Ian (Flash Review)Dr. Borg has reached that point in life, at age 78, where he reflects upon and realizes he has dug many emotional voids. During a long car trip, along with his daughter in-law, to where he is to receive an honorary degree he reminisces about his past decisions. Through flash backs and dream scenes there is much symbolism to punctuate the choices made. The emotional journey the man takes involves soul searching and may lead to potential healing of past relationships he has soured. The film has a rather expected story arc and for me lacks striking cinematography or shot framing. There are many quiet symbolic moments that would be ideal to analyze in a film class as they aren't obviously apparent. Overall, I know this is a Bergman, but it didn't mesmerize me visually aside from the clever editing and the poetic storytelling was lessened by an unsurprising story arc.

thinbeach Wild Strawberries is at once a road trip film, and a trip down memory lane. 78 year old Isak journeys through idyllic forestry on the way to a ceremony that celebrates his life achievements as a doctor. He travels with his daughter-in-law, picks up a young trio hitching their way to Italy, and briefly, an arguing couple who they were involved in a car accident with. He recalls past memories of his younger days, and has bad dreams. It plays out less like narrative fiction than a hodge-podge diary entry, things occurring spontaneously. This means no one mood is ever built upon in layers, rather it ebbs and flows almost without structure. There are themes of death hanging over the film, unanswered questions regarding God and science, bickering and co-operation between men and women, the contrast of expression between young and old, and an appreciation for the beauty of life and the honour of career based achievements, contrasted with incidents recalling great sadness, and a failure in personal relationships - from lost loves, cheating partners, and forgotten family. Although Isak appears quite endearing and the film takes a sympathetic viewpoint, he is nonetheless faulted for his past cold aloofness which caused the women to cheat, yet the women and the partners they took up with are also faulted for their lack of principal. And when Isak attempts a greater warmth towards his maid in the final scene, she rebuffs him, long set in her own manner. In this fashion Bergman veers away from giving cliché or easy answers, and manages to capture the complexities of human relationships.Aside from hints that Isak's remaining days are limited, there is not a great deal of tension in the film, meaning it is more poem than a blockbuster. Yet it manages to maintain interest due to the emotional sway, and all encompassing themes - which are ever present, yet never preached. It is a quest for meaning, where the filmmakers wish not to give the answer, but capture the journey - for which a road trip proves a suitable metaphoric vehicle. The freewheeling nature of it helps prevent the weighty themes from becoming too morbid, and feels just as though they would on any road trip spent staring out the window. Vivid and distant at the same time.

Pancho Diaz This movie takes the audience through life, it makes us reflect on ourselves, it forces to reconsider our path. We see Isak, an old doctor who, on his way of receiving a honorary award, is confronted with his entire life, and the way that life changed him. He realizes that he aid his selfishness with loneliness, and that time took away his joy to live. The characters of Isak's mother, on one side, and Marianne and Evald on the other, remind us that this drama is recurrent in every human life, like a self-repeating prophecy that haunts all generations: Is it worth living? Should we even bother bringing new creatures to this meaningless world? How can we avoid falling into the trap of loneliness eventually?On their trip to Lund, Isak and Marianne pick up two very different groups of people. First, there's Sara, Viktor and Anders; young, happy, and cheerful. They are still innocent and worried about the existence of God and the beauty of art. Then, they pick up a bitter married couple that are constantly arguing with each other. These passengers mirror Isak's stages in life, from his cheerful youth to an already cynical marriage, the path that Marianne and Evald also seem to be taking. It is meaningful, then, that Marianne forces the married couple to leave the car. In the end, what prevails is the desire to live happily.Though, like all Bergman's movies, the plot moves a bit too slowly for modern audiences' taste, this should not overshadow the depth of this movie, so rarely found in today's cinema. Wild Strawberries is an insightful movie that brings us all to the bottom of human existence.

Anthony Iessi Ingmar Bergman is the quintessential, existential filmmaker. To me, he is the black angel of cinematic death, and please, I mean that in the best way possible. He's most famous for attempting to answer the questions that all of us want answered. What is the meaning of life? What happens when we die? Is there a god? Is there a heaven or a hell? Bergman is always asking these questions in his film, and always, does he find interesting answers and hypothesis formed by these questions. He uses his actors and his framing abilities to help drive home the main idea of these films, and thus, his movies are notoriously not very hard to understand. Most importantly, he has an ability to make us understand the answers, and to help us understand ourselves. Bergman is an introspective filmmaker by definition, and because of that, his films have become so cherished and remembered for being so. In a period slightly before his heyday, no film makes a better example of his unique cinematic mission than "Wild Strawberries""Wild Strawberries" focuses on an elderly professor, Dr. Isak Borg, who lives by himself with his common-law wife in Stockholm. After a lifelong journey of achieving greatness in himself and academia, he has been invited to Lund University to receive an honorary degree. He gets in a car with his daughter-in-law, Marianne, and together they travel to Lund. Through the travel, Isak is haunted by his own thoughts and dreams that have accumulated after years of isolation and reflection. At the not-so-ripe age of 78, Isak want's to understand what led him to this strange point of his life, where he went wrong, and what on Earth will happen next? He is remembered of the place of his childhood, where the wild strawberries grew. A time when he romanced his young, beautiful cousin, Sara, before being stolen from him by his older, arrogant brother Sigfrid. Before going on the trip, he has a vivid, terrible nightmare of being old, as a dead body follows him through a city street and a hearse crashed in front of him, revealing a clone of himself in a casket. Through the ways of the trip, and through the hitchhikers he meets along the way, his mind keeps racing and the dreams of his past and future keep following him. The journey becomes so strenuous and visceral to his memory, that by the time he arrives at his destination, his psyche is entirely cleansed, and he is greeted with the memory of a peaceful fishing trip with his family. What Bergman is doing here is experimenting with time and space, through memory and reflection. His style reminds me of "Hiroshima Mon-Amour", considering that there is no clear pattern between what happens in the moment, and what happens in the past. Bergman is giving us a deconstructed narrative that in essence, gives us a clear indication of the kind of crisis that Isak is going through. As a man that has been through everything and nothing, his mind is racing, much like our own, of scenarios that did and didn't happen. This is quite an interesting introspective device that Bergman uses. He is making movies about people, the exact way that we think about each other. Bergman typically uses characters that wrestle with their own identity, and bravely ask questions that might have no answers. Thus, it doesn't take much interpretation of the audience to understand, because all of the questions and answers are presented on screen. "Wild Strawberries" is a very entertaining, beautiful piece to that effect. The entire time, I was haunted, confused, and rightfully engaged with Isak and the characters he meets. My favorite scene of the film is the nightmare at the beginning. The surrealism of this section is frightening and so wonderfully imaginative. I loved the giant eyeglasses that appeared over his head, as well as the dead man with no face that appears to him in the middle of the street. Bergman was really experimenting with some wonderful visual concepts, especially for the 1950's. I thought the acting, was also very real and interesting to watch. Bergman was always known to be a director for actors, and in this film especially, he makes his actors play these characters as real people, not merely as stage personas. What we get because of that is a real, frightening portrayal of an older man, and seeing that alone is fascinating. In conclusion, "Wild Strawberries" is a dark and interesting classic about the struggle of understanding our fate, and without question, it should regarded as one of the great films of Ingmar Bergman.