Although I have only seen it once, I can safely say that I was taken aback by this film. Ingmar Bergman is a master of self-exploration and takes a beautiful, sometimes haunting, look at the emptiness in an elderly man's life. Professor Isak Borg is on his way to Lund to receive and honorary award from the college at which he used to teach. Now seventy-eight years old, Borg is cantankerous, cold and arrogant to the people around him. The film begins with some narration, Borg is setting the story up for us, filling us in quickly before we begin to follow him. He has a dream at the beginning of the film that sets the tone for the rest of the film. He is on a street that is devoid of any signs of life. The clocks have no hands and he is all alone. He knows what this all means; death is near. A solitary man is seen standing on the sidewalk and Borg goes to speak to him. When he turns, we discover a shriveled and disgusting face staring back at him. A cart comes carrying a casket and catches itself on a lamp post, losing it's wheel and dropping the casket into the street. Borg goes to examine the body and finds that it his own. When he tries to move away, his dead self grabs him, refusing to let go.
After waking from the nightmare, he informs his maid that he is going to Lund to receive his award without her, and instead takes with him his daughter-in-law, Marianne. Along the way, Marianne tells Borg why she (and her husband) dislike him. This forces Borg to think about the things he has done in life and his dreams take him back to specific events in his life, events he did not get to see, in which the people he cared for were explaining their feelings about him to another person. Borg was, in his early years, in love with his Cousin Sarah, but eventually lost her to his brother, Sigfrid. Now, in the present, Sarah has come back into Isak's life (despite the fact that she had died years ago) in the way of Sara, a hitchhiker with two companions (obvious representations of young Isak and Sigfrid) all of whom ride to Lund with Isak and Marianne. After a long journey filled with bizarre dreams, discussions on the existence of God, discussions of love and it's importance and a near deadly car accident, Professor Borg finally arrives in Lund, receives his award and goes to stay at his son's house. While there, he realizes the errors and mistakes he made in life and vows to reform himself, though he knows death is right around the corner. Sara and her companions are leaving for Italy, but congratulate him before departing. Sara takes this time to tell Isak that she loved him all along, a fact which seems to make a huge mark on the old man. He later helps to reunite his son and Marianne, whose marriage is failing as his once was, so that they do not have to suffer as her has. We leave Borg after his final dream, a dream in which he is reunited with his mother and father who are sitting on a river bed, just outside their summer home. We see a sparkle of life in Borgs eyes that was previously thought to be non-existent. Death is near, but he is able to accept it know, knowing that he has come to terms with his life.
After waking from the nightmare, he informs his maid that he is going to Lund to receive his award without her, and instead takes with him his daughter-in-law, Marianne. Along the way, Marianne tells Borg why she (and her husband) dislike him. This forces Borg to think about the things he has done in life and his dreams take him back to specific events in his life, events he did not get to see, in which the people he cared for were explaining their feelings about him to another person. Borg was, in his early years, in love with his Cousin Sarah, but eventually lost her to his brother, Sigfrid. Now, in the present, Sarah has come back into Isak's life (despite the fact that she had died years ago) in the way of Sara, a hitchhiker with two companions (obvious representations of young Isak and Sigfrid) all of whom ride to Lund with Isak and Marianne. After a long journey filled with bizarre dreams, discussions on the existence of God, discussions of love and it's importance and a near deadly car accident, Professor Borg finally arrives in Lund, receives his award and goes to stay at his son's house. While there, he realizes the errors and mistakes he made in life and vows to reform himself, though he knows death is right around the corner. Sara and her companions are leaving for Italy, but congratulate him before departing. Sara takes this time to tell Isak that she loved him all along, a fact which seems to make a huge mark on the old man. He later helps to reunite his son and Marianne, whose marriage is failing as his once was, so that they do not have to suffer as her has. We leave Borg after his final dream, a dream in which he is reunited with his mother and father who are sitting on a river bed, just outside their summer home. We see a sparkle of life in Borgs eyes that was previously thought to be non-existent. Death is near, but he is able to accept it know, knowing that he has come to terms with his life.