Wild Strawberries - Criterion Collection | Victor Sjöström, Bibi Andersson

Wild Strawberries - Criterion Collection | Victor Sjöström, Bibi Andersson | Bergmanite

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Wild Strawberries ...

	Wild Strawberries - Criterion Collection Victor Sjöström, Bibi Andersson Criterion, 2002 average customer review:based on 80 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Life affirming, subtle, yet profound-Bergman's best!

An elderly professor's journey through time and self discovery is deftly handled in this Bergman masterpiece. Bibi Andersson has never been so charming,and all of the supporting characters are perfectly balanced. The final scene is one of life affirming reconciliation...to be reflected upon for years to come. My favorite Bergman.

Bergmanite

I saw this on Turner Classic Movies and this along with the Seventh Seal made me a Bergman fan for life. It's a film about an old mans mortality. He goes to receive an award and the film takes you through the process of his life. The script was written just for this man and he is superb. Ingrid Thulin the daughter inlaw is a magnificent actress and is great. I recommend it highly. If you want Bergman's best films buy this one and Seventh Seal,Virgin Spring,Through a Glass Darkly Box Set,Smiles of a Summers Night,The Magician,Cries and Whispers,Magic Flute,Fanny and Alexander. You won't regret it.

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Bergman's devotion to cinema as a serious art form are undeniable...

In "Wild Strawberries," Victor Sjöström, the distinguished director of silent films, gives a wonderful performance as an elderly doctor who, after dreaming of his own death, reviews his whole life while traveling to a university where he is to receive an honorary degree... In symbol-filled dream sequences and waking reveries, he recognizes the arid sterility and loneliness of his life...

Bergman's harrowingly personal accounts of doubt, suffering and solitude might never have been won over so large an international audience... Although he may be faulted for an occasional cold, humorless pessimism that may seem contrived, both his intellectual gravity and his uncompromising devotion to cinema as a serious art form are undeniable...

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Dickens

This is my first Bergman. (And I did not pay $36 for it. I bought it for 99 cents on eBay, completely new, played fine.) I bought several Bergmans (almost all from eBay, they're very expensive otherwise)when his name kept popping up in connection with Woody Allen, a hero of mine. I liked this movie very much, it was warm and soothing and interesting. I was struck at first with the simplicity of the symbols and the extremely detailed direction (e.g. when the old man starts while leaving the room to move a chess piece, then changes his mind and continues on out of the room). I have 6 of his films left to watch and I'm looking forward to them, particularly the ones with dubbed in English, which most of them are. As for its being similar to a Woody Allen flick, all that comes to mind is "Another Woman." But I'll hold my tongue (fingers), I have 6 more to see. What really does come to mind, and the reason I gave this flick such a mediocre rating, is "A Christmas Carol"! It's better than I ever thought Dickens was, but the Dickens came first. I loved the movie until I realized that.

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Wild Strawberries

"Wild Strawberries" is a film by Ingmar Bergman, made soon after "The Seventh Seal." I'm still not completely familar with Bergman's work, the only other Bergman film I've seen is The Seventh Seal. Wild Strawberries is a film that will thrill some and bore others. The movie is approaching 50 years old and it hasn't aged much; I think many people who are coming to the end of their life feel the same way, the main character in the film, Isak Borg. Isak Borg is an aging doctor, who's going traveling to accept an honorary degree. In the beginning of the movie, he has a nightmare which makes him face his inevitable death. When he leaves, his son's wife Marianne (Ingrid Thulin) comes with him. En route, he stops by his old home and has a flashback about a woman he was in love with. She ended up marrying his brother. Along the way, he picks up a group of young kids who are intrigued by the doctor and he continues having flashbacks and dreams throughout the film. The movie's not big on plot, but it's not lacking in it either. My synopsis is short because there's plenty to say, but too many spoilers in saying it. Isak is played by Victor Sjostrom, then a veteran Swedish director, who reportedly struggled to remember his lines onset. Something you'd rarely hear pointed out about this film is that writer/director Bergman was not very old when he made this film. Yet, the script is written in a tone that suggests the man had lived just as many years as Isak has. He captures the essence and the fear of the character perfectly. As I said earlier, not everyone will enjoy this film. But I'm pretty sure people who already been exposed to Bergman and have enjoyed it shall.

GRADE: B+

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