Smultronstället (Wild Strawberries) by Ingmar Bergman

Director: Ingmar Bergman

According to the Vatican Best Film List, this movie is a portrayal of a man’s “interior journey from the pangs of regret and anxiety to a refreshing sense of peace and reconciliation.” As professor Isak Borg drives from Stockholm, to Lund, to receive an honorary degree conferred by Lund University, he promenades down the roads and streets of his own life and memories as he puts his own life under the microscope. His Freudian dreams, hallucinations, nightmares all expose his own fears that he has deeply guarded all his life. His methodical, unsympathetic, individualistic demeanor have rendering it merely a memoir of events that have been locked up and stored away.

However, it is not as bad as it sounds. Even though this movie, like others by Bergman, is ingrained with a melancholic theme, it radiates optimism through the dying eyes of a man who is in the process of reconciling, and making some meaning out of life revisited.

The movie starts with a surrealistic, Freudian dream sequence that shows Isak walking on a sunny day and coming across anomalous objects like clocks without hands, a man with the stuffed face of a voodoo doll. He then sees a carriage carrying a coffin and is horrified to find out that its his own body that reaches out and holds his hand firmly, refusing to let go. He then wakes up, and decides to go on a short, but life-defining trip.

Upon starting his trip with his daughter-in-law Marianne, he discovers during the conversation that she dislikes him intensely because of his indifference and his self-centered, selfish approach to the problems of others. Marianne is going through a rough patch in her marital life with her husband and Isak’s son - Evald. Seeking solace and support from Isak, she gets a cold response from him as he refuses to help her with her conjugal problems, and tells her to deal with them on her own (recounted while they are driving).

He stops by his house where he spent his childhood, and recounts how he lost the woman he loved to his brother, because of his own rather conscientious and practical approach to life and love. However, his love interest, Sara, rejects him and opts for the more impulsive, rash cousin – Sigfrid. This, although not told explicitly in the movie, has a deep impact on Isak’s attitude in life.

Back in reality, he meets a young energetic, self-declared virgin, Sara, who reminds him of his own love. She is accompanied by two men both of whom love her (according to her). Her own relationship with the two men – Anders and Viktor - is starkly similar to his own with Sara and Sigfrid. Anders is going to a minister, and Viktor is going to be a doctor. More conservative Angers is more like Isak, whereas Viktor is more like Sigfrid, and appeals more to Sara (However, it is never known who she lands up with). He also comes across quarrelling couple who remind him of his own turbulent relationship with his wife.

His second stop is his own mother’s house (his mother is surprisingly still alive when all her children except Isak have died). The complaining woman shows him a watch without hands. A confounded Isak realizes that it is the same as the one in the dream in the beginning of the movie. Marianne witnesses the entire conversation with a pensive expression on her face.

On taking leave, he falls asleep in the car, and again goes back to meeting Sara in his dream who insults him and tells him that they are not meant for each other, and that she will marry Sigfrid. Further into the dream, he is led into a room in a house by a man who asks him whether he is ready for an examination. He is asked to look into a microscope but sees nothing in it. This is symbolic of him seeing his own life in retrospect - not been able to find anything important in it. He is also asked to read from the blackboard which he cannot comprehend (The text apparently outlines the first duty of the doctor which is to ask for forgiveness – this may be indicative of his own inability to forgive). He says he has a weak heart and that must be taken into consideration for evaluation. He is also asked to examine a patient, who he wrongly diagnoses as being dead (stressing his own approach and attitude in life – dead, cold and unresponsive). As a result of his wrong answers and diagnosis, he is declared incompetent. The chaperone than tells him that he has allegations of being callous, ruthless and selfish, by his wife. He is stunned when, taken to a window, he revisits the scene of his own wife philandering with another man. She then proceeds to tell her paramour that upon telling Isak, he’ll be cold as ice, and be unmoved even by her infidelity.

Isak snaps out of the dream to a pensive Marianne smoking a cigarette. She tells Isak that he and Ewald are very alike. She talks about the moment when she told Ewald that she was pregnant and was looking forward to having the baby. Ewald is a little rattled and doesn’t betray any emotion except disappointment, as he does not want a child. He tells her that “he was an unwanted child in a hellish marriage.” And as a result, he is opposed to idea of having a child. Clearly, his parents strained relationship affects his own opinions regarding marriage, fatherhood and in general, relationships. He states that he “does not wish to live life one day longer than he intends to” (thinks of himself as a “walking corpse”). This scene reinforces the anguish inside Evald, who is becoming as cold, distant and stone-hearted as his own parents. Marianne also divulges in a moment of sentimentality that she wants the child, and that she loves her husband, breaking down in the process. Isak then gives her advice and talks to her frankly about his own hellish marriage, contemplating the impact his marriage had on Evald and nodding when she says she wants to make the most of her marriage.

They finally reach Lund, and meet Evald, who continues with his distant, cold approach towards Marianne. The ceremony then commences and his thoughts go back to the day’s events.

Following the ceremony, he apologizes to his caretaker, Miss Agda, who is surprised at his gentleness. (This emphasizes that his transformation is complete). Evald comes to bid him goodnight and Isak counsels Evald to patch up with Marianne, and tells him that he doesn’t owe him the money anymore.

In the last scene, there is a radiant light on Isak’s face as if he has come to terms with his life and truly forgiven and forgotten. He has a beautiful dream and wakes up a happier man. The movie starts with a nightmare and ends with a placid dream indicating closure on the part of Isak.

Bergman’s movies have always dealt with man’s existence, and his questions regarding why he must live, what are the things he must do, and how does he approach his mortal end. A lot of these questions must have haunted him prior to his death (which was quite recent). However, he leaves indelible marks on the conscience, thought process, and existence of the viewers, many of whom have similar conflicts, questions, and opinions on life. The surrealistic, Dali-inspired dream sequences are very reflective of his own conflicts and give an insight into the reasons why Isak became the way he did – widely respected, apparently a complete man on the outside, but one torn apart from within with his immense struggles, turbulence and discomfiture.