Wild StrawberriesGather ye rosebuds while ye may; and if not rosebuds, wild strawberries will suffice. Wild Strawberries is a story of Professor Isak Borg (Victor Sjöström), an elderly man who experiences a crisis of conscience as he approaches a ceremony in which he will receive an honorary degree for his service as a doctor. But as Isak looks forward to this event, he is stricken with the dull pain of regret lurking in his subconscious. As he decides to drive from Stockholm to Lund in advance, the company he keeps and the dreams he has begin to untangle the knot that has closed himself off from others, one which has left him with a pervading sense of loneliness.
|
|
Isak's journey is something of a "road to Damascus" for the aged scholar and doctor, a man who is only beginning to understand the loss and pangs of guilt at letting elements of his life slip away while he has sheltered his heart behind a cold, unapproachable wall. Certainly, Isak seems amiable enough at first--even though he admits to being somewhat pedantic--but through interpretations of his dreams and his fantasies about his past, not to mention his interactions with his daughter-in-law, Marianne (Ingrid Thulin), that we discover that he has reached that point in his age where he must acknowledge that which has gone unsaid. Marianne has been estranged for a couple of weeks from her husband and Isak's son, Evald (Gunnar Björnstrand), but accompanies Isak ostensibly to return to her husband, although along the trip, she and Isak have a tête-à-tête or two about what is really going on between them, and Marianne's fears for her relations with her husband's family, believing that they are all cold and aloof. Along the road, Isak takes Marianne briefly to a country home he visited with his family in his youth, where he recalls wild strawberries grew, which is where the title of the film is plucked from. Interestingly, strawberries sometimes emerge as iconic in other films by Ingmar Bergman--such as The Seventh Seal--to signify memories or longing; this is especially true here. As Isak lets his mind drift, he has a waking dream of his cousin, Sara (Bibi Andersson), picking the strawberries to give as a gift for her uncle. The scenes which follow in these recollections--of Sara's seduction by Isak's brother, Sigfrid (Per Sjöstrand), the family brunch, Sara's sorrowful critique of Isak in private to her cousin, Charlotta (Gunnel Lindblom)--are fantasies; they must be, since Isak would not have been present to obtain a first-hand account, and he is always referred to as being elsewhere. These scenes are actually a reflection of Isak's own sense of guilt and longing intertwined with his nostalgia. He wishes that he would have been the one to be with Sara, and perceives her not only as a stunning vision of perfection, but as one whom he has hurt (if unintentionally) by his frigidity, evidenced by her "confession" to Charlotta. This is Isak's way of punishing himself in his own mind, a flagellation of the soul.
After his visions at the country house, he encounters a young hitchhiking girl--also named Sara, and also played by Bibi Andersson--who is accompanied by her two suitors, who bicker in the eternal battle of God versus science, a thin front for their real battle for the heart of the girl. Their joyous vivacity stirs a part of Isak he had repressed, and he confides that Sara reminds him of the girl he loved long ago. The party also encounters a married couple engaged in such a heated row that it causes a car accident. And though the party offers to give them a lift as well, the venomous barbs they lash at one another make the others so uncomfortable that Marianne politely demands that they get out. These encounters echo Isak's inner turmoil, evidenced by his vivid dreams which follow and expound upon the fears which keep him from peaceful slumber. In an earlier dream, he found himself stranded and alone on the blindingly bright streets, including an encounter with a coffin containing his own body, coming to life and reaching out for him. All of the clocks and watches in this dream are without hands, their own existence made pointless as a result. When Isak visits his mother, she is standoffish by nature--something Marianne later observes--but pours out a box of relics, vestiges from Isak's past, and invites him to pick through for something he would like, as she claims it is all rubbish to her; Isak picks up a watch of his father's without any hands, like the one in his dream. The other dream of Isak's is fundamentally a self-imposed interrogation by his psyche, administered by a monitor who bears a striking resemblance to the bickering husband ejected from Isak's automobile earlier. More judicatory than his prior dream, this one puts Isak under a self-imposed microscope of self-reproach. He effectively accuses himself of failing to meet the standards of being a good doctor--contrary to the assertions by a friendly gas station attendant (played by Max von Sydow) on the road. He is also accused of failing to see anything but himself as he attempts to observe a bacteria under a magnifying glass, and that he has been charged with crimes including "guilt". He relives a scene implied to be one he had observed, one where his late wife, Karin (Gertrud Fridh), is unfaithful to him, and then criticizes his detached attitude in private to her lover. The humiliating ordeal foreshadows the climax of another Bergman film, Hour of the Wolf, although Isak ultimately fares far better than Johan. It is following Marianne's confession that this dream comes, the clarion call for Isak to realize that he has seen his former and his following generations in his family stricken with a cold countenance, cutting them off from love, and making him realize that life can be as sweet and good as it is for the young hitchhiker, provided he is willing to open his heart. No doubt he will sleep better.
Recommended for: Fans of a poignant and contemplative story about confronting the fear of showing love to others, and of seizing the day before that metaphorical sun sinks deep behind the horizon forever.
After his visions at the country house, he encounters a young hitchhiking girl--also named Sara, and also played by Bibi Andersson--who is accompanied by her two suitors, who bicker in the eternal battle of God versus science, a thin front for their real battle for the heart of the girl. Their joyous vivacity stirs a part of Isak he had repressed, and he confides that Sara reminds him of the girl he loved long ago. The party also encounters a married couple engaged in such a heated row that it causes a car accident. And though the party offers to give them a lift as well, the venomous barbs they lash at one another make the others so uncomfortable that Marianne politely demands that they get out. These encounters echo Isak's inner turmoil, evidenced by his vivid dreams which follow and expound upon the fears which keep him from peaceful slumber. In an earlier dream, he found himself stranded and alone on the blindingly bright streets, including an encounter with a coffin containing his own body, coming to life and reaching out for him. All of the clocks and watches in this dream are without hands, their own existence made pointless as a result. When Isak visits his mother, she is standoffish by nature--something Marianne later observes--but pours out a box of relics, vestiges from Isak's past, and invites him to pick through for something he would like, as she claims it is all rubbish to her; Isak picks up a watch of his father's without any hands, like the one in his dream. The other dream of Isak's is fundamentally a self-imposed interrogation by his psyche, administered by a monitor who bears a striking resemblance to the bickering husband ejected from Isak's automobile earlier. More judicatory than his prior dream, this one puts Isak under a self-imposed microscope of self-reproach. He effectively accuses himself of failing to meet the standards of being a good doctor--contrary to the assertions by a friendly gas station attendant (played by Max von Sydow) on the road. He is also accused of failing to see anything but himself as he attempts to observe a bacteria under a magnifying glass, and that he has been charged with crimes including "guilt". He relives a scene implied to be one he had observed, one where his late wife, Karin (Gertrud Fridh), is unfaithful to him, and then criticizes his detached attitude in private to her lover. The humiliating ordeal foreshadows the climax of another Bergman film, Hour of the Wolf, although Isak ultimately fares far better than Johan. It is following Marianne's confession that this dream comes, the clarion call for Isak to realize that he has seen his former and his following generations in his family stricken with a cold countenance, cutting them off from love, and making him realize that life can be as sweet and good as it is for the young hitchhiker, provided he is willing to open his heart. No doubt he will sleep better.
Recommended for: Fans of a poignant and contemplative story about confronting the fear of showing love to others, and of seizing the day before that metaphorical sun sinks deep behind the horizon forever.