"Wild Strawberry" was made by Swedish director Ingmar Bergman (1918-2007) in 1957. As a specimen of Western modern existentialism and stream-of-consciousness films, it is still active in research and criticism circles at home and abroad. In the works of younger directors - such as Woody Allen's new film "Rifkin's Film Festival" (2020) - there is no shortage of its appearance. "Wild Strawberry" shows the process of Isaac's life introspection in one day in the way of time and space interlaced psychological structure. This structure also makes Isaac's recollection and fantasy of childhood, youth and middle age unlimited. And the "extraordinary logic" that implements it (about this fantastic day) is about the countless vertical and horizontal causes and effects of why he became "he".
The repeated review of "Wild Strawberry" can be started from multiple perspectives - elements of dreams, symbolic images, time-space structure, aesthetics of death, etc. Each reading attempts to carry out a deep exploration of the nature of film writing, in order to avoid ambiguous and infinite proliferation of meaning, it is necessary to understand Bergman's own "history" (Bergman's films are complicated and obscure). , but all constructions are centered on the examination and reflection of human life, and also have a refracting relationship with his personal experience to a certain extent). This article does not intend to do a scene-by-scene reflection and deep reading of the film (this will be an ambitious project), but to extract a small number of "entries" to read the film, each of which represents a partial reading angle (probably just a small part) and will basically follow the actual narrative sequence of the film. This also takes into account that the plot of "Wild Strawberry" itself is relatively simple. As mentioned above, it can be summarized as a day of seeing and hearing the old professor Isaac driving to receive the honorary title, and the memories and reflections interspersed in it, and the part of the reality narrative is still based on the universe. Time is the order: get up, set off, come to the former residence, crash, visit mother, confer the title, fall asleep.
In the opening sequence of the entire film, the seventy-six-year-old protagonist Isaac has a nightmare that wakes him at three in the morning. The disappearance of the pointer in the dream (when Isaac visited his mother later, he also saw a pocket watch without a pointer in the mother's house) means the disappearance of time. After the contact, the collapse of passers-by, the funeral queue and the corpse in the coffin oppressively brought Death and crisis. For Isaac, who was about to die, this was also the opportunity and reason for him to look back on his life.
The former residence is the place where wild strawberries grow, where he spent his youth and fell in love with his cousin Sarah, but their relationship was fruitless. Sarah was confessed by her cousin, and then revealed by the twins. Sarah was ashamed and sad to leave, and confessed that she was sorry for Isaac. Obviously, Isaac didn't experience this in person, but in his imagination there was still pity for Sarah and self-examination for this untimely love.
The owners of the other vehicle's car are a husband and wife, who are inseparable from each other, and their relationship collapses like an arrow. The husband pretended to be kind, but in fact he sneered at the wife every sentence. The wife endured the pain and endured, and finally broke out and slapped the other side, and the two were driven out of the car because of this. As a plot in a reality narrative, the couple's relationship is suggestive. This suggestion can be regarded as a side development, paving the way for the "guilty trial" of Isaac's indifference to his wife Karin in the fourth dream.
The daughter-in-law, who traveled with her, had expressed to Isaac her disgust at his hypocritical, gentlemanly, but actually cold, personality. However, with the development of the plot, it is not difficult for us who have learned the information of the three generations in the film to find that Isaac's indifference is inherited from his mother's indifference. Such a tragedy ironically carried on the generation of Isaac and his son International replication.
The young girl Sarah holds up the mirror to the old Isaac, and at this stage in the film, the mirror element has been elevated to a signifier status, like a watch without a pointer or a wild strawberry in a former home. As a tool of self-view, the mirror connects Isaac's examination of his life on this day, and also emphasizes the fact that his youth is no longer, this cruel insight is closely related to the day Isaac experienced. At the same time, it also accelerates the progress of the narrative-Isaac is about to face the inescapable "trial".
Although the family bluntly accused Isaac of hypocrisy and indifference, and he was aware of it, the outside world still gave him their respect, admiration and gratitude. In addition to this official honorary title, there are many episodes in the film that show Isaac's beloved side of society - the gas station owner and his wife repay Isaac's gratitude, and three young people who hitchhiker present bouquets to him. In the flower offering scene, Isaac is holding the flower, but suddenly falls into a black space, the sudden hard-key picture, the mutual exclusion between praise and criticism seems to be frozen, the strong evaluation split, the concentrated self-gazing and the silent inner isolation, All summed up in this shot.
Epilogue
Careful readers will find that this article does not point out what is the essential issue that Bergman wants to express in "Wild Strawberry"; what is the connection between the recommended "entry" and grasping this essence , this paper does not make clear instructions. As mentioned at the beginning, this article is only a reference for reading and interpretation, and the purpose is to provide some intuitive ideas and possibilities. As for whether it is valuable or not, it remains to be judged by readers.
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