I once heard from one of my best friends that he had a dream in which he dreamed of himself. And I saw this scene in the movie, in Ingmar Bergman's "Wild Strawberries."
Swedish film master Ingmar Bergman is one of the most important figures in the history of film art. Together with Fellini of Italy and Tarkovsky of the Soviet Union, he is known as the "Holy Trinity" of modern art films in the world, representing the highest peak of European art films since the 1960s. Ingmar Bergman as an artist has achieved high attainments in theatre, film and even literature, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1975, he has rehearsed Strindberg, Ibsen and Shakespeare His films have won him a worldwide reputation. The four films, "The Virgin Spring", "Still in the Mirror", "Cry and Whisper" and "Fanny and Alexander", have won four Oscars. Best Foreign Language Film Award.
Let's start with the story of "Wild Strawberry".
Isaac has been a doctor for 50 years and is now nearly eighty years old, and he is about to receive an honorary degree from his alma mater. And that night, he had a dream. In the dream, Ithaca was alone and saw passersby with blurred faces, a clock without an hour hand, a carriage with no wheels, and a coffin. When he walked towards the coffin, the person in the coffin suddenly came alive, grabbed Isaac's hand, and when he looked closely, it turned out to be himself.
Isaac woke up from his dream. As if receiving some kind of omen, he gave up flying to his alma mater and chose to drive. At this time, his daughter-in-law, who lived with him, wanted to go back to her parents' home because of a quarrel with her son, so she decided to take her father-in-law Isaac's car.
The conversation between the two on the way revealed that Isaac’s relationship with his son and daughter-in-law was not good. He was selfish and indifferent. Although he was very rich, he didn’t want to help his son pay off foreign debts. As a result, his son had to work hard and his father’s relationship was seriously affected. Influenced, the daughter-in-law is eager to have children, and the son also refuses.
On the way, Isaac passed by his hometown and saw wild strawberries all over the ground. Isaac was abandoned by his first love, Sarah, who chose a younger brother who was more enthusiastic and energetic than himself. This made Isaac unforgettable and always lived in pain. Although Sarah felt that Isaac was excellent, she also felt his indifference and selfishness, and she felt that she could not walk into each other. Isaac's fantasy is interrupted by a girl who breaks into the woods, and she wishes to ride in Isaac's car with her two friends.
On the way, Isaac looked at the trio of two boys and one girl, very much like his own boyhood, and the girl among them was also called Sarah. Girls are also struggling with who to choose. The oncoming car broke the calm, the other side went the wrong way, and in order to avoid Isaac's car, they overturned. It was a middle-aged couple who apologized and wanted to ride in Isaac's car, but the frightened Isaac chose to let his daughter-in-law drive. After getting into the car, the man kept blaming his wife, and the unbearable wife beat the man deeply. It seemed that only in such violence could the man feel their love. The daughter-in-law asked the two to get off the bus and continue on their way.
The car drove to the residence of Isaac's mother, and Isaac decided to go in to visit his nearly 100-year-old mother. The daughter-in-law saw Isaac getting along with her mother, who were polite, restrained, but not loving. She seemed to understand the source of her husband's indifference. Isaac's mother recounted the childhood of her more than 20 grandchildren, but no one came to visit her. In the huge house, only the mother lives alone. Isaac really had nothing to say to his mother, and they left to move on. In the car, Isaac fell asleep, and in a dream he saw his first love complaining about him. She held up the mirror for Iska to look at herself. In the mirror, Isaac was dying and dying. She told Isaac that she was going to marry his brother, and that Isaac was not omniscient, although he was about to receive the most important honor of his life. Isaac's expression of pain seemed to be repentant, and Sarah left to take care of the children. And the countless chattering crows show Isaac's chaotic inner world. He saw with his own eyes that his first love and his younger brother were living a happy life, and he was lonely and pitiful. He looked at the moonlight in the dark and knocked on the door, but it was someone else who opened the door.
An exam is waiting for him. He was asked to complete three tests, using a microscope to look at bacterial samples, which he could only see in his own eyes. The examiner asked him to read a passage of text, but he did not know what it meant. Then Isaac was asked to diagnose a patient, he determined that the patient was dead, and in an instant, the patient burst into laughter. Failing the exams, Isaac was found guilty. He is selfish, rude, ruthless, indifferent, incompetent. And it all comes from the accusations made against him by his dead wife, who he was asked to confront. Isaac is taken to the forest, where he sees his young wife, a rude man molesting her and assaulting her. While smiling, she spoke nervously about Isaac's attitude towards herself. Indifferent and cold, she even treated her complaints as a disease and gave her a sedative. He also apologizes, but he doesn't really care. The wife is also numb, it seems that the damage to her from a rape is negligible, and her body and mind have already been riddled with holes.
Ithaca watched all this in shock and finally woke up. The young people got out of the car to exercise, and the daughter-in-law was smoking. He talked about his dreams, and his daughter-in-law also talked about his problems with his son. He said he needed to die, never to live beyond life. He is only 38 years old, but he is even more indifferent and cold. Father and son are exactly the same, and he does not want to pass on such "genes" to the next child.
The son, nanny, daughter-in-law and three young people were all present at the awards ceremony. During the acceptance ceremony, Isaac thought about the events of the day throughout. Honor seems less important.
At night, he cared about his nanny. So much so that the nanny is not used to it. Before going to bed, the three young people sent their sincere wishes, sang a song for him, and said goodbye. The girl Sarah said, "Isaac, I respect you." Isaac said, and wrote to me. Before going to bed, my son and daughter-in-law came back to find something. Isaac stopped his son and wanted to chat with him. The son turned away from his father. The father wanted to know the life of his son and his daughter-in-law, but the son had no intention of communicating. The father wanted to help him repay the debt, but the son did not give him a chance. The daughter-in-law saw Isaac's change, and she said goodbye when she met.
Isaac remembered the past, his first love Sarah treated him tenderly, he saw his parents, the young parents waved to Isaac, he smiled happily, tears in his eyes.
"Wild Strawberry" is Bergman's work in 1957, and it was also a very productive period for Bergman. Another film of the same year, "The Seventh Seal", was equally popular. I bought a DVD of Bergman's collection when I was 20, but I haven't touched it. It wasn't until last year during the epidemic that I watched his first work, "Autumn Sonata," about a peacock-shaped mother. The story of how to raise a koala-shaped daughter. The daughter hopes to get the approval of her mother all her life, but she can't.
And "Wild Strawberry" is the second Bergman movie I've seen. The film uses a feeling that now looks like a road movie, and outlines his life through four dreams of the protagonist. His loneliness, pain, fear of death, repentance of his past problems, and the process of gradual change.
Rather than saying that Isaac had four dreams, it is better to say that he reflected on his life in different forms. The first time was in a dream, dreaming of clocks and pocket watches without hands, dreams of unrecognizable passers-by, dreams of out-of-control carriages and myself falling out of a coffin. Time and life die together, no doubt suggesting that he has little time left, aided by his later reflections. People often reflect at the final moment. The final moment here is not only the final moment of life, but every stage of life has its final moment. When we are young, we are used to doing crazy things before going to bed every day. When we like to pick up books when we graduate, we are more willing to work overtime at the end of the year to complete the work that is far from being completed this year, of course, including in the last moments of life. To reflect, to forgive, to forgive others, to forgive yourself.
The second dream is actually the fantasy of revisiting the old place. He saw his first love Sarah who fell in love with his younger brother behind his back, saw his family, saw Sarah who was suffering because of him, and he began to realize some problems. And a girl broke his fantasy, it was the girl who hitchhiked, Sarah. There is a clear correspondence between reality and dream, reality and fantasy. The other two boys, Anders and Victor, also have personalities much like Isaac and his younger brother.
And the middle-aged couple in the second dream and the third dream are the portrayal of Isaac's own marriage.
The third dream is that judgment. All the tests in the dream were that Isaac realized his inability to love, indifference and coldness in intimacy and parent-child relationships. The pain of his wife being raped cannot be compared with the cold violence in marriage, which shows how Isaac destroyed his wife in those days.
In the fourth dream, before going to bed, Isaac thought of holding hands with his first love and looking for his parents, and his parents beckoned to him when he was young. He fell into a deep sleep and achieved self-redemption in such beauty. .
Director Ingmar Bergman is a man who is seriously lacking in fatherly love in real life. It also contributed to his poor state in his various relationships. He confessed that he was promiscuous, indifferent, unfaithful, lying, suspicious and angry. He even worshipped Nazis. He confessed in his autobiography and redeemed himself in his works. In 1982, Bergman announced the launch of the film after filming his final work, "Finny and Alexander."
On July 30, 2007, Ingmar Bergman passed away peacefully in her sleep at her home on the Faroe Island at the age of 89.
Bergman's grandmother, Anna Akblum. She had an important influence on Bergman's childhood.
Bergman's mother, Carlin, before the engagement
In 1925, a group photo with brother Duggar and sister Margarita
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