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After living a life marked by coldness, an aging professor is forced to confront the emptiness of his existence.
Victor Sjöström: Dr. Isak Borg
Ingmar Bergman has indeed done it yet again. Firstly the captivating Seventh Seal blew me away with it's masterful strokes of genius and layered themes of death; Now, Smultronstället AKA Wild Strawberries. The genius is replicated in it's questions and answers it gives us the viewers on a very important aspect to me, Mortality... Thus also addressing the purpose of our life. Wild Strawberries addresses the choices of a Professor whom has succeeded academically but with love and company he has failed and pales in comparison to the former achievements.
Dreams are used to great effect to give us some rather surreal imaginative insight into Borg's subconscious and the looming grip of Death's chilling touch. I was especially was impressed by a dream of his; in which he goes up behind a man only to touch him and for the said man to collapse, a mutated head appear, and a chilling symbolized metaphor is shown to us.
The first dream Dr. Borg experiences is dark and puzzling due mainly to its unclear meaning and uncanny nature. The street is deserted and clear. Dr. Borg approaches a clock and looks, but it is without hands. He looks at his pocket watch and it is also without hands. The black and white scene is subdued and calm, but draws the viewer in all the while guessing what's next. The scene is without music and progresses with the sound of a heart beat that quickens with each step taken as he walks along the desolate boulevard. When Dr. Borg approaches a man, the man turns and lacks a face. Shortly after, a cart-drawn casket passes and knocks its wheel off after colliding with a lamp post. The casket falls, opens, and a hand hangs exposed. Dr. Borg approaches the casket preparing to look inside when the hand reaches and clutches his hand. Surprised and frightened, he struggles to free the grip and soon recognizes that the face of the man in the casket is his own.
Proceeding to see himself in a coffin is equally unnerving yet shows an emphasis on the man's fear of death and time.
Victor Sjöström as Dr. Isak Borg, the main protagonist centered in the film, wonderfully gives life to a faceted character whom we see change throughout the progress of the story. It's lovely to see as he becomes sentimental and we see memories of his, in a Christmas Carol manner of story-telling. It's beautifully executed by Bergman and wonderfully acted out by Victor.
Bibi Andersson as Sara, the beautiful, deep, faceted Daughter-In-Law of Isak Borg, really does shine everytime she is on screen. Her beauty doesn't eclipse the fact that she remains in the film a talented actress, and proves she's not just a pretty face as she deals with some challenging engrossing material.
Jullan Kindahl as Agda, Folke Sundquist as Anders and Björn Bjelfvenstam as Viktor represent the young generation and their energized outlook on life. Was interesting to see both men fighting about the existence of God, which like Wild Strawberries uses Black and White, the same can not be said of the issue to do with this age old question. The truth is somewhere in the middle; man's invention to fool himself into thinking he isn't alone.
Max von Sydow as Henrik Åkerman, also pops up, and I was extremely reminiscent of him in his starring role from Seventh Seal. Was pleased to see him crop up again in a Bergman collaboration Picture.
Wild Strawberries is full of hidden meanings and messages, our race against time to live, to make the right choices, and our realization that no choice is wrong or right. In a sense the title isn't just describing Strawberries, its describing People, like a Strawberry we too wither and die, starting out full of life and a tasty blooming vitality. The loss of youth, the pain of growing old, and the primal fears of being alone and dying.
The film is filled with Dr. Borg's puzzling dreams and remembrances of his early life, but much of the charm and warmth that is contained throughout the movie is owed to the secondary characters. Dr. Borg's daughter-in-law, Marianne is a delight to watch because she can smile like an angle and can be bluntly frank, all at the same time. Her stunning classic looks and assured mannerism helps the movie in a great way. Agda has lived with the doctor as his housekeeper for forty years. She and Dr. Borg hysterically argues as if man and wife. She knows the doctor well and understands him like the other people in his life do not. Sara, the young girl who wakes the doctor as he lay near the wild strawberries is a joy to watch. She shows the doctor new ways to look at the world by not taking anything too seriously. She takes in all that life has to offer and brings out the joy. Her slight touch to the doctor's face while they drove is one of the warmest scenes in the film and defines her loving character. There are many warm moments in the film, and many moments of darkness. The beginning of the film was dark, puzzling, and melancholy, and the end of the film was warm, bright and full of life and tenderness.
Wild Strawberries makes us imagine and fear time. Time is the enemy, as we learn from the symbolic clock with no hands. We may be able to take the hands away but we can never stop time. Our heart also is a clock of sorts and the furious beating of ones heart depending on it's pace can be another fear, another definition of our perception of time and our fear of being powerless before it. Wild Strawberries definitely let's this daunting fact hit home.
10/10
