#166. Cries and Whispers (1972)

DVD Synopsis: 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, torch red 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 immensely dramatic tale of life and death, Cries and Whispers is filled to its breaking point with devastating revelations. 

Appropriately titled, it's the story of four women (three of whom are sisters) whose shattered souls long to cry out, yet, in the end, can only muster soft, ineffective whispers. 

Bergman, who always had a penchant for directing women, generates performances from his leads that are nothing short of remarkable. Trapped in a loveless marriage, Karin (Ingrid Thulin), the eldest sister, believes herself incapable of experiencing emotions of any kind, and as a result is direct and unflinching in her approach to everything. Maria (Liv Ullmann), the youngest of the three siblings, is the exact opposite, an outgoing and vibrant woman, yet one whose carefree personality masks a deeply selfish, closed existence. 

As good as Thulin and Ullmann are, however, it's Harriet Andersson who delivers the films most powerful performance as Agnes, the middle sister who is rapidly dying. Her pain is often devastating, and her cries of agony emanate throughout this entire film. 

Yet, in true Bergman fashion, it's slowly revealed that Agnes' suffering has not been entirely in vain. In fact, it has provided her the opportunity to reflect on her life, helping her to mature emotionally in ways her sisters never have. 

Kari Sylwan’s Anna, the house servant who lost her own young daughter to illness years earlier, is Agnes’ sister in spirit, if not blood. Through it all, Anna maintains a strong faith in both God and life, even when surrounded on all sides by death and decay. 

Cries and Whispers is stunningly photographed by longtime Bergman collaborator Sven Nykvist, who floods the screen - from start to finish - with bright red, meant to signify (in my opinion, anyway) a bleeding of sorts. The color serves as the symbolic torment that these characters must endure, not the result of any physical affliction, mind you, but a wounding of the soul. 

Anna has loved and lost, whereas Karin and Maria have lost without ever knowing true love. Perhaps most tragically of all, Agnes, now at the end of her life, has only just experienced both.