Wild Strawberries - By Ingrid Bergman.
Wild Strawberries is considered by many critics to be a landmark film in the history of cinema by one of the greatest directors that ever lived - Ingrid Bergman.
The film is what can be considered a 'road movie' by todays movie labels. The basic synopsis of the film is about a medical professor who is on his way to his former university to collect an honorary degree. On the way he has nightmares and dreams about his past.
On the way he stops at a summer house where he used to spend his childhood summers and he has dreams about his childhood girlfriend, his family dinners and special occasions.
He is accompanied in the car by his daughter-in-law who tells him about his son's quirks and behaviour towards her. He stops on the way to see his old mother who complains that none of her children come to see her. She shows him, his and his brothers' childhood toys and nick-knacks.
On the way they also pick up a teenage girl and her two boyfriends. It is these three strangers who seem to have some affection for the professor and who cheer him and give him flowers because he is getting the honorary degree.
There are two nightmare sequences of the professor -
in the first one he is walking on a road and he cannot see a single soul, only some clocks on street poles which have no needles. Suddenly a horse drawing a carriage comes into view. The carriage is carrying a coffin. One of the wheels of the carriage comes off and rolls towards him. The horse pulling the carriage comes to a halt and the coffin falls from the back of the carriage. As he walks towards the open coffin he sees that there is dead body in the coffin and as he walks nearer he realises that the face of the dead body is his. The hand of the dead body suddenly reaches out for him and the nightmare comes to an end.
This scene is considered one of the landmark sequences in cinema direction.
The other nightmare of the professor is when he goes back to his college, he is asked to take a test. When he is taking the test he realises that he has forgotten the basics of medicine.
He is asked to examine a human body and he says the man is dead when suddenly the man wakes up.
To continue with the story, his son meets him when he reaches the university and he goes to his rooms to freshen up.
He receives his honorary degree and goes back to his rooms and goes to bed, where he has another dream about his childhood. He sees his relatives go for a boat ride and he asks his girlfriend where are his parents. His girlfriend takes him to a rocky place where he sees his parents fishing. He wakes up with a smile on his face and goes back to sleep.
The movie ends.
Though this movie is considered one of the best films along with 'The Seventh Seal' by the
great IngmarBergman and a must see by all serious students of cinema, i feel it is an over rated film. None of the sequences are anything great except maybe for the horse-carriage nightmare sequence and i can boast of having seen most of the great films of the world. Only Victor Sjostrom' performance as Professor Isak Berg stands out.
