Smultronstället

Smultronstället
Wild Strawberries

Where is the friend I seek at break of day?
When night falls I still have not found Him.
My burning heat shows me His traces
I see His traces whenever flowers bloom
His love is mingled with every air.

Johan Olaf Wallin1

 

“The influences of August Strindberg – widespread in Bergman – are immediately apparent. Strindberg’s introduction to A Dream Play (which is later quoted openly in Fanny and Alexander) might also appear to be the credo of Wild Strawberries: ‘Time and space do not exist. Upon an insignificant background of real life events, the imagination spins and weaves new patterns; a blend of memories, experiences, pure inventions, absurdities and improvisations.’”2

 

« Filmer, c’est donc mettre à l’épreuve. Les acteurs – proprement dits – ne sont pas les seuls à tourner la difficulté à leur avantage. Le vieillard et l’enfant partagent cette étrange faculté de faire admettre leur présence sur un écran. Détachés de l’action passée ou peu sollicités par l’action à venir, leur esprit est tourné vers la réflexion et la rêverie, ce qui leur permet d’oublier la caméra, donc le faisceau de regards braqué sur eux. Faut-il citer les enfants de Flaherty, Vigo, Renoir, Truffaut ? Victor Sjöström dans les Fraises sauvages de Bergman, ou le major Amberson d’Orson Welles ? »

Claude-Jean Philippe3

 

“Dear Victor Sjöström!

Permit me, Ingmar’s father, to send you my respectful greetings and my heartfelt thanks for your brilliant performance in Ingmar’s latest film. – And thank you for all you have given to Ingmar and to me, and to countless others through your noble artistry and the spiritual inspiration of your entire work. – I will always remember with gratitude the friendly, encouraging words you spoke to me about Ingmar when he was still very young, and I stood before you in doubt and uncertainty.

My wife joins me in expressing our warm thanks.

Respectfully yours

Erik Bergman”4

 

“[Film critic Leonid] Kozlov then asked the filmmaker [Andrei Tarkovsky] to draw up a list of his favorites. ‘He took my proposition very seriously and for a few minutes sat deep in thought with his head bent over a piece of paper,’ the critic recalls. ‘Then he began to write down a list of directors’ names – Buñuel, Mizoguchi, Bergman, Bresson, Kurosawa, Antonioni, Vigo. One more, Dreyer, followed after a pause. Next he made a list of films and put them carefully in a numbered order. The list, it seemed, was ready, but suddenly and unexpectedly Tarkovsky added another title – City Lights.’ The fruit of his internal deliberations reads as follows:  

1. Diary of a Country Priest (Robert Bresson, 1951)

2. Winter Light (Ingmar Bergman, 1963)

3. Nazarin (Luis Buñuel, 1959)

4. Wild Strawberries (Ingmar Bergman, 1957)

5. City Lights (Charlie Chaplin, 1931)

6. Ugetsu Monogatari (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1953)

7. Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa, 1954)

8. Persona (Ingmar Bergman, 1966)

9. Mouchette (Robert Bresson, 1967)

10. Woman [in] the Dunes (Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1964)”

Colin Marshall5

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