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In its evocation of the unconscious, the film is like an analytic session. Like an interior dialogue a film conveys an interplay between what was seen, and what was experienced, and invites the interpretative skill of the viewer to make sense of what is shown. The interpretation lies in the space between the narrative and the medium of the film. It is a kind of reverie, and the dark, warm intimacy of the cinema develops a possibility to reconstruct a safe, preverbal environment.
The film-maker has a number of techniques at his disposal to communicate his story. Bergman usually shot in black and white, denoting a past, dreamlike state. Through the contrasts of harsh sunlight, the contours of an abstracted and exterior landscape could be lit up or thrown into shadow. His use of the close-up shots which merge one face on another, the distant shot, and the selective use of the frame provide a careful mise-en-scène for the narrative. The viewer is drawn into Bergman's dialogue, and experiences herself as both subject and object. She becomes an active participant in the creative process.
Wild Strawberries is regarded as one of the greatest of Bergman's films. The title is significant. The wild strawberry flowers and fruits in the short Swedish summer, its presence representing a fleeting beauty and happiness. The film tells of Isak Borg's journey from Stockholm to Lund, to collect an honorary degree marking his 50 years' work as a scientist. It is in fact an account of a psychic journey. The viewer accompanies Isak who, through a series of encounters both real and imaginary, finally comes to recognize his own egotism and indifference to others. One might presume that the film is a profound exposition of Bergman's struggle to resolve and to redeem his relationship with his father. At the time of writing in 1957, he had cut off contact with his father, a Lutheran minister, for two decades.
Bergman describes his childhood as filled with repression, fear and loathing. He was pun