Salient: Victoria University Students' Paper. Vol. 24, No. 12. 1961.

A Study in Guilt

A Study in Guilt

In itself, this picture would have been enough to set the film world by its ears, but when Bergman made his next film, a study of guilt and heartsearching in old age, the result, Smultronstrallet (Wild Strawberries) created a further furore.

In the light of his other films, it is easy to pick Bergman trademarks appearing throughout this one. First, there are the familiar names—Bjornstrand, Folke Sundquist, Naima Wifstrand, Ake Fridell, Max Von Sydow. The photography is by Gunnar Fischer—as meticulous and beautiful as ever, the music is by Erik Nordgren— listen for the poignant use of the solo cello theme at the moments when the professor remembers his childhood. Then there is Bergman's use of sound, and, more especially, silence. This is most noticeable in the dream sequences where natural sounds are given an extra dimension—almost of physical sensation —they are so skilfully used with the accompanying image. All the way through the Him there is conflict and interaction; once more the bickering couple appears but this time it is not just mere bickering but a self consuming union in which the husband and wife are held together by the bond of their mutual hate and worthlessness.

There are one or two technical faults to mar the overall perfection, a lapse of continuity in the first nightmare, bad matching of studio material to location work (where Sara soothes the baby when the owls are circling and screeching) and one lapse in the dubbing when Professor Borg and Marianne visit his mother.

Ingrid Tulin (as the Professor's daughter-in-law) gives strong competition to Victor Sjostrom and to me she is the really enigmatic character in the film. She is not only strikingly beautiful, but I feel that by not making everything about her as explicit as he has for Borg, Bergman has given us a subsidiary character who is more interesting than the professor himself.

The theme, that of gradual self realisation in old age, depends on making us see the professor as a hard, cold, iceberg in whom the finer feelings have atrophied. Unfortunately, Sjostrom does not give this surface appearance of coldness which is then to be shown being broken down with increasing self knowledge. It is a small thing and of not much consequence compared with the total conception of man's interdependence (and dependence) on the love of others. Despite some exaggerations, its human committment is strong and clear.

Still from film, Wild Strawberries

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