I was watching this old flick, and I find it quite disturbing. The old professor is 78, and is travelling to Lund to receive an honorary doctorate. He has these weird dreams-the weirdest was the one where a horse drawn hearse crashes into a lampost-and a coffin falls out. The coffin contains a body-which is him! The corpse reaches out and grabs his hand!
Later, he is driving with his daughter-who hates him.
The guy’s life hasn’t been all that pleasant-what was it that turned him into a soulless zombie?
Not every film is a zombie flick!
The point was that the professor was seeing his own impending death. He would be that corpse pretty soon (grabbing him is, in effect, dragging him to death). It caused him to reflect upon his life.
The scene you described is also something of a nod toward the actor – Victor Sjostrom, who was one of Sweden’s greatest directors in the silent film days. Sjostrom’s greatest film was probably The Phantom Carriage, about the driver of the carriage that takes the dead to heaven. Sjostrom also starred in the film. Bergman was strongly influenced by the film and probably loved the opportunity for a shout-out.
Actually, Phantom is probably Sjostrom’s best Swedish film, but his greatest film was the one he made in the US with Lililan Gish, the silent masterpiece The Wind.
Strawberries remains one of the greatest cinematic meditations on mortality and a life reflected upon. The metaphor of the road trip and the hitchhikers are fairly obvious ones, but there is such rich emotional detailing that the characters really resonate in their subtle but moving transformations and epiphanies. While it’s still pretty dark in some of its tonalities, it’s also one of Bergman’s softer, less despondent major films.
I wouldn’t disagree. The Wind is a truly great film, too.
How about the clock with no hands? He then checks his watch-no hands as well. Is this a metaphor for death?
The professor’s relationship with his daughter in law is strange-she hates him, but can’t stand her husband as well.
I have to watch this again.
He’s just always been that way–somewhat aloof and coldly intellectual, even though deep down he’s an OK guy–just has had trouble making emotional connections. I think it’s partly due to how his mother raised him, who in the flashback scenes appears to rule the family with an iron fist. At least, that’s always been my impression.
One of my favorite scenes is his dream of an oral examination, where he’s asked to read the words on the blackboard but they’re all gibberish, and his exam committee (and the audience, comprised of people from his life) are just staring at him like he’s an idiot (or not even acknowledging him and his nervousness at all). It’s one of the most perfect representations of a classic stress dream that I’ve ever seen in a film.
And of course, it fits in beautifully with the overall theme of reflection and self-doubts that the protagonist is experiencing at this point in his life, along with all of those metaphors (like the clock without hands and his own funeral hearse) about his sense of mortality.
This is possibly my favorite Bergman film. Although I have to admit the first time I watched it, I didn’t even notice that Bibi Anderson, the actress who played Sara (the hitchhiker), also played the part of Isak’s cousin, Sara. :smack: I guess I wasn’t paying close attention at the time!
Interesting that it’s titled “Wild Strawberries”.
In the final scenes of The Seventh Seal", Bergman’s knight (Max Von Syow, who’s also in WS) finally gives in, and takes hold of experiential life.
The knight is returning from The Crusades, disillusioned and losing faith. He continually rails at God and asks him for a sign. Angst ensues.
Later he meets up with a simple travelling carnival family, and as he looks into a big bowl of, yes, Wild Strawberries, he says “This…will be sign enough.”
One reviewer said of WS’s professor: “…He slowly comes to realize that the choices he made in the past have created a cold and empty life, devoid of real meaning or value. Finally, he achieves redemption and reintegration through forgiveness…” Applies to The 7th Seal, too.