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, 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: Ingmar Bergman's Film is Rich in Symbolism and Immersed In Disturbing Emotion
Summary: 4 Stars
Swedish director's Ingmar Bergman's "CRIES AND WHISPERS" is among the few foreign language films that was nominated for the best picture academy award and on that same year won best photography in the same event. The film is emotionally powerful, beautiful and quite frankly very frightening in the manner Bergman executes its premise. Many would notice its very religious overtone and may even compare it to "The Exorcist" in some ways. Agnes (the dying sister) tests the devotion of the those around her much like Regan from the "Exorcist" did because of something horrible that dwelt within. Bergman is a master of pessimisms, the topic of spiritual demise and decay are meticulously placed under scrutiny in "Cries and Whispers".
Agnes (Harriet Andersson), Maria (Liv Ullman) and Karin (Ingrid Thulin) are three sisters reunited because of a testing event in the family. One of them is dying, very slowly and all so painfully. The events lead to painful revelations, reflection on relationships and the states of mind of Maria, Karin, and even Anna (the faithful maid) are brought into exposition. Agnes' nameless affliction is so taxing that she almost appears to have been possessed and takes on supernatural dimensions.
Bergman's "Cries and Whispers" may be interpreted from a religious metaphysic. Bergman believed that the color red was the color of blood, passion and the soul that leads the corridors and significant set designs to be colored as such. Bergman's movie is rich and definitely immersed in symbolism. From a religious metaphysic, Agnes can be seen as a Christ-like figure who bears this pain because of the sins of her sisters. The sisters may be seen as representations of the Twelve Apostles, Karin is the eldest who exhibits indifference and is quite unfriendly (the scenes where she was aided by the maid in undressing symbolized repression) while Maria is much more submissive albeit belligerent and timid. The two sisters don't get along, their personalities clash most of the time. Anna (Kari Sylwan) the maid may be seen as the Virgin Mary who takes the barely conscious Agnes on her bosom to comfort her. It is quite an enthralling and telling sequence to see Agnes resurrected in a dream sequence, the two remaining sisters become horrified and more feelings of anxiety and mistrust come to the surface rather than joy and exoneration.
Bergman's film can be interpreted without the religious undertone as a material tale. The clocks in the household represent the passage of time and our characters being at the mercy of it. We see the more demure Maria (played by Ullman) as someone who tries to seduce Agnes' doctor as he notes that her deceitful smiles can no longer hide the years and sorrows that she had experienced. Maria was their mother's favorite but has lost her ability to charm and seduce; Maria is a woman who seemed to have missed the care freeness that she seemed to emerged from childhood straight to middle aged. Karin (played by Thulin) is the eldest who has stopped feeling her husband's passion and desire. In a loveless marriage, her husband won't even touch her as she begins to learn to dislike physical contact. The scene where she inserts a shard of broken glass to her private part is an act of hysteria and the need to feel something; her deviant smile as she brushes the blood on her face exhibits the lies that dwell within a marriage as a so-proclaimed "tissue of lies and pleasure"; this some real potent stuff. Their inability to deal with Agnes sickness drives Anna to bear her breast much like a mother to symbolize the tenderness of a mother's love and more often, other people are willing to soothe one's pain than one's own family. After Agnes' funeral, we see Karin and Maria touching and being compassionate with each other. This is a sign that family seeks comfort in the fact of uncertainty but after the funeral, the two part ways saying that they don't need to stay friends as they dismiss Anna from her position in the house.
Bergman maintains control throughout the film as Liv Ullman plays her Maria role with the incertitude of a woman who wishes the innocence of childhood may be carried over to adulthood. Ingrid Thulin plays her role as a cold and unforgiving persona, that repressed most of her emotions as the eldest and went straight to adulthood. Harriet Andersson is amazing as the dying Agnes. I was floored when I witnessed the scenes when she appeared out of breath and so much in agony. The film may be a chaotic emotional experience that relies on heavy symbolism, but most of the film's entirety is based on expression than dialogue. The bare corridors, the ticking of clocks and Agnes' screams of agony provide pure atmosphere as Karin and Maria maneuver with a single candle expresses the sheer desperation of the situation that threatens to engulf them at every turn. The color red is abundant in the film from the walls and floors, the wine spilled out of frustration, the blood wiped on Karin's face, (the fadeouts are done in red than black) Bergman uses red as the interior of the soul, and despite the fact that this isn't his first colored film, he uses the use of color as its significant part.
"Cries and Whispers" (1972) is a true masterpiece in filmmaking by Ingmar Bergman. While the film is not for everyone, and more intended for true cinema fans; yet no one can deny the brilliance in its execution. The film is all about love, the terror of death and failures in reaching fulfillment. The film is an effective art house film that is quite horrific in many ways, although one would have second thoughts in labeling this as a horror film. It stages a passionate play that goes awry, and will no doubt attract viewers of art house cinema is hailed as one of Bergman's most alluring films.
Highly Recommended! [4 ? Stars]
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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