Editing Wild Strawberries (film) (section)

==Production==
===Origins===
[[Image:Bergman Sjostrom 1957.jpg|thumb|right|Ingmar Bergman (L) and [[Victor Sjöström]] (R) in 1957, during production of ''Wild Strawberries'' in the studios in [[Solna Municipality|Solna]].]]
Bergman's idea for the film originated on a drive from [[Stockholm]] to [[Dalarna]] during which he stopped in [[Uppsala]], his hometown. Driving by his grandmother's house, he suddenly imagined how it would be if he could open the door and inside find everything just as it was during his childhood. "So it struck me — what if you could make a film about this; that you just walk up in a realistic way and open a door, and then you walk into your childhood, and then you open another door and come back to reality, and then you make a turn around a street corner and arrive in some other period of your existence, and everything goes on, lives. That was actually the idea behind ''Wild Strawberries''".<ref>Björkman</ref>{{page needed|date=September 2015}} 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."<ref name=Images>{{cite book|last1=Bergman|first1=Ingmar|title=Images: my life in film|date=1990|publisher=Arcade Publishing|isbn=9781559701860|url=https://archive.org/details/images00ingm_0}}</ref>{{rp|p22}}

===Development===
Bergman wrote the screenplay of ''Wild Strawberries'' in Stockholm's [[Karolinska University Hospital|Karolinska Hospital]] (the workplace of Isak Borg) in the late spring of 1957; he'd recently been given permission to proceed by producer [[Carl Anders Dymling]] on the basis of a short synopsis. He was in the hospital for two months, being treated for recurrent gastric problems and general stress. Bergman's doctor at Karolinska was his good friend Sture Helander who invited him to attend his lectures on psychosomatics. Helander was married to [[Gunnel Lindblom]] who was to play Isak's sister Charlotta in the film. Bergman was at a high point of his professional career after a triumphant season at the Malmö City Theatre (where he had been artistic director since 1952), in addition to the success of both ''[[Smiles of a Summer Night]]'' (1955) and ''[[The Seventh Seal]]'' (1957). His private life, however, was in disarray. His third marriage was on the rocks; his affair with [[Bibi Andersson]], which had begun in 1954, was coming to an end; and his relationship with his parents was, after an attempted reconciliation with his mother, at a desperately low ebb.<ref name=Images/>{{rp|p17}}

Casting and [[pre-production]] progressed rapidly. The completed screenplay is dated 31 May. Shooting took place between 2 July 1957 and 27 August 1957.<ref>{{cite web|title=Smultronstället (1957) - Filming Locations|url=http://www.sfi.se/en-GB/Swedish-film-database/Item/?itemid=4549&type=MOVIE&iv=RecordingPlace|website=Swedish Film Institute|language=sv}}</ref> The scenes at the summer house were filmed in [[Saltsjöbaden]], a fashionable resort in the Stockholm archipelago. Part of the nightmare sequence was shot with predawn summer light in [[Gamla stan]], the old part of central Stockholm. Most of the movie was made at SF's studio and on its back lot at Råsunda in northern Stockholm.<ref name=ingbergf2f/>

===Casting===
The director's immediate choice for the leading role of the old professor was [[Victor Sjöström]], Bergman's [[silent film]] idol and early counselor at [[AB Svensk Filmindustri|Svensk Filmindustri]], whom he had directed in ''[[To Joy (film)|To Joy]]'' eight years earlier. "Victor," Bergman remarked, "was feeling wretched and didn't want to [do it];... he must have been seventy eight. He was misanthropic and tired and felt old. I had to use all my powers of persuasion to get him to play the part."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Björkman|first1=Stig|title=Bergman on Bergman|date=1973|publisher=Simon and Schuster|page=133}}</ref>

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 famous actor and film director.<ref>Björkman, pg. 131</ref> Yet in ''Images: My Life in Film,'' he claims, "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."<ref name=Images/>{{rp|p24}}

During the shooting, the health of the 78-year-old Sjöström gave cause for concern. Dymling had persuaded him to take on the role with the words: "All you have to do is lie under a tree, eat wild strawberries and think about your past, so it's nothing too arduous." This was inaccurate and the burden of the film was completely on Sjöström who is in all but one scene of the film. Initially, Sjöström had problems with his lines which made him frustrated and angry. He would go off into a corner and beat his head against the wall in frustration, even to the point of drawing blood and producing bruises. He sometimes quibbled over details in the script. To unburden his revered mentor, Bergman made a pact with [[Ingrid Thulin]] that if anything went wrong during a scene, she would take the blame on herself. Things improved when they changed filming times so that Sjöström could get home in time for his customary late afternoon whisky at 5:00. Sjöström got along particularly well with [[Bibi Andersson]].<ref name=ingbergf2f/>

As usual, Bergman chose his collaborators from a team of actors and technicians with whom he had worked before in the cinema and the theater. As Sara, Bibi Andersson plays both Borg's childhood sweetheart who left him to marry his brother and a charming, energetic young woman who reminds him of that lost love. Andersson, then twenty one years old, was a member in Bergman's famed repertory company. He gave her a small part in his films ''Smiles of a Summer Night'' (1955) and as the jester's wife in ''[[The Seventh Seal]]'' (1957). She would continue to work for him in many more films, most notably in ''[[Persona (1966 film)|Persona]]'' (1966). [[Ingrid Thulin]] plays Marianne, the sad, gentle and warm daughter-in-law of Borg. She appeared in other Bergman films as the mistress in ''[[Winter Light]]'' (1963) and as one of three sisters in ''[[Cries and Whispers]]'' (1972).