Surrealist Film, Analisis Of A Wild Strawberries Scene

CMM1113D (Media Social Context)
 Jose Briones Aguirre

Surrealist Film
ANalisis of a Wild Strawberries SCENE

Introduction

Surrealism is an artistic movement from the last century that involves different expressions of art; including film. Some directors include surrealistic sequences in their narratives, however, surrealism “is based on the belief in the superior reality ... in theomnipotence of the dream” (Walberg, 1978, p. 11). So, surrealism represents different texts through symbols, metaphors and allegories, furthermore, it is difficult to give a reliable interpretation states Espuny (2009, Introduction section, para. 3), everybody could create their own meaning of the text.

On the other hand, each director has an agenda when they decide to use surrealistic narrative,André Breton (1930) states that surrealism gives the opportunity to find the truth, for example, Pollizzotti argues that “surrealism attempts to discover and explore the more real than real world behind the real” (1995, p. 5); then, surrealism is a resource that some film directors use to explain or represent something and helps audience to understand different aspects of the real story but morepowerful than a real scene; moreover, it offers audiences space for reflection.
This essay will analyse a surrealist sequence in the movie Wild Strawberries (1957) of Ingmar Bergman, surrealism in Wild Strawberries is a narrative resource that offers space for reflexive engagements with men, masculinity and gender roles. Masculinity is defined according with Connell as “what man ought to be”(1995, p.70), he argues that there are many different types of masculinity, for this essay we will define masculinity in the first aspect that Connells (1995), explain in his model of three structure of gender, where men control women as a patriarchy and women accept that dominance even against women opposition.
The surrealistic scene is the first dream of Dr. Isak Borg, the principal character,he walks in an isolated street of Stockholm and see a clock with no hands and also a man with no eyes that fall down and bleed, then, Dr. Borg observes an old hearse that contains a coffin, it approaching to him and one wheel gets stuck in a lamp on the street and it breaks, the coffin fall out and Dr. Borg see a man into the coffin, that man is himself.

The analysis of this scene must berelated with the entire story to understand the surrealism text, this scene is an icon of the surrealistic movement of film, the scene signify the future and the type of person that Dr. Borg, the principal character is in the real life, this moment in the life of Dr. Borg helps him to reflect of his past. The narrative of the film will be analysed in order to signify the symbols, metaphors and othertext that define the message and offers space for reflexive engagements. This essay will be divided into three main parts; the first part will discuss the narrative of the film in terms of masculinity and gender roles, the second part will analyse the scene of the first dream of Dr. Borg according to surrealism, finally it will consider the conclusion of the analysis.

The Wild StrawberriesNarrative

The discourse of Wild Strawberries (1957) is an allegory of masculinity and gender roles in a society in changing process, the story is about of a trip of Dr. Borg, a Doctor and professor who will receive an honorary doctorate by Lund University because his retirement. He decide travel by car instead of airplane because a bad dream where see his own death, in this trip is accompanied byhis daughter in law Marianne Borg.

It is an old movie that reveals the Swedish culture in the beginning of the XX century. The trauma that European society experience after the World Wars affect the relation between genders and pull apart the woman in works. Even though Sweden was not part of the World Wars, some Swedish soldiers contribute as volunteers and participate in the World War II...