By Joe Kirkish
CALUMET -- WILD STRAWBERRIES is tonight's Club Indigo movie, made by Swedish film maker Ingmar Bergman -- undoubtedly one of the finest in the world. Bergman's films are noted for their perceptive characterizations set in exotic times, filmed with dramatic lighting and carefully produced examinations of actions and reactions among fascinating characters.
In this film, we find an aging doctor who feels his life is all but over and relatively useless. He begins his day by awakening from a nightmare in which he is convinced of this, then packs to travel to his old university where he's to be awarded for his life's
achievements. In this "road" movie, one exceptional thing happens after another -- meeting old acquaintances and relatives, picking up a variety of hitchhikers, and, most intriguing of all, paying a dream visit to his childhood wooded family home where his happiest moments are picking wild strawberries with a cousin he loves (but is too shy to admit it). When he reaches his destination, family issues are laid to rest, the ceremony is a grand success, and that night he dreams once again -- at the wooded home, picking strawberries with the girl he loved.
Bergman fleshes out this simple road story with a study so penetrating the film is shown almost all the time at psychiatric events; for us outsiders, it's chock full of incidents we'll never forget.
The movie is at 7:15 p.m. for $5 admission at the Calumet Theatre. If you can't get into the 6 p.m. buffet, there's the Michigan House and Carmelita's just a block away;
call them ahead to reserve a place so you won't have to wait.
But by all means, see the movie on the big screen -- for an unforgettable experience.
Editor's Note: Joe Kirkish, organizer of Club Indigo, is a photographer, film critic and retired Michigan Tech Humanities professor.
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