Wild Strawberries

Wild Strawberries_360P

source: Wild Strawberries

Moviecut—Wild Strawberries

Smultronstället

I last saw this movie 23 years ago. It is very useful at that age to discover that other generations had intelligent ideas about how to construct film, and that you and and your neat friends don't have a patent on originality. This is one of those works you respect for it's filmic contributions but that a viewer doesn't really enjoy per se. There are enjoyable bits in it, but it suffers, like many Bergman movies, of a stagnating sameness from moment to moment. No Bergman film I've ever seen "builds" over it's running time; which would seem to be the benefit of placing one moment next to another in a narrative format. Consequently I have no idea how Bergman decided this was "done." It meanders. The rampant symbols (& dream imagery) offer no middle ground being either a) positively obvious and Fruedian or b) so murky that I just don't care what they might mean if I unraveled them. I used to be able to make it through Bergman movies. (Well, actually I never made it through the Seventh Seal) But now, there's not a chance. If he shows people sleeping (Wild Strawberries) or lazing about (Persona) it's a doubly fatal to me; like Snow White's poisoned apple. I fell asleep in the theater during one of the later dream sequences. I'm a cerebral guy, but Bergman is just too lost in his head as a film-maker for me. I couldn't find my interest in Wild Strawberries with a team of Swedish film analysts helping me. As distant as the silent era felt in the 70's the mid-century classics now begin to recede identically for me. And these films feel very dated & ungenerous, despite their merits in context. Lars von Trier once said "The best thing that could happen to Swedish film is for Ingmar Bergman to die." Bergman died last week. Long live the new Swedish cinema.

...and having said that I can say this might be one of Bergman's critically over-rated pictures. Of course there is much to look for, admire, and saturate with his tale of an old professor/doctor on his way to get a degree who looks back on his life, but the road trip scenes, while somewhat fascinating, can't hold a candle to the work that is displayed in the first dream. We see clocks with no hands (no time left for the old timer), a man with a very tightened face, and a coffin that falls right in front of the old man with himself inside of it, reflecting him. That this is one of Bergman's most evocative and powerful scenes goes to show why the film is so praised, and with the other dreams we see much insight into his fears and doubts on his life and what it's meant. But a number of the scenes go nowhere or ponder on events that slow the film down. Wild Strawberries is a film that can be judged as a display of perfect sorrow or longish observation, you decide. Plenty of beautiful outdoor scenery shots though; Max Von Sydow has a cameo as a gas station attendant. Grade: A.

The vast majority of films are artless. But just because we encounter a real artist -- and real art -- is no reason to welcome it into our breast. I can trust some artists to work their magic to change me in ways that I admire or even like. But I have to be very careful with Bergman: his primary concern is often himself, which immediately worries me. And his method is extreme in the engineering of the presentation, with the focus being an exploration of that very compulsion. The art is more than earnest, it is obsessive in attention to detail, and that obsession is possibly near the brink of madness -- the kind of madness that is contagious. I do not accept this film, but warmly embrace 'The Seventh Seal,' made at the same time, with many of the same sensibilities. But 'Seal' was about the nature of constructed memory in the context of film and general myth. 'Strawberries' substitutes personal experience for the fabric of art and myth, so the constructed memories all have emotional consequence. Odd how he swings. Be careful with this one. The DVD contains an interview with Bergman. Unlike nearly all such filler, this one is valuable. Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 4: Has some interesting elements.

Bergman has been seen by many as being a depressing film makes, who speaks above the heads of most people. Thank God someone does! In this piece of genius, we are asked to consider who God is; what makes a life worthwhile; and whether human nature alters through the generations, or is it just the costumes that change? As usual, the answers are to be provided by the audience. We must chose for ourselves what we think is 'right' or 'just'. Bergman uses the usual pattern for him - a man is on a journey (life) and meets people who are going along the same road (friends and family), and they all head toward the end of their trip (death). They stop in for obligatory visits with relatives and for food (as we all do), receive an honourary degree (fame & success?), and then send the children off to a party held in our honour that we do not attend (funeral). What happens along the way is important, but we always end up in the same place - the end. Wonderful editing techniques, good story, good images, fantastic acting, and more ideas and questions to ponder than one film can hold - or so you thought. It's only after the film ends that these ponderings come to you. During the film, you simply watch a man travel from his home to another city, but this is far from what the film is about. See this film once, think about the questions it poses, then rewind and see it again. You will be rewarded for doing so.

"Wild Strawberries" profoundly moved me. The theme -- an old man coming up fast on death and wondering if his life has had any meaning -- is an old one for Bergman, and one which he explored ad nauseum throughout the subsequent decades. But here Bergman approaches the question with an uncharacteristic optimism and sense of hope. For once, he seems to come close to finding some peace with the unknowns of life that obviously preoccupied him as an artist, and the movie he gives us is sad but immensely warm; resigned but calm and reflective. An unequivocal masterpiece, and only one of a handful of Bergman films ("Persona" and "Cries and Whispers" being two others) that don't drive me over the edge when I watch them now. Grade: A+

We trace the journey of an elderly professor who is traveling to receive an honor for a life of accomplishment and service. Along the way he confronts the lack of success in his human relationships as opposed to the success he has enjoyed professionally. A string of encounters with the past and with iconic people he meets gradually bring the contrast into focus for the viewer. I particularly liked the subtle and intelligent storytelling in this film. He tells us before the credits that he is just a boring pedant. We realize as he comes to realize what this has really meant to him. We slowly receive hints of the emotional truths that frame the man's life. He is confronted by traces of how things could have been different. Important points are hinted at without being said--the viewer is left to sort them out. For example, the couple at the gas station convince us in a short and seemingly banal exchange that the Professor was a great healer whose service to those outside his family was anything but sterile. Yet speaking to his daughter-in-law, his smug insistence that a debt must be paid gives us a glimpse at what it must have been like for his son to have been held at emotional bay by bloodless, cold rationalism. This film deserves NOT to be remade, in order to preserve its artistic integrity. It affirms that film can be an art form that touches the soul as opposed to merely a product to be sold.