Customer Reviews

Wild Strawberries (BFI Film Classics)

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This is a model for how these BFI Classics monographs should be written, forswearing padding, personal reminiscences and vague ideas in favour of good old English empirical analysis and contextualisation.

'Wild Strawberries', the story of an old Professor taking a long car journey which becomes a psychic journey into his past selves and failures, is directed by the genius of one Swedish cinematic generation, Ingmar Bergman, and stars the pioneering genius of the first, Victor Sjostrom. The Frenches begin by charting an instructive potted history of Swedish cinema and the place of these masters in it.

They offer a synopsis of the film full of insightful textual reading and an invaluable explanation of symbols or motifs, the emotional resonance of which Swedish audiences take for granted (e.g. the film is accurately translated as 'The Wild Strawberry Place', a real locale, but also an emotional metaphor analagous to Proust's madeleine). These don't radically alter accepted readings of the film, but quietly enrich them with detail.

The authors suggestively point to Bergman's many cultural influences, the films of Sjostrom himself, the plays of Strindberg, the paintings of Larsson and Munch, for example. They conclude with a history of Bergman's fluctuating reputation, contemporary critical responses (domestic and foreign), the director's iconic international status in the early 60s, the begrudgery bordering on hostility he suffered at home, the subsequent decline of his influence and legacy (among other things, the book is a tacit elegy for the death of European arthouse cinema). They usefully position Bergman in the Sweden of the 1950s, useful because he is a 'Great Director' rarely considered in a social context.

At no point do the Frenches intrude themselves on the study, offer reckless theories, or hyperbolise the film's worth - their profound love of 'Wild Strawberries' is evident from the time and careful attention they have lavished on watching it. They communicate this love to a grateful reader who feels that watching a Bergman film, no matter how you interpret it, is an enriching experience worth having.

I was a little dissapointed in this book by the fact that the authors, Philip and Kersti French told the story of the film, then discussed it, then the background of the film. The discussions about the film were minute compared to the rest. The background of the film focused majorly on Bergmans life and what was going on at the time of production that may have inspired his work, yet I dont see why one would not want to just go out and read Bergmans own biography. I loved Bergmans film, which is what interested me here, and it excited me to read about it, but the material was dry and uninteresting. There were some good insights to the workings of Bergman, but nothing to change the way you understand the film entirely.