Cries and Whispers
| Cries and Whispers | |
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Swedish theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Ingmar Bergman |
| Produced by | Lars-Owe Carlberg |
| Written by | Ingmar Bergman |
| Starring |
Harriet Andersson Kari Sylwan Ingrid Thulin Liv Ullmann Inga Gill Erland Josephson |
| Narrated by | Ingmar Bergman |
| Music by |
Johann Sebastian Bach Frédéric Chopin |
| Cinematography | Sven Nykvist |
| Edited by | Siv Lundgren |
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Production
company |
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| Distributed by | New World Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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91 minutes |
| Country | Sweden |
| Language | Swedish |
| Budget | $400,000 |
| Box office | SEK 2,130,705 (Sweden) $1.5 million (US) |
Cries and Whispers (Swedish: Viskningar och rop, lit. "Whispers and Cries") is a 1972 Swedish film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman and starring Harriet Andersson, Kari Sylwan, Ingrid Thulin and Liv Ullmann. The film is set at a mansion at the end of the 19th century and is about two sisters and a maid who watch over their third sister on her deathbed, torn between fearing she might die and hoping that she will. After several unsuccessful experimental films, Cries and Whispers was a critical and commercial success. It received nominations for five Academy Awards. These included a nomination for Best Picture, which was unusual for a foreign-language film.
Cries and Whispers returned to the traditional Bergman themes of the female psyche or the quest for faith and redemption. Unlike his previous films, Cries and Whispers uses saturated colour, especially crimson. It was for the colour and light scheme that the cinematographer and long-time Bergman collaborator Sven Nykvist was awarded the Academy Award for Best Cinematography.
Cries and Whispers takes place in a lavish mansion in the 19th century, filled with red carpets and white statuary. It depicts the final days of Agnes (Harriet Andersson), who is near death due to cancer. Her sisters Maria (Liv Ullmann) and Karin (Ingrid Thulin) have returned to the family home to be with her. However the two women remain distant and awkward, struggling to comfort their sister while dealing with the shock and the fear of mortality Agnes' death may bring. The deeply religious maid Anna (Kari Sylwan), whose own daughter died at an early age, is the only person in the house able to comfort the dying woman. At length Agnes dies and during her wake the priest (Anders Ek) declares Agnes' faith was stronger than his own. In a dream-like sequence that follows Agnes seemingly returns to life for a short moment and asks her sisters one last time for the love and care denied to her during her lifetime. For a moment Karin, Maria and Agnes grow closer to each other, but this is short-lived when the two sisters realize that Agnes is actually dead, with Karin declaring such acts "morbid" and "disgusting." Once again only Anna is able to embrace and comfort Agnes.
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