Cries & Whispers - Criterion Collection
by Ingmar Bergman
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Anders Ek, Harriet Andersson, Ingrid Thulin, Kari Sylwan, Liv UllmannDirector: Ingmar Bergman
Brand: Image Entertainment
Producer: Lars-Owe Carlberg
Cinematographer: Sven Nykvist
Writer: Ingmar Bergman
Editor: Siv Lundgren
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; Swedish (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled)
Format: Anamorphic, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.66:1
Running Time: 91 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-06-19
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Criterion
Movie Reviews of Cries & Whispers - Criterion Collection
Movie Review: A thought-provoking film, it doesn't seem as strong an achievement to me as it did to Bergman
Summary: 4 Stars
Ingmar Bergman's 1972 film VISKNINGAR OCH ROP (Cries and Whispers) was one of the auteur's major achievements of that decade. In a Swedish country house, the dying Agnes (Harriet Andersson) is visited by her two sisters, the sensual and impulsive Karin (Ingrid Thulin), and the stern and frigid Maria (Liv Ullmann). Though ostensibly there to comfort Agnes in her last days, they are much more preoccupied with their unhappy marriages, their mysterious personal feud, and the specifics of dividing up the estate. It falls to Agnes' devoted maid Anna (Kari Sylwan) to provide any human warmth. One of the most emotionally touching aspects of the film is this contrast between the selfless love of a member of a despised underclass and the indifference (or outright disgust) expressed by Agnes' own family.
Bergman had made the transition to colour film with EN PASION of three years earlier, but VISKNINGAR OCH ROP finally exploits its possibilities. Red is ever present onscreen, whether in the red wing of the house in which Agnes lies dying, the red transitions between scenes, or the vivid blood that flows in each of the sisters' flashbacks to the decay of their marriages. Sven Nykvist's cinematography is, as always, brilliant. And though one doesn't often think of the makeup artist in a Bergman film, whoever worked on this one deserves praise for making such a glamorous actress as Harriet Andersson look convincingly decrepit.
Bergman considered VISKNINGAR OCH ROP one of his two greatest films, along with 1966's PERSONA. I must confess, however, that I have never ranked it so highly. While PERSONA continues to amaze me on every viewing, VISKNINGAR OCH ROP does tend to exhaust its overt symbolism and interpersonal dynamics right away, and I rarely come back to it. Furthermore, I feel Bergman wove too much of this film out of what had become stock gestures for him, such as incestuous siblings, and a man speaking about the need to trust God when he himself has lost faith.
Summary of Cries & Whispers - Criterion Collection
Legendary director Ingmar Bergman creates a testament to the strength of the soul-and a film of absolute power. Karin and Maria come to the aid of their dying sister, Agnes, but jealousy, manipulation, and selfishness come before empathy. Agnes, tortured by cancer, transcends the pettiness of her sisters' concerns to remember moments of being-moments that Bergman, with the help of Academy Award?-winning cinematographer Sven Nykvist, translates into pictures of staggering beauty and unfathomable horror.Ingmar Bergman's great 1972 film is about the elemental things: death and dying, sex, injury, repression, and the body as a fount of sustenance. No wonder Bergman chooses to focus on female characters, in this case three sisters--one of whom is dying of tuberculosis--and a maid who is the only one capable of caring for the ill woman. The film is noteworthy for many reasons, not least of all an interesting camera style that marries beautiful imagery with an anxious frame. That tension perfectly suits the overlapping psychodramas of the piece, but this is a movie that ultimately pushes beyond the particulars of these characters' virtues or neuroses to a greater mystery, one that somehow sustains our existence while slowly taking it away. A landmark film. --Tom Keogh
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