Wild Strawberries
A pioneer in cinema history and a founding figure of Swedish cinema, Victor Sjöström excelled both as a filmmaker and an actor, directing masterpieces in his native Scandinavia as well as in Hollywood. This three-month program presents a selection of his greatest silent films, all accompanied by live piano, along with some of his most significant contributions to Swedish cinema as an actor.
Winner of the Golden Bear and the FIPRESCI Prize, 1958 Berlin International Film Festival
On the eve of being honored by his university, an elderly professor revisits his life, marked by selfishness and in which honors cannot mask failure.
Ingmar Bergman
Born in 1918 in Uppsala, Sweden, Ingmar Bergman grew up in a strict Lutheran household. Cinema became a refuge for him, offering solace from his father's austere upbringing as a pastor. He pursued studies in history, literature, and theater, eventually embarking on a career in theater before transitioning to film. He began writing screenplays for Svensk Filmindustri. Starting with Crisis in 1946, he ventured into directing his own films. By the mid-1950s, works like The Seventh Seal and Wild Strawberries earned him international acclaim. In 1986, with the production of Fanny and Alexander, Bergman decided to end his illustrious career as a filmmaker for the big screen. However, he remained active in theater and television filmmaking until Sarabande in 2004. In his later years, he retired to the island of Fårö, a place deeply intertwined with his cinematic legacy and personal history.
