3. Wild Strawberries
Few filmmakers have been so highly praised on the one hand and described as self-indulgent and pretentious on the other as Ingmar Bergman, the Swedish director responsible for such classics as The Seventh Seal, Fanny and Alexander and Wild Strawberries, the exceptional film about an old professor reflecting back on his life. Victor Sjöström gives his final performance as Professor Isak Borg, a cantankerous old man who prefers to live in isolation away from his family. After being granted an award for his long service to medicine he travels with his daughter-in-law to accept it, and along the way reflects upon his memories, dreams and hopes as death looms. The road trip brings up recollections of childhood, sentimental thoughts the old man thought were behind him in his more naive past. Bergman is a director who has dealt with the subject of mortality on a number of occasions, but with Wild Strawberries the tone is a stretch away from his more typical pessimistic mood. Professor Borg discovers a degree of peace of mind by the end of his journey, and the film is both thoughtful and insightful, as any lover of Bergman's works will be more than familiar with.