Film and Digital Media @ Messiah

The Honors Program sponsored a small screening of Wild Strawberries (1957) for Honors’ students only on Monday, November 5th, 2007. Viewing it for the first time since 1990 caused me to reflect on the fickleness of critical opinion concerning the oeuvre of any filmmaker.

Bergman’s work has gone through a roller-coaster ride since the late 1950s when he first made international headlines (he was on the cover of Time magazine, March 14, 1960). Beginning in the 70s, and continuing through the 80s and 90s, his reputation sagged further and further. Many academic critics saw his films as theatrical, full of “stagey” tricks and psychological filler, empty of political or social comment. Generally, as the French New Wave advanced, his tide ebbed.

Ingmar Bergman’s career as a filmmaker had at least two major shifts, the first involving a move from religious themes toward psychological ones, and the second from these psychological films to films largely concerned with personal-history. He was the son of a Swedish Lutheran pastor and grew up with a keen understanding of sin and the need for grace. During a stay in Germany with the family of a German Lutheran pastor as a teen, he witnessed how the German Christians (Deutsche Christen), a major group of German Protestants, approved and abetted Nazism’s coming to power. He himself actually gave the “Heil Hitler” salute while staying in Germany. It was a youthful mistake he learned continuously from during his later life: it is easy for young people to be fooled by evil (see the Ingmar Bergman: Face to Face site for a fuller account).

As a young man he became fascinated with films and theater. He had a break with his father over this as well as his religious views which were developing in unorthodox directions. He worked for several years (1952-59) as a stage manager in the city of Malmö. Of that time he wrote “My eight years with the Malmö Municipal Theatre turned out to be the best of my life so far” (Magic Lantern). During this time he directed theatrical performances during the winter and produced films during the summer.

Two brief references to earlier films will help illunimate Wild Strawberries as well. The first is from 1954’s A Lesson in Love, where the 73 year-old professor-father of the male protagonist is asked if he believes in God: “If by God you mean life, then I do. I believe in this life and the next and all kinds of life … You die and begin a new life …” The second is to recall that Antonius Block, the knight in 1957’s The Seventh Seal, struggled against Death to accomplish two goals: (1) Perform an act of deep feeling and compassion for someone else; and (2) Find proof of God’s existence. Ironically, poor Block never realizes that when he accomplishes the first goal, he has established the second as well, since only through a miracle (God’s intervention into the causality of human events) could he trick Death.

What’s this got to do with Wild Strawberries? Wild Strawberries was made at the height of his early religious period and had deep roots in autobiographical reflections. Most obvious, both Isak Borg and Ingmar Bergman share the same initials. Although the film is not autobiographical in a direct way, Bergman often felt much as Borg describes at the beginning of the film. Strong parallels to Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol can also be noted, i.e., Borg like Scrooge has cut himself off from all human affection, and by doing so has turned his back on both the past (his dead wife) and the future (his son, daughter-in-law and possible grandchild). Also like Scrooge, Borg’s dreams are the hermeneutic to his life, but not in a Freudian way. Instead they are symbolic, but also completely clear to him: he knows they are telling him he is dead while yet alive. What is unclear to him is what he can do to change it! It is important to observe that Bergman also enjoyed a rich and varied dream-life which often inspired or informed his films.

The car journey to Lund provides the opportunity for Borg to uncover the changes he must make to bring the relationships of love for his family and immediate circle back to life. The contrast between the evil, disgusting marital relationship of the Almans with the healthy, positive one of the Åckermans tells him that he can move back to a position of love. Almost shockingly, Borg’s redemptive memories of his childhood, full of a glowingly positive view of Poppa and Momma, contrast starkly with the reality of the visit to his 96 year-old mother. Bergman does not depict this as a delusion, but as an ideal, which Isak can move toward, becoming more human while in reality his aged mother “dries on the vine.” Borg’s liminal faith in God, exemplified by the Wordsworth-like hymn he initiates during lunch with the hitchhikers and Marianne before his visit to his mother, allows him room to grow and change in tune with the divine-natural plan (contrast this with the deathly bleak view in The Silence [1963]).

Ultimately, Isak Borg’s redemption comes through the revelations given him about life’s goodness from the three young hitchhikers (especially the hitchhiker-Sara’s pledge of undying love, redeeming the earlier rejection by cousin-Sara), the Åckermans praise of his erstwhile compassion, and most enduringly, Marianne’s continual patience with him on his journey to his past and to Lund.