Wild Strawberries (1957) film review - an analysis of Bergman’s masterpiece
★★★★★
‘Wild Strawberries’ is a transcendent depiction of a man coming to terms with the disappointment and loneliness in his life.
Director: Ingmar Bergman Starring: Victor Sjöström, Bibi Andersson, Ingrid Thulin, Max Von Sydow. 15 cert, 91 min.
‘Wild Strawberries’ is a drama that follows 78-year-old Professor Isak Borg, who after 50 years of work is preparing to receive his doctorate from Lund University. Irritable, cold, and aloof, Isak embarks on the journey with his daughter-in-law Marianne, with whom he has a distant and stilted relationship. During his trip, he encounters a lively group of young people and an unhappy couple, as well as various places that remind him of his childhood. Plagued by strange dreams, Borg takes the time to introspect and reflect on his long life. 'Wild Strawberries’ is only the second film by influential Swedish director Ingmar Bergman that I have watched, and it completely blew me away.
‘Wild Strawberries’ (1957) film poster artwork
A portrayal of raw human emotion
There are so many things to take away from Bergman’s masterpiece that it is difficult to cover everything in a single analysis. ‘Wild Strawberries’ flits between the past and present, focusing mainly on Isak’s past relationship with Sara, a woman he had loved and lost to his brother many years ago. Upon meeting a hitchhiker who shares a striking resemblance with his old flame, (both women are portrayed by Bibi Andersson), Isak is forced to reminisce in a series of symbolic dreams and bittersweet memories. Victor Sjöström’s performance as Isak Borg is at once mesmerizing and hauntingly melancholic. There are few films I have watched that have portrayed such raw human emotion in a calming, almost therapeutic manner. Sjöström enables us to understand Isak Borg, his life, its stagnation, and solitude, to an extraordinary degree as he travels through stretches of picturesque Swedish countryside.
Bergman’s exploration of loneliness
Bergman wrote ‘Wild Strawberries’ whilst in hospital and managed to delve philosophically into themes such as childhood, dreams, and loneliness. Drawing inspiration from the apparent failures in his own life at the time, Bergman uses Isak’s character as a representation of change and self-reflection. However, what interested me particularly was Bergman’s artful portrayal of loneliness. To quote Bergman himself:
There are evident parallels to be drawn here with the conversation had between Isak Borg and his daughter-in-law Marianne, played by Ingrid Thulin. Towards the end of their journey, Isak visits his 98-year-old Mother. During their exchange, his daughter-in-law Marianne observes a sense of emotional detachment, recognizable too in Isak and her own husband, Evald. Bergman then offers us an exquisitely dreamlike transition into the past, revealing that Evald has refused Marianne a child, providing her with a cruel ultimatum. In this scene, the similarities between the three generations become all too clear, and Marianne proclaims:
“I thought: That's his mother. An old woman, cold as ice, more forbidding than death. And this is her son, and there are light-years between them. He himself says he's a living corpse. And Evald is growing just as lonely, cold, and dead. And I thought of the baby inside me. All along the line, there's nothing but cold and death and loneliness. It must end somewhere.”
What Bergman does so well is to offer us, the audience, a kind of blatant truth with his filmmaking. Having stripped apart the different aspects of Isak’s life, there is a sense of intimacy between the viewer and the old man. It is this very intimacy that makes Marianne’s truth so powerful. We feel a sense of the huge expanses of time that have laid before Isak and his Mother, who are both successful individuals but have spent the majority of their long lives alone.
Dream sequences in ‘Wild Strawberries’
This is foreshadowed by the strange dream sequence at the start of the film, where Isak wanders through a deserted street and is drawn to a large clock, hanging above a pair of eyes. The clock has no hands. Neither does the golden pocket watch that Isak’s Mother shows him during his visit. To me, this symbolism illuminates Isak’s recognition that he is nearing the end of his life but also represents the ways in which Bergman blurs the lines between dreams, the past, and the present. In his 1990 book ‘Images: my life in film,’ Bergman stated, ‘the truth is that I am forever living in my childhood.’ The same is very much true of Isak, who, when observing his childhood house, is carried into the past instantaneously.
Through his dreams and memories, Isak is able to find peace within himself and achieves a more positive attitude towards his life. In this sense, ‘Wild Strawberries’ is surprisingly optimistic and life-affirming. Handed a mirror within a nostalgic dream sequence to observe the man he has become, Isak is confronted with his self in a very literal, harsh way. Though perhaps this could be detrimental, Bergman presents this as a motivation for positive change and growth; showing us that even at 78-years-old, there is more to learn about ourselves.
Should you watch this before you die?
Overall, ‘Wild Strawberries’ is a transcendent depiction of a man coming to terms with the disappointment and loneliness in his life. Eventually finding a kind of bliss and satisfaction through introspection, with Isak’s character Bergman shows us all the importance of seizing life’s potential and being grateful for our relationships with others, no matter how fleeting. It isn’t difficult to understand why Lars von Trier gave ‘Wild Strawberries’ a spot in his 21 favourite films of all time. No review or analysis can give the sheer depth of this film justice, so I will simply implore others to watch it; it is a uniquely sublime experience.