Anna is dying of cancer. Her sisters Karin and Maria show up at the family estate to be near her. Through flashbacks, the lives of gorgeous but vapid Maria (Ullmann) and tense, frigid wife Karin (Thulin) are shown to have been the stuff of lies, self-deception, guilt, and callousness. Agnes's death struggles fill them with horror, and when, after death, she beckons to them for comfort they can only retreat. It is only dull, devoted servant Anna (Sylwan) who can reach out to a fellow human being in desperate need. This is classic Bergman: painful, devastating, coldly sensual, at times horrific, but utterly memorable. It's an Edvard Munch brought to life. Sven Nykvist's beautiful cinematography earned an Oscar, and the film was one of very few foreign movies up to that time to receive a nomination for Best Picture.
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The review of this Movie prepared by David Loftus
CRIES AND WHISPERS is a movie written and directed by Ingmar Bergman in 1972. Academy award for Sven Nykvist in the "Best Cinematography" category.
Sweden, late XIXth century. Three sisters are confined in the family house. In the company of Anna, the servant, Liv Ullmann and Ingrid Thulin watch over Harriett Andersson who's lying in bed all day, atrociously suffering and waiting for the death to come. Flashbacks show us different episodes of Ullmann and Thulin's lives full of guilt, forbidden love and hate. Even the imminent death of their sister cannot stop the bursts of hate between Thulin and Ullmann.
The review of this Movie prepared by Daniel Staebler
