flying and screeching (twice); overturned basket of strawberries; and Isak and Sara speaking to each other in the strawberry patch. Nordgren’s score is particularly creepy here with the sounds of the squawking birds mixed in;
- 0:57:51. Dissolve. Isak walks along and stands at the window as he listens to Sarah plays the fugue from Bach’s Prelude and Fugue, BWV 853, as Sigfrid kisses her. The piano music stops and Nordgren takes up the theme on a solo cello.
- 0:59:11. Dissolve. Still looking into the window (a frame within the frame!), the scene changes to reflections of clouds, and /cut / a full moon peeking out from behind the trees. Stunning imagery. Isak is looking up at the moon and then moves along and peers into another window. He knocks insistently, and the puts his hand on a nail which is sticking out. Stigmata. The Examiner (played by Gunnar Sjöberg, who also played Sten Alman) appears at the window, and invites Isak in for his “examination.” Poor confused Isak then has to diagnose a patient (Gunnel Broström, who also played Berit Alman) who seems dead, but is not. The Examiner takes him outside to witness the encounter from the past where his deceased wife, Karin (Gertrud Fridh) comes to life and has a romantic fling with Åke Fridell, as Isak looks on sadly.
- 1:11:25. Dissolve as the dream ends. Some important dialogue here from Isak:
“ ... I’ve had the weirdest dreams. It’s comical ... as if I must tell myself something I won’t listen to when I’m awake ... that I’m dead, although I’m alive.”
- 1:12:47. Marianne’s Flashback. Her husband, Evald (Gunnar Björnstrand) appears, sitting in the passenger seat where Isak was a moment ago. When the flashback ends, Isak is back in place of Evald.
- 1:18:42. A wonderful FTB here as Isak thinks about his life.
- 1:18:48. Dissolve to the Lund cathedral.
- 1:18:59. Dissolve to Agda greeting the arriving party, hurrying Isak along.
- 1:20:53. Dissolve to cathedral, trumpets sounding.
- 1:21:25. Dissolve to cathedral, interior.
- 1:22:28. Narration. Bergman seems to use Isak here to describe the feelings of putting all of these things into a cinematic framework, i.e., a film!
“During the ceremony, my thoughts strayed to the day’s events. And it was then I decided to write down what had happened. In this jumble of events, I seemed to discern an extraordinary logic.”
Nordgren again uses a solo cello to underscore all this solemnity!
- 1:23:19. Dissolve. Agda is giving Isak some sleeping pills.
- 1:27:12. Dissolve. Isak is lying in bed. Evald and Marianne come in and talk with him. Tenderness ...
- 1:29:22. Narration. It feels like Bergman is speaking here:
“If I have been worried or sad during the day, it often calms me to recall childhood memories. I did so on this evening too.”
- 1:29:38. Dissolve. [Isak remembering]: The whole Borg family exits the house. Sara approaches old Isak.
- 1:30:20. Dissolve. Medium shot, Sara and Isak walking alongside each other.
- 1:30:28. Dissolve. Sara holds Isak’s hand; and points / cut / we see his father and mother sitting by the bank of the lake — a serene, peaceful scene. [Nordgren uses gentle harp arpeggios here, as birds are chirping.] The camera moves in tight on Isak, a bittersweet kind of happiness on his face ...
- 1:31:08. A long, slow Dissolve. Isak is in bed, smiling.
- 1:31:25. FTB. Credits.
All the filmic transitions are either straight, unnoticeable cuts or soft dissolves. The final slow dissolve is very effective.
Film Rating (0-60):
57
The Extras#0000A:
The Book
Where is the Friend I Seek? by Mark Le Fanu.
Brilliant essay. Near the end, Le Fanu writes:
“Wild Strawberries possesses the kind of unflashy lyricism that is the property of many of the best films of the fifties — one might cite such near-contemporary works as Sansho the Bailiff (Kenji Mizoguchi) [Spine #386], Pather Panchali (Satyajit Ray) [Spine #783] or Ashes and Diamonds (Andrzej Wajda) [Spine #285]: films of the time that are not quite avant-garde but cannot really be said to suffer from that fact.”
Introduction
by Bergman (2003). He discusses it a bit, then raises his arm to signal the projectionist to run the film.
Behind-the-scenes footage (17 minutes)
Very nice 16mm black & white and color!
#139:
The Booklet
Three-page foldout, featuring a short essay by Peter Cowie.
Beautiful, short essay.
Stills gallery
#0000A/#139:
Commentary
by Cowie (2001). Cowie is always excellent. One of those commentaries that makes the re-watch more satisfying than most.
Documentary
by Cowie (2001). Cowie is always excellent. One of those commentaries that makes the re-watch more satisfying than most.
Documentary
By filmmaker and author Jörn Donner: Ingmar Bergman on Life and Work (90 minutes).
Bergman opens up to Donner. One comes away with the impression that Bergman cared little for superficial things — even his own wives and families ... his work was all-consuming and has little use for awards ceremonies, or even people for that matter. There is a sadness that permeates this exquisitely penetrating interview.
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