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Wild Strawberries | Year: 1959 Country: Sweden Directed: - Ingmar Bergman Actors/Actresses: - Bibi Andersson - Victor Sjöström A big part of cinema history This is something one who likes Bergman's films --or great films in general-- mustn't leave unwatched. Wild Strawberries cannot be mistaken for anything else than a product of Ingmar Bergman, but isn't a run-of-the-mill Bergman movie. It's a gentle but deep film with unusually few "horror" scenes; psychologically it can be horrifying, but it never turns uninteresting or unconvincing. Victor Sjöström was 79 years old during the filming of Wild Strawberries (early July through late August 1957), and does a great and very convincing job as 73 year old Isak Borg - a pedantic old professor who, on a car-ride --on his way to the University of Lund to receive his jubilee degree-- stops at his childhood home, among other places, and flashed back at his youth. Gunnar Fischer's black and white cinematography is definitely part of what makes this journey mesmerizing. The movie has won 11 awards.<BR>Film historian Peter Cowie's commentary gives very interesting information, and an insightful and professionally presented analysis of the film. The disc also features a 90 minute documentary by Jörn Donner, which mostly consists of a 1998 interview with Bergman - this gives the disc more than 270 minutes of entertainment.<BR>Criterion presents the film with surprisingly well restored sound and picture, and anyone can watch it - this edition is region free! Ingmar Bergman that Fine Symbolist Ingmar Bergman is amazing as a filmmaker in the sense that he can create a complex movie using only three or four characters and a minimal number of ornately decorated sets. Wild Strawberries is no exception, telling the story of an aging doctor who to the city to receive an award from his university. On the way he goes through a metaphysical journey having dreams and nightmares (permeated by the ticking of clocks) that speak of the aging process, and he ventures into his son's life where he speaks to him of his failing marriage and attempts to offer him advice while at the same time opening up himself from his introverted and often unsociable ways. Throughout the film there are moving scenes that speak of the simple emotions one experiences in life: love, fear, a longing to put right a past we cannot return to. In one scene he attempts to console his daughter in law and understand what she and his son are going through while they sit in an old black car in the rain. For those of you who have enjoyed works such as The Seventh Seal and Cries and Whispers this film is certainly for you in terms of craft. But it also makes a much more accessible introduction to Bergman's work seeing as in Wild Strawberries there is much more humor accompanying the pathos than in any of those other films. It is truly a beautiful film and one that is certainly a necessity on DVD for collectors of great art. When film was an art form In this symbolic tale of an old man's journey from emotional isolation to a kind of personal renaissance, Ingmar Bergman explores in part his own past, and in doing so rewards us all with a tale of redemption and love. Victor Sjostrom, then 80 years old, stars as Professor Isak Borg whose self-indulgent cynicism has left him isolated from others. Sjostrom, whose work goes back to the very beginning of the Swedish cinema in the silent film era, both as an actor and as a director, gives a brilliant and compelling performance. All the action of the film takes place in a single day with flashbacks and dream sequences to Borg's past as Borg wakes and goes on a journey to receive a "Jubilee Doctor" degree from the University of Lund. Bergman wrote that the idea for the film came upon him when he asked the question, "What if I could suddenly walk into my childhood?" He then imagined a film "about suddenly opening a door, emerging in reality, then turning a corner and entering another period of one's existence, and all the time the past is going on, alive." Bibi Andersson plays both the Sara from Borg's childhood, the cousin he was to marry, and the hitchhiker Sara who with her two companions befriends him with warmth and affection. The key scene is when the ancient Borg in dreamscape comes upon the Sara of his childhood out gathering wild strawberries. Borg looks on (unnoticed of course) as his brother, the young Sigfrid, ravishes her with a kiss which she returns passionately; and, as the wild strawberries fall from her bowl onto her apron, staining it red, Borg experiences the pain of infidelity and heartbreak once again. Note that in English we speak of losing one's "cherry"; here the strawberries symbolize emotionally much the same thing for Sara. Later on in the film as the redemption comes, the present day Sara calls out to Borg that it is he that she really loves, always and forever. Borg waves her away from the balcony, yet we are greatly moved by her love, and we know how touched he is. The two young men accompanying Sara can be seen as reincarnations of the serious and careful Isak Borg and the more carefree and daring Sigfrid. It is as though his life has returned to him as a theater in which the characters resemble those of his past; yet we are not clear in realizing whether the resemblance properly belongs in the old man's mind or is a synchronicity of time returned. Memorable is Ingrid Thulin who plays Mariana, the wife of Borg's son who accompanies him on the auto trip to Lund. She begins with frank bitterness toward the old man but ends with love for him; and again we are emotionally moved at the transformation. What Bergman does so very well in this film is to make us experience forgiveness and the transformation of the human spirit from the negative emotions of jealousy and a cold indifference that is close to hate, to the redemption that comes with love and a renewal of the human spirit. In quiet agreement with thi Buy Wild Strawberries at Amazon.com Buy posters at Allposters.com Jamster - the latest ringtones for your phone!  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