I wouldn’t consider Wild Strawberries to be Bergman’s best film, but it’s definitely up there. The film starts off in the professor’s isolated study room where he has essentially exiled himself from all forms of human communication, minus a housekeeper who seems to be about the same age as him. He is on his way to be honored at a school and decides to leave early with the accompaniment of his son’s wife (played fabulously by Ms. Thulin).

Everything I just wrote happened in the span of about twenty minutes and there were three things that had transpired that already blew my mind. The first being the opening shot of him in his study with his dog on the floor next to him. This shot sets the stage and personality for Professor Isak Borg: an intellectual man who just can’t connect with others and hides it behind his suave and elderly mannerisms. The second being the dream sequence, which is on of the most amazing dream sequences I have ever seen: Bergman had the walls on the street painted white so Gunnar Fischer’s photography could create a surreal glare. We see a man with a deformed face that crumbles to the ground. We see a clock with no hands that will appear later on in the film. We see a horse-drawn carriage with no driver get caught next to a light post, and once the carriage wheel is severed and rolls around Isak, a coffin falls out containing his very own body. It’s a grim reminder that death is awaiting around any corner for this tired man, and he knows it. The third thing to blow my mind is during the car ride. Isak is talking with his daughter-in-law about his son, and she states that he hates him. The scene cuts to a head-on close up of Isak clutching the steering wheel, and the look of shock, sorrow and confusion all intertwine into a terribly sad facial expression that I’ll never forget.

Throughout the film we are treated to Charles Dickens-esque flashbacks to Isak’s younger years, specifically where he was in love with Sara, only to have her fall for Sigfrid. We see where it all went wrong, where Isak failed as a lover, and later on failed as a husband, and most of all failed as a husband. We meet some characters along this journey, including a frolicking young girl accompanied by two young men who like to quarrel about God, and a couple who, strangely enough, seems to act just like Isak and his wife, where he would always demean her, even in public.

This is a change for Bergman, as Wild Strawberries offers a rather upbeat, optimistic ending. It’s the ending alone that helps make this movie work the way it does. It’s easily accessible to Bergman new-comers and a treat worth visiting again and again.