Wild Strawberries/The Seventh Seal

Wild Strawberries (Smultronstallet) (1957)

Runtime: 92 minutes

Directed by: Ingmar Bergman

Starring: Victor Sjostrom, Bibi Andersson, Ingrid Thulin, Gunnar Bjornstrand

From: Svensk Filmindustri

The Seventh Seal (Det Sjunde Inseglet) (1957)

Runtime: 96 minutes

Directed by: Ingmar Bergman

Starring: Max Von Sydow, Bengt Ekerot, Gunnar Bjornstrand, Nils Poppe

From: Svensk Filmindustri

Yes, I did a double shot of Ingmar Bergman last night; I was able to do such a thing courtesy of Turner Classic Movies. I now know that 1957 was an incredible year for the director. I copied and pasted the Letterboxd reviews of both films, which are below. I will return Saturday afternoon. First, Wild Strawberries.

Last night on TCM they spent hours showing several Bergman pictures and I figured I needed to see two all-time classics I shamefully hadn't watched before in my life, this and The Seventh Seal. First was this movie, about an crotchety old professor.

I presume many know the plot by now but in case you don't, the grumpy old man known as Isak Borg is to be honored in another town. Isak is a real loner, not even looking to interact with most people, much less be blessed with the gift of having friends. He thought about making the journey by plane but after a bizarre nightmare-likely one of the best and most chilling ever put to screen-he decides to go there instead by car, and with a daughter in law he has a contentious relationship with. They not only meet a variety of people on the road trip but Isak also daydreams and you get to look at various time periods in his long life; it's done by present day him stepping into the past and seeing various incidents. Will this cause him to change his ways?

Wiser people than me have waxed poetic about this but I'll try by best without being lengthy... or giving too much away The movie does a masterful job of looking at various aspects and stages of life, from a trio of young and carefree teenagers to a middle-aged married couple that loathe each other. The film certainly says a lot about life in general, and how everyone experiences various disappointments. Some are more severe than others and some people seem to have a proverbial black cloud over their heads but everyone has to deal with it and they have to make peace before they pass away, something that is of utmost importance to Borg as he's in the twilight of his life.

As for the cast, all of them do at least a good job but it's old film director/actor Victor Sjostrom as the lead that is the real highlight. He is great in a role where he starts off as not being the nicest person and yet even then you enjoy watching the character. As he has that very long day and you see things change, Sjostrom conveys all those emotions and feelings perfectly as he looked back upon a life of several huge disappointments. The film may sound bleak and downbeat from description but it's much more than that by the time it's finished.

Overall, everything about the movie is high-quality-such as the music and the cinematography-but it's the script, directing and performances that make this a deserved classic film.

Now, onto The Seventh Seal.

I'll be honest right away and say that I need to see this movie at least one more time before I can deliver a good and lengthy review of this cinematic masterpiece. I can say, though, that it does deserve the reputation it has and it should be known more than just has the film where a dude plays Death in a game of chess.

By the way, I imagine that there are plenty of people around my age who saw that spoofed in Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey and didn't know for a long time what it was spoofing; that's the category I fall in.

Anyhow, like I said the movie is much more than just a knight in The Crusades who returns but meets up with Death and challenges him to a game of chess in the hopes that he can win and defeat Death; there's the knight's comedic square & also  there's the acting troupe who go from village to village... oh yeah this is also set during The Plague, Black Death, or whatever you want to call it.

The movie has great dialogue and raises many intriguing points about such things as God and Death, why God remains silent & invisible, and a huge aspect is religion and what can be called faults with it; philosophical questions and being faithful while still having doubts. There's a lot to digest so I would like to see it again and appreciate it even more.

However, I can still say that it's a deserved classic and this revolutionary film that you could argue introduced “arthouse cinema” rightfully is a film people can reasonably argue is among the best of all-time and may be the best piece of work that a still renowned world director ever put to film.