I heard about Ingmar Bergman's "Wild Strawberry" two years ago, but I couldn't find the source at that time, so I had to give up.
In the past two days, because of Robert McKee, I searched for "Wild Strawberry" again, and finally got my wish.
The film tells a 78-year-old professor's experience of self-rediscovery and redemption from a subjective perspective. In terms of the depth and perspective of human nature excavation, this film is indeed different. Even after 6 or 70 years, there are still few comparable films in the same genre.
Self-recognition and redemption
The self-recognition of the old professor originated from a dream. In the dream, the old professor dreamed that his time was short (a clock without hands), he was haunted by the fear of death (he fell out of a coffin), and he dreamed of a man beyond recognition.
The author prefers to interpret this unrecognizable person as the old professor's confusion about his re-recognition. He found in his subconscious that when a person is about to die, he doesn't know how to evaluate his life and what kind of person he is. What is the value and meaning of one's life, which directly drives the film's later rediscovery and cognition of one's self.
Krishnamurti said in The True Meaning of Relationships: "Relationships are mirrors in which you see your true, unjudged self." In other words, people discover themselves in their relationships with others.
And the old professor in the eyes of others is like this:
Miss Agda said he was a grumpy and selfish old man who never thanked him for taking care of him for decades.
His daughter-in-law said that he was selfish, callous, and ruthless. When his daughter-in-law came to live at home, he warned his daughter-in-law not to disturb him with the mess of his marriage at home, and asked them to deal with it by themselves.
The son also hated him, saying that he was selfish and ruthless, and felt no warmth and love at home at all, and even had to pay him back the money he borrowed from his father. This prompted the son to be reluctant to continue to have the next generation, believing that the same selfish and callous tragedy would be passed on to the next generation.
In fact, over the decades, the old professor must have heard this feedback countless times, but he subconsciously chose to avoid it, which is reflected in the opening confession: "In our relationship with other people, we mainly discuss and evaluate our character. and behavior, so why I withdraw from the near relationship."
This shows that he is subconsciously unwilling to accept the cold, selfish and ruthless self in the eyes of others. He would rather choose decades of loneliness.
And the impending death prompted him to face this problem again, to re-examine the self in the eyes of others, so he began to listen carefully to other people's feedback on him. .
In fact, what really triggered his self-change was that he recalled his wife's evaluation of him in the dream of the trial, which reminded him of the unfortunate marriage of his own, and the fact that he heard that his son was unwilling to bear the next generation because of the family's hereditary ruthlessness and ruthlessness. matter.
From that moment on, he began to redeem himself. He was unwilling to walk into the grave with everyone's hatred. He began to try to care for others. He truly gave love and warmth, and grew up in a cold and original family. To be able to make such a change is a qualitative change.
three stages of life
The main narrative of the film only tells about the experience of going to London to attend the award ceremony within a dozen hours, but the director cleverly uses dreams and memories to tell the life of the old professor, as well as the major changes in the self from awakening to redemption. Ingenious, profound and rich in meaning.
In addition, the two groups of people they met on the road happened to be a metaphor for the three stages of life. The three young people symbolized that the youthful stage was full of love and idealism, while the middle-aged couples indifferently hurt and laughed at each other regardless of the occasion. , which symbolizes the self-collision and chicken feathers in the middle-aged stage. In the old age, it is an old professor in reality, self-avoiding and lonely.
In the design of the two dreams in the film, one chose the first love when he was young, and the other chose the middle-aged plight of witnessing his wife's derailment. It fits the narrative of the three stages of life.
Another point, as the old professor said, about the state of the middle-aged Couple on the road implies that the old professor once had the same middle-aged married life.
Epilogue
In fact, the world is a mirror-like existence. If you give love, you will reap love. Give ruthlessness and ruthlessness, and you reap ruthlessness.
The beginning and end of the film echo very well. The young professor didn't know how to love, or didn't have the ability to love, so he lost his first love, Sarah. When he redeemed himself in his twilight years, he knew how to give his care and love. , but he unexpectedly gained the love of another young Sarah.
View more about Wild Strawberries reviews
