CRIES AND WHISPERS (1972) C widescreen 91m dir: Ingmar Bergman

w/Harriet Andersson, Ingrid Thulin, Liv Ullmann, Kari Sylwan, Erland Josephson, Henning Moritzen

This shattering drama about the relationship of three sisters and a peasant housekeeper in a Swedish manor house was voted the best film of the year by the New York Film Critics. Agnes (Andersson), being cared for by the housekeeper, is dying of cancer, circa 1900. They are joined by Agnes' older and younger sisters who come to her home for the deathwatch. The sense of pain and suffering is portrayed so realistically as to become almost unendurable, and the acting throughout is faultless. The great cinematographer Sven Nykvist is at the top of his form.

From Variety's review of the film: "Ingmar Bergman's dark vision of the human condition has focused on individuals incapable of real inter-personal communications except on the most primitive level. Crying for help in a world they can neither cope with nor comprehend, his characters confront a silent universe inhabited by a God whose attitude is at best uncaring, at worst malignant. How the individual adjusts to his plight remains Bergman's central concern, and in Cries and Whispers he provides a bravado portrait of four women in this barren emotional landscape. ...

"Bergman's lean style, his use of lingering close-ups, fades to red and a soundtrack echoing with the ticking of clocks, the rustle of dresses and the hushed cries of the lost gives pic a hypnotic impact."