Smultronstället [Wild Strawberries] (1957)

(Criterion Streaming, September 2019) While I’ve managed to remain interested in some of Ingmar Bergman’s movies, my default assessment toward them remains that of the prototypical European art-house film: long, dull, definitely not aimed at me. Wild Strawberries doesn’t escape that assessment—it’s the story of an older man on a road trip, using the time on the road and stops on the way to reflect on his life and loves. Running on nostalgia for the character’s past, it’s a series of episodes as secondary characters board the car, they make a few stops, and everything he experiences lead him to reflect even more intently on his past. I don’t dislike the results (the film does score more than a few good moments), but I’m not exactly amazed either—it’s a fine film, but one that will speak louder to others. I strongly suspect that I like it more now than I would had I seen it twenty years ago, and will like it even more in twenty years. But for now, Wild Strawberries feels like middle-of-the-road Bergman to me, reusing familiar tools to deliver something that appeals to his own sensibilities. A success by that metric, but not necessarily a guaranteed good time for audiences.