Review of Wild Strawberries (2012) by Christopher C — 12 Apr 2011

Of the three films of the late '50s with which Ingmar Bergman established his reputation as one of the foremost auteurs of the age, 1957's SMULTRONSTAELLET (Wild Strawberries) may be the weakest. Like DET SJUNDE INSEGLET (The Seventh Seal) and JUNGFRUKAELLAN (The Virgin Spring), it treats issues of religious faith and fear of death, but in a much less coherent way. Yet, SMULTRONSTAELLET may be the most charming and endearing of the trilogy, as we watch a crusty old man examine his past and decide to treat those around him better.

The Scrooge-like figure is Isak Borg (Viktor Sjostrom), a retired professor of medicine now in his 78th year. Invited from his Stockholm home to receive an honourary degree at Lund University, he decides to travel the distance by car. Accompanying him on this outing is his daughter-in-law Marianne (Ingrid Thulin), who is experiencing marital troubles with his son Evald (Gunnar Bjornstrand). Along the way, Borg stops at some old stomping grounds, such as the summer house he spent his childhood at, and the area where he first practiced medicine. As Borg drifts into reveries of old memories, we discover how he became so bitter and hostile, but Marianne's incisive comments push him towards rediscovering his humanity.

Of course death is an ever-present spectre when Borg is pushing 80. But the strong religious element comes when Borg and Marianne pick up three hitchhikers, a young lady (Bibi Andersson) with her boyfriend and a family-appointed chaperone. One of these lads wants to be a priest and has strong faith, while the other is hoping to become a doctor and doubts the existence of a god. They quarrel, but somehow this entire matter seems unrelated to the main arc of the film. Similarly baffling is Evald's babblings about how he doesn't want a child because he himself does not want to exist, in which the writing almost seems parody Bergman.

The acting, however, is superb. Sjostrom really brings his character to life with his initial bah-humbug mannerisms and his later senile puzzlement that he cannot win everyone back to him right away. It's amusing to see Bibi Andersson playing a ditzy teenager, a role light years away from her intense turn in Bergman's PERSONA almost a decade later.

The most economic way to see SMULTRONSTAELLET is in the Criterion Collection set of four Bergman films from the 1950s.