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Smultronställe aka Wild Strawberries

Director: Ingmar Bergman, Sweden, 1957, 90 minutes, 16mm

An elderly professor, accompanied by his daughter-in-law, travels by car to his first university to receive an honorary degree. Along the way they stop at his childhood home, meet a teenage girl who reminds him of an early girlfriend, and pick up hitch-hikers. The journey causes the professor to reflect upon his life, searching for meaning and worth in what seems to him a cold and disconnected life. Permeated with flashbacks and dream sequences, Wild Strawberries is a philosophical road movie regarded as one of the director's finest works.

... an emotional powerhouse. Still a staple of any serious filmgoer's education. - Leonard Maltin

A wonderfully composed movie in which Ingmar Bergman is able to vary the tone from melancholy to gaiety in the most deeply satisfying way. - Peter Bradshaw, Guardian

The director talks about leading actor Victor Sjostrom, who plays the professor in Wild Strawberries. The first day we worked together Victor was in a vile temper. He said: 'I don't want to do this, I don't think you're right.' We fell out.... But after that he was wonderful to work with, ever so simple, sincere and fierce. As long as Victor got home at a quarter past five each day and had his whisky punctually, all went well. - Ingmar Bergman, Bergman on Bergman