In an occasional new column Dr Derek Norman takes a fresh look at the art-house cinema classics of yesteryear currently on re-release. We begin with Smultronstallet, better known as Ingmar Bergman ’3 Wild Strawberries.
it's in the title. l‘t/i/d Sfrawt)e.".':es: the summer ramble. fields of late Dainty dusky eiei’iiitgs ‘O lectiiig motiiitain homes in cardboard punnets. Yes. but no. The ‘.'-.':i(i xariety grows -n a tango o.‘ sp-ki, bramble. Withering unnoticed t)‘, a million hedgerows, waiting, blinkrng in a cantankerous tur‘y to be plucked and Sucked by a velvety t ngue.
So it is. and here are. in Bergman's film in the bedroorit of ProteSSOr isak Borg played by VlCtOt Siostroml. He is standing. staring into space. awake now from a nightmare. the thorns of a life MOO in ehiotiona! pertury now SCratchmg at h:n‘. He chokes on his Sleeping lite and tomorrow he goes to Lund.
It is the shadenfieuo’e denied. a ,iOumey tO retieiitption that flailltK-BS and beauties. Bergman. at the the of making this film, was at the height of his powers as a theatre director. It was: 'Strindberg this. Ibsen that. Bibi pass me another glass of Absolut. and while we are at it why don't we use this tax return for toilet ro::.' But that's all by the by. The previous year he had made the portentocis. much pai'odied Seventh Sea’t1956l. It was time to lighten up . . . but JUSl a bit.
Smiles On a summer's day. The professor and his daughter~in-iaw llngrid Thulinl travel by car to Lurid to collect his honorary degree. He reminisces. and the insights into his own shoncomings come flooding in. They pick up some beatniks and he comes closer to yOuth. thereby closer to a Vision of his own mortality.
It's a sweet tale. generOLis and warm. Many have perverted its message. most noticeably that filthy b0y Fassbinder :n Wildwechse/ H.972). also a mass Defl'erSlOH of Franz Kroetz's play. Jumped up little L0uis Malle even had to plunder Bergman. throwng suicide into the mix With his dyspeptic homage Le Feu Fol/et (1963i.
Like my Yiddisher friend Alain once said: 'Let the Sun fall where it will, even if it be onto the neck of a faSCiSt.'
I Wild Strawberries plays at the Filmhouse. Edinburgh from Fri 7 Mar.
Films screening this fortnight are listed below with certificate, star rating, credits, brief review and venue details. Film index compiled by Miles Fielder
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- or is it Donald? - Kaufman in Spike Jonze’s Adaptation
"79:, ‘1'.':'.V,,:THE LIST 25