Ingmar Bergman’s Wild Strawberries is one of the most important films in the history of cinema. A seventy-eight-year-old egotistical self-centered cold doctor and medical professor reflects on his past life in the final stage of his life and realizes that he worked diligently but did not receive true love and affection throughout his life. He blames none but himself for this. However, he dreams of his golden old days and tries to come to terms with life. In the process of rediscovering himself, he tries to find out the ways of reconciliation, redemption, and the true meaning of life. At the dusk of his life, his golden cherished memories illuminate his current world. Ingmar Bergman weaves Wild Strawberries with dreams, nightmares, reveries, self-reflections, and Nostalgia.
Wild Strawberries is about dreams, reflections, and nostalgia. While driving to Lund to be awarded Doctor Jubilaris, Isak Borg (Victor Sjostrom) suddenly diverges to his childhood home where he would spend each summer with his extended family. His pregnant daughter-in-law Marianne (Ingrid Thulin) goes swimming and Isak walks to his house. He sees a patch of wild strawberries and walks down the memory lane. He dreams of his cousin and childhood sweetheart Sara (Bibi Andersson) plucking wild strawberries to present her deaf uncle on his birthday. Even though his brother Sigfrid flirts with Sara, she remains fully committed to Isak. She leaves the dinner table angrily when Isak’s twin sisters point out the probable romance between her and Sigfrid. However, she ends up marrying Sigfrid later. The cherished memories of his boyhood suddenly flashback in Isak’s mind. Out of his ten siblings, only Isak is still alive. Sara is also alive and now in her 70s.
Wild Strawberries is also about nightmares. In the final phase of his life, Isak Borg is scared of his impending death. He vividly realizes that the final call can come anytime. His fear of death turns into nightmares. In a nightmare, he walks along an empty street and sees a wall clock without hands. He takes his watch out of his pocket and finds it handless as well. The rear wheel of a running hearse carrying a coffin strikes an electricity pole and the coffin slips out. A hand pops out of the coffin. When Isak approaches to the coffin, he discovers none but himself inside the coffin. In another nightmare, his wife complains about him being cold. Mr. Altman, whose car almost collided with Isak’s car, appears as his examiner. Isak fails to detect a bacteria from a sample with a microscope. He also announces a living woman as dead.
There are multiple similarities between the Borg and Bergman families. Bergman wanted to create the Isak Borg character like his father. However, it turned into more like him. Bergman was born and brought up in a strict Catholic family under the direct control and supervision of his father. The cold environment in the Bergman family tormented Ingmar Bergman since his childhood days. The strained relationship between him and his father had a long-lasting impact on his mind and he never really got out of it. His life greatly inspired his filmography. In Wild Strawberries, Isak Borg carries cold, selfish, detached, unemotional characteristics similar to Bergman’s father. Evald has a strained relationship similar to what Bergman had with his father. However, as the film progresses, Ingmar Bergman’s own features start getting infused into Isak’s behavior in the twilight years of his life. He dreams about his childhood, longs for his summer holidays with his family members, and deeply cherishes the memories with his cousin sister and then-girlfriend Sara. Isak desperately tries to find solace in his cherished memories and beloved family. Bergman always dwelled in his childhood. The precious memories of his childhood immensely influenced his films. In the final stage of his life, Isak follows the same path as Bergman did throughout his life.
Wild Strawberries is directly inspired by Bergman’s own life. Once, he was traveling to Dalecarlia from Stockholm by car in the early morning of spring and stopped midway at his grandmother’s house in Uppsala. He walked up to the front door and got surprised to see the house in the same condition as it was during his childhood. Nothing changed. A lot of memories of his childhood suddenly flashed back. It was wonderful to enter the house and return to his childhood. In the same way in Wild Strawberries, Isak stops midway at his childhood home while driving from Stockholm to Lund. When he walks to a patch of wild Strawberries, the precious childhood memories suddenly flashback. He remembers his romantic days with his childhood sweetheart Sara. Bergman’s own life is reflected in Isak’s character.
Wild Strawberries is a typical life story of every human. During youth, humans tend to crave for only materialistic aspects of life like money and wealth. They often ignore the philosophical aspects of life like peace, love, sympathy, communion, and real happiness. Materialistic life makes them selfish and pushes them far away from their near and dear ones. With the passage of time, life becomes more hollow and meaningless. Humans realize the true meaning of life when they reach their twilight years. They miss their loved ones deeply and cherish the precious memories of their golden old days. However, the time has already passed. They have no other option but to come to terms with life. During those twilight years of life, they reconcile their achievements versus regrets. This is the time for redemption.
Ingmar Bergman wrote the screenplay of Wild Strawberries over a period of two months in the late spring of 1957 while undergoing treatment for a gastric ulcer at Karolinska Hospital in Stockholm. It was a troublesome time in his personal life as well. His third marriage was on the verge of breakup and the romantic relationship with Bibi Andersson was about to bloom. His screenplay covers both sides of Isak. It reflects on his past life and focuses on his current spiritual contemplation. Bergman’s screenplay brilliantly elaborates on the troubled relationships between Isak and his son Evald, and Evald and his wife Marianne. It also incredibly portrays the vivacious Sara and the heartbroken Marianne.
One of the important aspects of Wild Strawberries is Gunnar Fischer’s magnificent black-and-white cinematography. The close-up shots of Isak are captured so efficiently that each frame can be turned into a beautiful black-and-white portrait. Those close-up shots vividly portray the psychological, philosophical, and spiritual contemplations of Isak. Bright lighting in the nightmare scene, when he discovers himself enclosed in a coffin, shows his vulnerabilities and helplessness.
When Bergman and producer Carl Anders Dymling contacted Victor Sjostrom, Bergman’s matinee idol, to play Isak, he was already seventy-eight years old, exhausted, and about to retire from films. They had to persuade him hard to play Isak. Sjostrom struggled initially to adjust to the shooting schedule and remember his dialogues. However, he delivered an unforgettable outstanding performance. He added multiple shades to Isak’s character. He is a cold, egotistical, selfish person to his wife, son, and daughter-in-law but an affectionate and warm person to hitchhikers Sara, Anders, and Viktor. Wild Strawberries will always be remembered for Sjostrom. The vivacious screen presence of Bibi Andersson as Sara enlightens the viewers. Ingrid Thulin brilliantly portrays both sides of Marianne, a loving and caring daughter-in-law, and a sad and broken housewife. Max Von Sydow plays the minor role of the gas station owner.