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In this symbolic tale of an old man’s journey from emotional isolation to a kind of personal renaissance, Ingmar Bergman explores in part his own past, and in doing so rewards us all with a tale of redemption and love.
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Victor Sjostrom, then 80 years old, stars as Professor Isak Borg whose self-indulgent cynicism has left him isolated from others. Sjostrom, whose work goes back to the very beginning of the Swedish cinema in the silent film era, both as an actor and as a director, gives a brilliant and compelling performance. All the action of the film takes place in a single day with flashbacks and dream sequences to Borg’s past as Borg wakes and goes on a journey to receive a “Jubilee Doctor” degree from the University of Lund. Bergman wrote that the idea for the film came upon him when he asked the question, “What if I could suddenly walk into my childhood?” He then imagined a film “about suddenly opening a door, emerging in reality, then turning a corner and entering another period of one’s existence, and all the time the past is going on, alive.”
Bibi Andersson plays both the Sara from Borg’s childhood, the cousin he was to marry, and the hitchhiker Sara who with her two companions befriends him with warmth and affection. The key scene is when the ancient Borg in dreamscape comes upon the Sara of his childhood out gathering wild strawberries. Borg looks on (unnoticed of course) as his brother, the young Sigfrid, ravishes her with a kiss which she returns passionately; and, as the wild strawberries fall from her bowl onto her apron, staining it red, Borg experiences the pain of infidelity and heartbreak once again. Note that in English we speak of losing one’s “cherry”; here the strawberries symbolize emotionally much the same thing for Sara. Later on in the film as the redemption comes, the present day Sara calls out to Borg that it is he that she really loves, always and forever. Borg waves her away from the balcony, yet we are greatly moved by her love, and we know how touched he is.
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The two young men accompanying Sara can be seen as reincarnations of the serious and careful Isak Borg and the more carefree and daring Sigfrid. It is as though his life has returned to him as a theater in which the characters resemble those of his past; yet we are not clear in realizing whether the resemblance properly belongs in the old man’s mind or is a synchronicity of time returned.
Memorable is Ingrid Thulin who plays Mariana, the wife of Borg’s son who accompanies him on the auto trip to Lund. She begins with frank bitterness toward the old man but ends with love for him; and again we are emotionally moved at the transformation. What Bergman does so very well in this film is to make us experience forgiveness and the transformation of the human spirit from the negative emotions of jealousy and a cold indifference that is close to hate, to the redemption that comes with love and a renewal of the human spirit. In quiet agreement with this, but with the edge of realism fully intact, is the scene near the end when Borg asks his long time housekeeper and cook if they might not call one another by their first names. She responses that even at her age, a woman has her reputation to consider. Such a gentle comeuppance meshes well with, and serves as a foil for, all that has gone on before on this magical day in an old man’s life.
See this for Bergman who was just then realizing his genius (The Seventh Seal was produced immediately before this film) and for Sjostrom who had the rare opportunity to return to film as an actor in a leading role many decades past his prime, and made the most of it with a flawless performance, his last major performance as he was to die three years later.
In Ingmar Berman’s film masterpiece Smultronstallet (or `Wild Strawberries’ B&W, 1957), the protagonist, an elderly professor who is facing death, has to come to face to face with a long life that has failed to answer the important questions. He is old now and faced with his own inadequacy and impotence.
Bergman introduces three young people into the drama to introduce life’s most important question – that of the existence of God. The old man gives them a ride. One of the young men is thinking about becoming a parson; the other argues that God doesn’t exist. The old man offers no opinion to the debate. He is silent, but it is a loud silence. It’s a silence that reveals an amazing dimension of loss – the loss of year upon year of not coming to terms with this all-important question.
In one of the final scenes, Bergman masterfully closes in tight on the aged face of Professor Isak Borg (played by Victor Sjostrom). In that shot, we can see the whole universe in his eyes and all of its cares in the bags beneath them. Only Bergman could have directed that scene – only him. It makes Smultronstallet one of the most important films ever made. That one scene, better than any other that I know, captures `loss’ on celluloid for all future generations to witness and have to deal with. If you see it, you may find yourself having to look away.
The imagery in Smultronstallet is unparalleled, except by Bergman’s own Det Sjunde inseglrt (The Seventh Seal, 1957). Look for the handless watch, the corpse wagon, the sparseness of the first scene, the car windows turning to black – ominous signs are everywhere. Notice the clues that point to Bergman’s existential philosophy (the twins write a song for a deaf man – as futile as Sisyphus’ labor!) and the redemption themes (Izak pierces his hand as he looks into the window, or the line: “A doctor’s first duty is to ask for forgiveness.”). Notice also the outright defiance of the divine presence that he has bred into his son (“I will not be forced to live one day longer than I want to.”).
Izak is ready to die, but it seems that, for him, life is more forbidding than death. He is a living corpse, dead already.
All of these factors conspire to create a film that is pure art, and one that gets richer with each repeated viewing. It is also ennobling and cathartic in the truest sense of the Greek drama – a warning to the men of ancient Greece to avoid the tragic flaw is the hero’s undoing, and could be ours as well.
We are made to look hard at Izak. Do we like what we see? Have we answered the important question that he has not? If not, Izak is us. To quote a line from the film: “Is there no mercy?” The reply comes: “Don’t ask me.” I hope that all of us will fare better when confronted with this important question.
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