Wild Strawberries, In Dreams

I watched Ingmar Bergman's 1957 masterpiece Wild Strawberries for the first time last night, and my first thought was that I needed to grab some stills from the film's beautiful and weird (beautifully weird) dream sequences. So I went and done it!

I debated back and forth about posting another image, the second to last shot in the film, because it's a breathtakingly beautiful shot... the shot almost feels like a reward - a reward for the main character of Isak, who's weathered a day of belittling nightmares and road-trip shenanigans only to come out on the other side a changed man... what I love about the film is it seems to be built entirely as an argument against the statement that people get set in their ways with age and become immutable to change; Isak, a sort of modern Scrooge, is indeed a changed and happier man after his day-long exploits, seemingly awoken by his own bad dreams and the truths spoken by those he encounters. Like most Bergman, it's so simple and at the same time extraordinary that you just kinda gape in awe at how he manages it.

But back to that beautiful shot - it's a reward to the audience as well as Isak, and it almost felt wrong to take a screen-grab of it and ruin it by taking it out of context for those who have not seen the film. So don't click here if you haven't seen the film! If you have, go ahead, reminisce. Lovely, no? Bergman made moving Rembrandts sometimes, I swear.
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