Wild Strawberries (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]

In 1975 my literature professor told us we were going to study the greatest movie ever made and it was about an old man driving an old car to receive an award for being a good doctor. Plus, instead of Technicolor, it was in black & white. On top of that, the film was in Swedish and I would have to read the English subtitles. But never fear, with the promise of such an exhilarating, action-packed movie, he planned on showing it twice in a row, and wagered all who attended the first screening would stay for the second. And he nailed it.We began by reading the stage play, which is the same as the screenplay. Then we had a chance to see the film. I indeed watched both showings and it changed my thinking about what makes a good "film" (this was way too highbrow for my young self to call a movie, but now I think "movie" is the right word, because the action, plot and production are all so powerful, against all odds! This movie is a blockbuster!)At the time I was a wild boy about campus who's taste for movies was more action/adventure, western and mystery/suspense. The funny thing about Wild Strawberries is there's a little of all those genre's in it (if you understand what a cowboy Bergman was at this point in his career).This is the story about the late-life introspection of an elderly physician. It really appears on the surface to be about as dull a concept for a film as one could ever want to suffer through. But this is a story about facing reality, and reality is rarely dull. The plot moves seamlessly through many phases, but much of it involves a road trip through the Swedish countryside.A few years ago I bought a DVD of the 70's cult car-chase flick "Vanishing Point"; I hadn't seen it since the drive-in in my college years. I also own a Criterion Collection copy of Wild Strawberries and I've watched both recently. I realized that Wild Strawberries is a car chase flick as well.But Bergman's Isak (played by Victor Sjöström) is not running from war weariness but from a life of nihilism cloaked in the old-world respectability of a family doctor. The chase is his lifetime of self-certainty, agnosticism and increasing isolation finally catching up to him. He realizes that he has been a walking dead man for much of his life (something he partially inherited from his mother, and impacted all his close associations throughout his long and successful, but sad life). Getting too far into the details may yield spoilers, although there is enough complexity in this plot to keep literature classes struggling for an A for a long time.The plot is a series of amazing dialogue scenes, with interruptions for disturbing dream sequences, most from his classic 1937 Packard Eight Touring limousine. The day's accumulation of insights, linking dreams, reverie and conversation gradually lead to a turning point, a crisis precipitated by unyielding reality checks that befuddle the normally unflappable Dr. Borg.The ground-breaking dream sequences, the first early in the film, are Hitchcock-like and terrifyingly surreal (or was the early Hitch being Bergmanesque?). The dreams set the tone of tension in a film that could have so easily been a drone, but not with Bergman in charge. Of incredible beauty is the reverie scene, where Isak relives some of his childhood while making a stop at his family's deserted summer lake house.The continuing, front-seat of the Packard dialog scenes between Isak and his daughter-in-law, and later with the Almans (including another disturbing dream sequence) and with the "children" (hitchhiking college-age kids) are all filled with symbols and conversation pointing to Isak's living-dead existence. As the day progresses, they chip away at Borg's long-held control, coldness and distance.It's interesting that Bergman himself, at this point in his young career, was much like Isak; agnostic, distant, self-absorbed, incapable of intimacy. Yet his conclusion to Wild Strawberries is much more hopeful than Bergman's own life. One wonders if Bergman may have ended his life with a Wild Strawberries conversion, or if he considered it at the end.The turning point of the movie, easy to miss if you're not paying close attention, is the love-promise from the young hitchhiker Sara (Bibi Andersson). This is the sea-change moment for Isak. The incredible sweetness and innocent passion, freely offered in grace by the beautiful young girl, serves as a regeneration moment, a freely-given justification of Isak, imputing her child-like passion and righteousness into his heart. In a way it was as though his childhood sweetheart (also named Sara, also played by Bibi) came back in her youthful beauty to heal the wound of rejection she inflicted on Isak almost 70 years earlier.The first Sara's betrayal of young Isak (seen in the summer reverie scene), choosing his brother as the better lover and husband, probably led to Isak's walled-off life. But when this new Sara promises her Platonic, childlike love to the old Isak, he replies with solemn acceptance: "I'll remember that". This seems to break the spell of living death dealt to him by his first love, and exacerbated by so many others in his life.Unlike Bergman, Isak closes his eyes that night with the hope of a life of meaning, of love in service, not just service as a foil for maintaining personal dignity and image. He sees that loving for loves sake is worth the risk of pain. Unlike Bergman, Isak has a hope of seeing God when his death does arrive, and has demonstrated a new life has begun. This is Isak's Today; his day of repentance, of stopping the tortuous task of hardening his heart against the call of life, yielding in submission to love, mercy and grace.This film requires many viewings, and I have yet to tire of it. Bergman's troupe of actors were on par with the best of any generation, his cinematography is spartan and overwhelmingly effective; his location shooting in the beautiful Swedish summer is fascinatingly appealing, yielding a foreign, forgotten land yet with a "down-home" feeling that's almost Mayberry-like, if that's not too extreme a comparison.This movie shows the dichotomy of living for self versus living in loving service to and with others. Isak thought he lived to serve but discovered that service is only of meaning to the server if it is from the heart. Service without love is only partial service to those in need, and is a self-inflicted affront to the server. This is ultimately a hopeful picture that we can all learn from if we watch with an open heart. Otherwise, we see the wasted tragedy of existential living with no greater good than one's own dead image.Does YOUR watch have any hands?

... because Dr. Isak Borg, apparently both an M.D. and a professor, is extremely self-aware. In the opening minutes of the film he admits he has allowed himself to become isolated from others and declares that his most annoying characteristics are being a pedant and thinking that women should not be allowed to smoke in the car. He has one son, also a doctor, and his wife Karin has been dead for many years.Professor Borg is supposed to get an honorary degree in Lund that evening, and after waking from a horrifying dream that seems to be about death and loss of identity that only Ingmar Bergman could cook up, decides at 3AM to drive his car rather than fly as originally planned. His housekeeper of 40 years has a fit and he teases her that she is carrying on like a wife. In spite of the early hour his only son's wife, who is staying with him, asks to come along too.So off they go at dawn for the long drive up the coast. In fact, I found Professor Borg to be a good guy. His daughter-in-law, who is his guest, talks about how ruthless he is. I'm sorry I just don't see it. When they stop at a gas station the young attendant talks about how Borg is still remembered from decades before when he was a physician there and insists on paying for his gas. Borg cheerfully invites a young girl named Sara and her two male companions to ride with them as far as Lund - they are going to Italy together. When the group is sideswiped by a couple, Borg invites them to ride with them. It is only because the husband berates his wife to the point that she hits him repeatedly that they are asked to leave, and then it is the daughter in law who does the asking.Borg makes various stops. He stops at his summer home as a child and revisits, not a memory, but an episode he could not have seen or heard because he was elsewhere at the time, between his first and true love Sarah and his brother Sigfrid, as he tries to steal her away from Isak with some bold physical behavior and must have won, because the two went on to marry and have six children. Yet, Borg does not seem angry. Instead you see a trace of a smile and nostalgia on his face, especially when he sees Sara in tears talking to her cousin about Isak's sweetness versus Sigfrid's physicality and how she is horrified that she is attracted to the latter.This is really the only pleasant dream/daydream/memory of the several along the way. In the end I figured that the young girl and her two struggling paramours are probably signifying Isak, Sigfrid, and Sara in his youth, and the feuding couple probably represents Borg's own unhappy marriage in which, after seeing how he felt about Sara and how he must have felt losing her to his own rather boorish brother, the wife could not have helped but feel like anything but the back up plan. Isak and Karin had only the one child, their son, compared to Sigfrid's six. His own son, married for many years, has none. It's like Bergman is equating fertility to connectivity, not just to a spouse, but to people in general. In the end, it's not like Isak Borg was a bad person who redeems himself because of all of these dreams and touches with the distant past, but he does seem more at peace with his coming death as he readies for bed that night.I'd highly recommend it. I'm no expert on Swedish cinema or Bergman at all, but I thought it was interesting how Bergman seems to be saying that Borg's "wrong turn", if there was any at all, could be traced back to losing his first and true love to his own brother, and that everything after that just fed off of that disappointment. As I look back on my life, I think that I can agree with that assessment.And now a word about the daughter-in-law. She accuses Isak of having said some just horrible things. Things he does not remember saying and things the audience never hears. Perhaps she wants to blame her husband's bleak and icy behavior on someone and Isak is convenient? At any rate, by journey's end she has warmed to Isak enough to confide in him about a great turmoil in her marriage. This was more of a change in her than any change I saw in Isak.This one is really worth a look, even if you normally aren't into foreign film. My review is just my take on the plot. I'm sure it means many things to many people or we wouldn't still be discussing and watching it 60 years later.

Buen precio además de buen material extra en excelente calidad

Superb movie. Of course Criterion wouldn’t put out a bad print.

画質がとても良く期待通りでした。

I first saw Wild Strawberries on Saturday night TV when I was about 15. I watched it with my father. Where everybody else was that night I don't remember. We watched it alone in silence. Bergman, black-and-white images, Nordic landscapes, the sing-song cadences of the incomprehensible language, blonde Swedish beauty (Ingrid Thulin, Bibi Andersson) — visual information beamed into our California home from the dark side of the moon.The film ended. My dad got up and went to bed silently. Whatever the film said or didn't say to him I never heard, the secret locked away in the vault of his heart.What did it say to me? I can't remember exactly. What can 15 years on this planet teach you about anything? But it must have taught me something. It must have suggested my little world was not the only one. There are different ways of seeing and feeling, different textures in what we call the fabric of life. I remember sensing this, though there wasn't any way I could have put it into words. I remember how foreign Sweden looked and how its foreignness did not frighten me. If any thing, it thrilled me.As time passed the beauty of Ingrid haunted me. How does a woman become that beautiful and why doesn't her husband (played by Gunnar Bjornstand) love her for that beauty?She carried his baby. Good news, surely. No, not for Gunnar. He frowned and became surly and sulky when she told him. The child would be miserable, he said, just as he had been. Man hands on misery to man, said Philip Larkin, and there are times when we know this to be true.The elderly father/professor (played movingly by Victor Sjostrom) has lived selfishly. His career has been important, which means his standing in the academic/intellectual community. His accomplishments have been noticed, feted, honoured. He travels now with Ingrid by car from Stockholm to Lund to receive another award. But on the way he is sidetracked by all manner of things: summer daydreams of his carefree youth, scraps of conversation from his past, nightmares filled with Freudian symbolism, hitchhikers, a feuding couple they give a lift to after the couple's minor car wreck. Sauntering along the road to Canterbury, he becomes a whimsical Chaucerian character.What does it all mean? By the end we understand, and so does Victor. His long life has been lived, but not lived wisely, perceptively. He has chased the wrong things, the things he thought were important but weren't, while the things that were he neglected. How can he be forgiven for this? Why should he be?Ingrid, as it happens, becomes his angel, a loving emissary of sorts between heaven and hell. She carries, despite everything, love in her heart for him and for Gunnar, and it is this — this love — that will transform everything around her.

Ingmar Bergmans "Wilde Erdbeeren" - im schwedischen Originaltitel "Smultronstället", 1957 - zählt für mich zu den unbestrittenen Meisterwerken der Kinematografie. Darüber hinaus stellt dieser Film einen wertvollen Beitrag zum filmkünstlerisch zum Ausdruck gebrachten Existenzialismus dar.Zum Inhalt: Der Arzt und Forscher Isak Borg (grandios: Victor Sjöström), seines Zeichens verwitwet und 78 Jahre alt, lebt zurückgezogen mitsamt seiner mürrisch-liebevollen Haushälterin Agda in Stockholm. Anlässlich seines 50jährigen Doktorjubiläums wurde Borg zuvor nach Lund eingeladen, um von seiner Alma Mater geehrt zu werden. Am Vorabend dieses denkwürdigen Ehrentages hat Borg einen erschreckenden Traum - er begegnet darin dem Tod, im Folgenden das Leitmotiv des Films.In Begleitung seiner Schwiegertochter Marianne (Ingrid Thulin), zu welcher der Professor ein bestenfalls platonisches Verhältnis pflegt, bricht er am kommenden Morgen mit dem Auto nach Lund auf. Auf halber Strecke machen sie an einem verlassenen Sommerhaus, in dem Borg seine unbeschwerte Kindheit verbrachte, Rast. Er findet dort den Platz der wilden Erdbeeren wieder und entrückte Bilder der Vergangenheit holen ihn ein. Er sieht seinen schwerhörigen Onkel Aaron vor sich, dessen Geburtstag gerade gefeiert wird, umgeben von Borgs Geschwistern, er selbst aber steht als gealterter Unbeteiligter voller Wehmut außerhalb des Geschehens.Bei der Weiterfahrt nach Lund nehmen Borg und Marianne dann drei Studenten mit: Sara (Bibi Andersson), Victor und Anders, die bis nach Italien trampen wollen. Kurze Zeit später entgehen sie nur knapp einem Zusammenstoß mit einem anderen Wagen, der im Straßengraben landet. Den beiden unverletzt gebliebenen Insassen, dem Ingenieur Alman und seiner Frau, bietet Borg die Mitfahrt an. Unterwegs geraten die beiden jedoch so heftig in Streit miteinander, dass Marianne sie des Fahrzeugs verweisen muss.Zur Mittagszeit rastet man erneut: Victor und Anders, ganz in ihrem leidenschaftlichen Element, diskutieren enthusiastisch über Religion und Wissenschaft; Borg und Marianne wiederum besuchen die in der Nähe lebende Mutter des Professors, die Begegnung fällt, vor allem für Marianne, distanziert und befremdlich aus.Auf der Weiterfahrt - Marianne fährt - schläft Borg ein und wird abermals von bedrückenden Traumvisionen heimgesucht. Zunächst begegnet er seiner Cousine Sara, die er in seiner Jugend liebte, aber letztlich an seinen Bruder Sigfrid verloren geben musste. In einer veränderten Traumsituation muss er sein praktisches Hochschulexamen wiederholen, bei dem er überraschenderweise kläglich versagt. Der Prüfer ist Alman: er tritt als Ankläger im Namen der verstorbenen Frau des Professors auf und begleitet diesen zu einer Szenerie, in der sich Borgs Frau einem fremden Mann hingibt. Borg erwacht und erzählt Marianne von seinen Traumbildern. Diese wiederum erkennt darin überrascht, wie sehr der junge Isak Borg in seiner Gefühlskälte ihrem Mann Ewald, ebenfalls Mediziner, ähnelt.In Lund angekommen, empfängt Ewald Borg den Vater und Marianne in seinem Haus. Ermüdet vom Ritual des vorangegangenen Festaktes, den der Professor wie abwesend über sich hat ergehen lassen, sinkt er am Abend ins Bett. Sara, Anders und Victor verabschieden sich liebevoll mit einem Lied von ihm; Marianne und Ewald scheinen ihre vormals angedeuteten Differenzen überwunden zu haben und kommen einander wieder näher. Noch einmal ruft Borg Erinnerungen aus seiner Kindheit wach, er träumt sich zurück zum sommerlichen Erdbeerplatz und sieht seine Eltern, die ihm vom gegenüberliegenden Seeufer aus zuwinken."Wilde Erdbeeren" berichtet über die Ereignisse eines bedeutungsvollen Tages im Leben eines alten "Einsiedlerkrebses". Jahrzehntelang hat der geachtete Professor das Bewusstsein, im Leben versagt zu haben, verdrängt und gleichzeitig unter diesem Selbstbetrug gelitten. Darüber ist er im Alter einsam geworden - ein Mensch, der vom Leben nichts begehrt als Ruhe und die Möglichkeit, sich den Dingen zu widmen, die sein Interesse erweckt haben. Seine Abschirmung von der Außenwelt ist somit selbst gewählt. Der zu Beginn erwähnte Todestraum bewegt ihn dazu, das Auto - und nicht wie ursprünglich geplant den Zug - zu benutzen: er will die Stätten der Vergangenheit wiederentdecken, sich auf die Suche begeben nach der versäumten Zeit, der verlorenen Liebe, dem vernachlässigten Leben. Die Fahrt nach Lund entwickelt sich für ihn zu einer Wiederbegegnungsreise mit der Welt, mit den Menschen - und letzten Endes mit sich selbst. Die äußeren und inneren Ereignisse der Reise wühlen den Bodensatz der Erinnerungen noch einmal auf: Realität und Geträumtes vermischen sich miteinander, Vergangenes wird erstmals selbstkritisch reflektiert.Eine Schlüsselszene des Films ist das "Examen" durch Alman. Dieser bescheinigt dem Professor ärztliche Inkompetenz und klagt ihn der Gefühlskälte und Selbstsucht an, die für den Ehebruch von Borgs Frau die bestimmenden Hintergründe waren. Borg erkennt daraufhin nicht nur seine eigene Schuld, sondern begreift auch, dass er dafür mit Einsamkeit gestraft wurde. "Gibt es denn keine Gnade?" entfährt es ihm angesichts seines zwischenmenschlichen Versagens. Konfrontiert mit enttäuschenden Erlebnissen, mit unbeabsichtigten, aber gerade deswegen umso schwerwiegenderen Fehlern, versteht Borg nun, welches Maß an Schuld er selbst zu verantworten hat. Aus dieser innerlichen Katharsis durch Selbsterkenntnis geht er als neuer, geläuterter Mensch hervor.Die Personen, denen Borg während seiner Fahrt begegnet, stehen vielfach im Widerstreit mit ihren eigenen Nöten. Während die Probleme der drei Studenten noch vergleichsweise "theoretischer" Natur sind, geht es bei Marianne und Ewald sowie beim Ehepaar Alman um die grundsätzliche Frage nach Sinn und Zweck menschlichen Zusammenlebens. In der Darstellung dieser konfliktbehafteten Beziehungen wird Bergmans Beeinflussung durch die Existenzphilosophie am deutlichsten erkennbar.Der Film wendet sich in erster Linie an ein empfängliches, verständnisbereites Publikum. Es handelt sich nicht unbedingt um "leichte Kost", die der reinen Unterhaltung dienen soll. Vielmehr wird versucht, psychologisch vertiefend und unter Einbeziehung der religiösen Dimension, die komplexe Problematik menschlichen Miteinanders und die Schwierigkeit der Lebensbewältigung darzustellen - ohne dass sich Bergman dabei zum Richter aufschwingen würde. Ihm geht es primär darum, ein persönliches Bekenntnis zur Notwendigkeit gegenseitigen Verstehens und des Mit- anstatt des Nebeneinanderlebens abzulegen. Unaufdringlich, aber überzeugend für diejenigen, die sich seinen Intentionen öffnen.Der ungemeine Gedankenreichtum, der sich in den vielseitig angelegten Charakteren widerspiegelt, und die Präzision und Schönheit der optischen Gestaltung machen diesen Film zu einem zeitlosen Meisterwerk ganz besonderer Machart. Ich habe diesen eindrucksvollen Film jetzt schon mehrere Male gesehen und bin nach wie vor von seiner Strahlkraft angetan - auch wenn es sich hierbei nach gängiger Vorstellung um einen "spannungslosen Film" handeln sollte._____________________________________________________________________________________Die sehr schön gestaltete "Ingmar Bergman Edition" von Arthaus enthält auf DVD 2 (Bonusmaterial) die folgenden Features:- Aufnahmen von den Dreharbeiten,- ein Interview mit Bibi Andersson (Sara),- eine Bergman-Biografie,- ein Filmessay zu "Wilde Erdbeeren".Einzig die Stimme des Kommentators - sehr "norddeutsch" und schroff - hätte besser gewählt werden können.Darüber hinaus enthält die Special Edition ein informatives, kleines Booklet mit Produktionsnotizen sowie eine Biografie über Victor Sjöström (Hauptdarsteller Borg und selbst ein berühmter Filmregisseur) und Bibi Andersson."Wilde Erdbeeren": Ein feinfühlig inszeniertes JUWEL der Filmgeschichte, das in jede Klassikersammlung gehört. Absolute Kaufempfehlung meinerseits.