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Plot:
Explores the disillusionment of an elderly physician, Professor Isak Borg, as he reflects upon his life and begins to perceive his mortality. As he travels to Lund to receive an honorary award after 5...( read more 
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Recent Reviews
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MCT:September 28, 2008I finally made it thru this without falling asleep. This is probably one of the first so called 'road movies' It's a surrealistic piece about an elderly professor who reflects on moments in his life. It clocks in at 90 mins, but seems alot longer. The saving grace of the film is it's influence on the future of cinema and the B&W photography. Didn't age as well as other film classics.
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MCT:September 14, 2008
''The punishment is loneliness.''
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 done it yet again. First Seventh Seal blew me away with it's masterful strokes of genius and 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 the purpose of our life.
Wild Strawberries addresses the choices of a Professor who has succeeded academically but with love and company it begins to blur and sadly vacant.
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 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, and a chilling symbolized metaphor to boot. Proceeding to see himself in a coffin is equally chilling yet gives emphasis on the man's fear of death...
Victor Sjöström as Dr. Isak Borg, the main protagonist in the lime light, wonderfully gives life to a faceted character who we see change throughout the progress of the film. It's lovely to see as he becomes sentimental and we see memories of his, in a Christmas Carol fashion. 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 material, that the plot throws at us.
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 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.
Wild Strawberries makes us imagine and fear time. Time is the enemy, as we get 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. -
MCT:September 7, 2008
Sara: Good-bye, father Isak. Can't you see you're the one I love? Today, tomorrow and forever
Isak Borg: I'll keep that in mind -
MCT:September 2, 2008
I do feel abit bad rating a movie that is consider a foreign classic by some people a fairly low-ish star rating. I can see why people would find this a classic, and I thought I would think the same. But I think time hasen't been to kind to this movie. It is incredibly dated, the scenes that intend to make an impact do slightly flop and fail in a way to make a huge effect. The scene that I am really talking about is the first dream sequence. It is weirdly filmed and if it had been made a couple of decades later, it may have come off better. I think this film would sit nicely with some of the strange 70's movies. Otherwise the structure of the movie is ok, it bobs along nicely as you follow this ageing Professor as he travels with his Daughter-in-Law to go and accept an award. Along the way he has more dreams of his past, picking up some young people, they also briefly pick up a bickering couple on the way to the ceremony. Some of it just felt like time fillers, and the connecting watch with no hands didn't really make to much sense. But the film is a great delgiht during some of the road trip. I would say that th best part if probably when it is at its best. The chat is intresting mostly due to the excellent performances of the two leads. I will say this film is a grat showcase for performances, not just from the two leads, from everybody. They are just incredibly genuine and they just feel like they aren't actors pretending, it is like they are playing themselves just because they give such believable performances. The past storyline works well just because it adds some background and has some good characters in it. The young passengers do remind the professor of his young love that is mentioned in the past storyline. The young passengers are a girl and two guys who constently fight for her affections, very close to the professors realtionship with his young love, who eventually went off with his brother. The married coule they pick up really is done for the sake of the daughter-in-law. It opens her eyes to what she doesn't want from her marriage and what she has to do to save it. I suppose this is relavant but it jut seems to add to much into what should have stayed a simple film. Everything is rounded up in the end, but I found it a very un-satisfying ending, I just expected it to be a more well-rounded off ending. I was expecting him to die, I thought it might of worked better espacially with him visiting his parents at a little cove in his dream, but no. People may have a go at me for my review, please don't because in the end, it is my opinion. But I do recommend it because it does feature some excellent performances.
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MCT:September 1, 2008
"If I have been feeling worried or sad during the day, I have a habit of recalling scenes from childhood to calm me. So it was this evening."
Wild Strawberries (also known by its foreign title Smultronstället) is a surreal, expressionistic creation from renowned Swedish director Ingmar Bergman. During 1957, Bergman directed two of his most celebrated masterpieces: The Seventh Seal and Wild Strawberries. Both of these exquisite films sincerely delve into themes of life and death. Where The Seventh Seal dealt with the futility of absconding death, Wild Strawberries is a hauntingly beautiful and entrancing meditation on our morality, relationships, faith, and the realisation of death's inevitability. The film is a classic introspective production and a triumph in world cinema. In a sense it's fundamentally a cerebral road movie. Bergman first evoked this concept while standing at the door of his grandmother's house and wondering whether he'd re-enter his childhood by stepping inside. He pervades this concept with thought-provoking messages and surrealistic dream sequences which Bergman was probably most recognised for. Not long into Wild Strawberries are we presented with a nightmarish dream sequence. But this celebrated sequence is much more than a slice of expressionist symbolism: it establishes the tactic of anticipating future events and reveals that the central protagonist is a vulnerable figure who is worthy of our compassion despite all his ego, petulance and bigoted aloofness.
Ingmar Bergman's Wild Strawberries is a bittersweet tale of an elderly college professor's journey from emotional seclusion to salvation and, ultimately, personal regeneration. Professor Isak Borg (Sjöström) is a disillusioned aged physician whose self-indulgent cynicism has left him isolated. As he reaches a tender old age, he begins reflecting on his life and starts perceiving his mortality. Isak is bestowed with an honorary University degree in recognition for 50 years of medical practise, and must travel to Lund to receive it. He travels to Lund by car with daughter-in-law Marianne (Thulin). During this journey Isak is strained to come to terms with his imminent death as he reflects on his childhood memories and life regrets. For the professor, the road trip develops into an otherworldly journey where the present is distorted by shadows from his past, and where the boundary separating dreams and reality has been erased. This is primarily exemplified when the professor wakes from a dream of an idyllic summer past with adored cousin Sara (Andersson) to meet her virtual reincarnation in the form of Sara the hitcher (also played by Andersson) whose two companions remind Isak of himself and his brother who won Sara's heart. Above all, Isak's mind is infested with memories, premonitions, reveries, and nightmares which offer illumination on his cold and empty life which lacks any significant meaning or value.
Gunnar Fischer's stylish, mesmeric black & white photography perfectly captures the wonderful locales and the images that imbue Bergman's wildly inventive imagination. Writer/director Bergman scripted the film while in hospital for two months whilst suffering from gastric ulcers. Bergman's confrontational views on human existence permeate his screenplay. In spite of suffering in a hospital bed during the film's conception, Wild Strawberries emerges as the director's most elegiac and humane production. Throughout the course of flashbacks and interactions with characters (both imaginary and real), Bergman builds a compassionate and poignant portrait of a man coming to terms with sorrows and compunctions of an emotionally constrained existence.
The cinematography creates a moody and atmospheric setting as the film glides from scenes of expressionistic distress to pastoral idyll. This is especially effective during the dream sequence encompassing faceless people and clocks sans hands as Isak moves through haunting, empty streets and eventually encounters a coffin containing his own corpse. This scene is both compelling and troubling. It's a sequence which speaks to our very soul, circumventing all senses and firmly grabbing hold of our deepest fears.
The highlight of Wild Strawberries is the miraculously sensitive performance courtesy of Victor Sjöström. This film marked Sjöström's final screen performance as he died a few years after filming wrapped. The actor portrays Professor Isak Borg as a cantankerous and irascible old man who has proved successful in his professional life, but has failed to connect with family and friends on a personal level. Many close-ups reveal Sjostrom's face expressing his character's inner conflicts, making his performance one of the most memorable in cinematic history. Bergman's allegorical road movie slips between present and past, dream and reality to explore the external and internal worlds the aging central character played by Sjöström. Sjöström's performance of an elderly man who's outwardly content yet internally burdened with disabling scars is perfect...never striking an incorrect note. He's surrounded by a remarkable supporting cast.
Winner of the Golden Bear at Berlin, Wild Strawberries is one of the truly outstanding works of post-war European cinema. It may creak in places and it might make an audience sleepy, but its evocation of the nostalgia, trepidation and repentance of old age remains unsurpassed. Gunnar Fischer's luminous lens compliments Bergman's terrific screenplay. In its revelation of human character, desire and chagrin, Ingmar Bergman's Wild Strawberries is a potent and masterful film that cannot be missed. -
MCT:August 12, 2008
Honestly, one of the best films ever made. upon another viewing my rating would definitely go up. From the very beginning every shot was stunning. Well acted and quite sad, this is my favorite Bergman film.
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MCT:August 3, 2008Short and tolerable Bergman film, well-acted and clever (and swedish), but not really my thing, and I'm willing to bet my house that the ice cream place by the same name is a lot more fun...
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MCT:July 31, 2008O fim da vida deve ser pavoroso. Ver que a estrada está chegando ao fim ou coisa do tipo. Não há como eu falar sobre isso, mas a forma com que bergman mostrou a humanidade de tal situação nesse filme é muito cativante, revendo sua vida em uma viagem quase que existencial para receber um prêmio, o personagem se encontra em sonhos e pesadelos - cenas geniais diga-se de passagem - onde se defronta consigo próprio, com seus medos e falhas e com a culpa. Uma viagem sensacional, por cenas inesqueciveis boas ou ruins e pelos traumas "imortais" da velha infância.
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MCT:July 31, 2008
wow i have just seen this movie 4 the 1st time n think that this is a powerful movie 2 watch...this has got a good cast of actors/actressess throguhout this movie...i think that this is a good movie..its really well filmed because its filmed in black & white throughout the movie...i think that the director of this Drama, Art House & International movie had done a good job of directing this movie because you never know what 2 expect throughout this movie because he keeps you on the edge's of your seats throughout this movie n u never know what 2 expect throughout this movie..its got a good cast of actors/actressess throughout this movie n its enjoyable 2 watch throughout
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MCT:July 24, 2008want to see this because it won best foreign film with the NBR and was recognized as one of the best foreign films at the golden globes
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MCT:July 17, 2008
Very Interesting. Even though the Seventh Seal is a more iconic piece of film i thought this one was better. The dream seqences were fantastic and so creative. I didn't realise that Bibi Andersson played both the Sara in past and the present and that made me re-evaluate the character more. Overall very good and enjoyable
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MCT:July 16, 2008
remotely reminiscent of Dickens' Christmas Carol and a good companion film for Kurosawa's Ikiru. a more complex, introspective film for Bergman that beautifully examines perception, mortality, marriage, religion, family, redemption, and purpose. deeply relatable and thought-provoking, yet still retaining Bergman's stark simplicity, this is a wonderfully human film.
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MCT:June 8, 2008
A wonderful depiction of an old doctor coming to terms with his own character and his past. Disturbing dreams, brilliantly designed by Bergman, are combined with idyllic youth memories and sharp sketches of everyday philosophy, relationships, and religion. One of Bergman's finest!
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MCT:June 3, 2008
One of the most introspective films, though to our modern, numbed minds, it might be easy to judge this as overrated and too loose. The truth is that "Wild Strawberries" is a meditation on our mortality, relationships, faith, and the impending death. Some critics call Isak Borg's life uninteresting, yet they forget that not everybody's life is a rollercoaster ride, and that doesn't make them less human nor interesting. Through an everyday existence, this films still questions such themes, making it only closer to us, and accesible. Perhpas the greatest richness of the movie comes from reflecting on it afterwards, from analyzing and comparing to our own lives, as short or uneventful as they might have seemed. In other aspects, the picture is succesful: it has very good acting and music. The cinematography is excellent, giving everything a nice oniric feel, an atmosphere of memory and passing of time. A triumph of world cinema.
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MCT:May 27, 2008Love the Bergman, but wholly bore fest, this film has not aged well... for a film that has made such profound statements, it really needs an interpreter, that can set the right context for it's ideas... it's a film that is lost to the laymen and only still finds relevance in film appreciation classes.
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MCT:May 25, 2008
My foray into cinema from Bergman couldn't have been better, Wild Strawberries captures the viewers emotions profoundly. A very complex and depressing theme is simplistically shown here and how well that it truly moves the viewer forcing him into thought.
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MCT:May 15, 2008
Another brilliant film by Bergman. Bergman always leaves my speechless, so I'll just say if you haven't seen this, do.
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MCT:April 21, 2008
Absolutely beautiful movie with an amazing performance by Victor Sjostrom, and imaginative dream sequences that echo his past. Of the Bergman movies I've watched so far it's my favorite. A must see.
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MCT:March 6, 2008
I loved the dream sequences as well as Victor Sjostrom's performance. The entire film was heavy on the mind and will make you look at your life in a different light.
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MCT:February 28, 2008
A professor in medicine reflects upon his life before he arrives on his anniversary day in church. He keeps having awful dreams and learns a lot about the people he has known (for example his own deceased wife who betrayed him).
A real tough drama from Ingmar Bergman. Many people leaving theatre thought it was not worth seeing but I did appreciate it. It had humour in it as well! This is one of his better movies! -
MCT:January 31, 2008
One of Bergman's best three films. The dream sequence is amazing. Brilliant lighting as always. Particularly different story from usual for Bergman, starring the director of Phantom Carriage.
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MCT:January 21, 2008
victor sjöström film çekildikten iki yil sonra 30 ocak tarihinde benim dogum günümden 25 sene önce vefat etmis.
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MCT:January 19, 2008
Bergman constructs an intimate, cathartic, sad but hopeful examination of an old timer's last trip to redemption. moving and thought-provoking.
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terenlihposted 404 days ago
