Winter 1956-1957 was a time of intensive and fruitful labour for Bergman. The summer had been devoted to The Seventh Seal, followed by three productions at the Malmö City Theatre: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Erik XIV and Peer Gynt. But his general health was poor. As spring approached he was admitted to Stockholm's Karolinska University Hospital where he remained for almost two months "for general observation and treatment." It was during this period that he wrote the screenplay for Wild Strawberries.

 

© ”That's a lie. The truth is that I am forever living in my childhood”, from the original handwritten manuscript for Images: My Life in Film

In an interview from the 1960s he speaks of a journey to Dalarna during the autumn of 1956 when he stopped off in Uppsala at his grandmothers' house on Slottsgatan [though in fact it was Trädgårdsgatan]. He was overcome by a particular feeling: just imagine if the old cook Lalla were to open the door, just as she had done so many times before? "Then it struck me: supposing I make a film of someone coming along, perfectly realistically, and suddenly opening a door and walking into his childhood? And then opening another door and walking out into reality again? And then walking round the corner of the street and coming into some other period of his life, and everything still alive and going on as before? That was the real starting point of Wild Strawberries." Later he would revise the story of the film's genesis. In Images: My Life in Film he comments on his own earlier statement: "That's a lie. The truth is that I am forever living in my childhood."

 

Photo: Alice Stridh
© Malmö Musikteaters Arkiv

Nevertheless, the screenplay was begun in earnest during his stay in hospital in the spring of 1957. The project had been given the seal of approval by Carl Anders Dymling, who had been shown a short synopsis. Bergman's doctor at Karolinska was his good friend Sture Helander, who invited Ingmar to attend his lectures on psychosomatics. Helander was married to Gunnel Lindblom who was to play Isak's sister Charlotta in the film. In general, casting and other preparations seem to have progressed with remarkable speed, since the completed screenplay is dated 31 May and shooting began on 2 July. The fact that many of the actors came from the Malmö City Theatre company probably helped in the process.

 

© "Viktor Sjöström", "Bibi Andersson", "Ingrid Thulin". Bergman's casting document

The casting of the heavyweight principal role - Isak Borg - is a story in itself. Given that Wild Strawberries is probably the one film of Bergman that bears the closest relationship with his favourite film The Phantom Carriage, one might imagine that the participation of Victor Sjöström was planned from an early stage. Yet this does not appear to be the case. In Bergman on Bergman he has stated that he only thought of Sjöström when the screenplay was complete, and that he asked Dymling to contact the great man. Yet in Images: My Life in Film he claims that: "It is probably worth noting that I never for a moment thought of Sjöström when I was writing the screenplay. The suggestion came from the film's producer, Carl Anders Dymling. As I recall, I thought long and hard before I agreed to let him have the part." We shall never know the true story, but in the finished film, Sjöström's role was of fundamental importance.

 

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