I ripped Wild Strawberries from DVD during the summer. I hate idle PCs, and there were two sitting in my room. I completely forgot about it until I woke up itching one day a year or so ago. After the usual token attempt - tossing and turning in bed, shifting around the room, pacing the wing corridors - I decided to do something. I chose Wild Strawberries. I'm glad I did.
It's one of those films you like instantly - it's almost impossible to dislike casually if you're thinking, unless you have a bone to pick with the nitty gritties of film-making. I'd heard about art films since the time I was five or six. Nana Patekar only acts in art movies. Art movies - the term signified some sort of movie in which you paced art galleries and commented on them. I know the first art movie I saw must have been Rashomon, which was fantastic, but the whole concept of a 'thinking' film only became clear to me after Wild Strawberries. With Magnolia, I wasn't sure if I like the movie itself, or the reviews I'd read, or even Tom Cruise's acting or John C. Reilly or just the post-modernist feel rather than the whole movie. With Rashomon, I was looking for too much - or maybe expecting too much - to really feel it unfolding. I kept looking for fantastic camera angles, incredible acting performances, masterpieces in the dialogue - anything to make sure that it really was a masterpiece, so that I could go on watching the film. Wild Strawberries sets that tone immediately. It feels like you know you're watching something great - even my love of subtitles, and my fear of liking movies purely for subtitles' sake, couldn't cloud the fact that I knew I was watching an art movie. A great art movie. I haven't seen too many since then - The Seventh Seal, The Man on the Train, The Colour of Paradise - but Wild Strawberries taught me to stop expecting and just watch. I'll always love the movie for that.
It's one of those films you like instantly - it's almost impossible to dislike casually if you're thinking, unless you have a bone to pick with the nitty gritties of film-making. I'd heard about art films since the time I was five or six. Nana Patekar only acts in art movies. Art movies - the term signified some sort of movie in which you paced art galleries and commented on them. I know the first art movie I saw must have been Rashomon, which was fantastic, but the whole concept of a 'thinking' film only became clear to me after Wild Strawberries. With Magnolia, I wasn't sure if I like the movie itself, or the reviews I'd read, or even Tom Cruise's acting or John C. Reilly or just the post-modernist feel rather than the whole movie. With Rashomon, I was looking for too much - or maybe expecting too much - to really feel it unfolding. I kept looking for fantastic camera angles, incredible acting performances, masterpieces in the dialogue - anything to make sure that it really was a masterpiece, so that I could go on watching the film. Wild Strawberries sets that tone immediately. It feels like you know you're watching something great - even my love of subtitles, and my fear of liking movies purely for subtitles' sake, couldn't cloud the fact that I knew I was watching an art movie. A great art movie. I haven't seen too many since then - The Seventh Seal, The Man on the Train, The Colour of Paradise - but Wild Strawberries taught me to stop expecting and just watch. I'll always love the movie for that.
Comments
No, honestly, you ought to see a few of them. You can't really compare movies and books, but they have their own charm.