Made me want to scream
Added 7/27/2009
This is one strange movie. Two sisters wait in a beautiful 19th-century mansion as the third sister is dying in the bed chamber. The dying sister is the artist of the family and is friendly with Anna, the maid, who "nurses" her when she is in distress. Sister #2 is having an affair with an indifferent doctor. Sister #3 is a frigid, unloving wretch who inexplicably puts broken glass into...ell, never mind. How any of this makes sense is beyond me.
I picked this up to get "spouse points" with my wife, but ended up in the negative column. It'll take two viewings of "The Sound of Music" to begin to make up for what I lost watching this weird piece of cinema.
But, if you're a Bergman fan, your mileage may vary.
0 out of 1 people found this helpful.
|
Severe but masterful
Added 7/23/2009
The Bottom Line:
Though I'm not sure that Bergman's use of the color red works as well as he thinks it does, I am sure that this masterfully shot film is as cold a film as you'll ever see about interfamiliar relations (and I mean that as a compliment) and probably the Bergman movie you should see if you want to get into him; it's really quite a film.
4/4
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
OMG, the final scene! Toaster in the bathtub, hello!?
Added 7/5/2009
Everybody's said everything already.
I just want to point out that the final scene is probably the biggest open wound in any film ever. After such despair and pain, we find that nobody but Agnes the housekeeper will know of the dying sister's single, obscure happy moment in life.
And I realized we all take those rare moments of happiness with us forever. These little moments in time; the only perfection we ever feel. Secrets to the grave. . . .
That Bergman takes this character's happiest moment and renders it so full of despair to the audience--only a master is capable of such irony and artistic truth.
By the way, Chopin's mazurka is expertly used here. His mazurkas are forgotten, yet they are little poetic gems full of sweet sorrow.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
|
An exquisite and heartbreaking exploration of familial dysfunction and human frailty
Added 6/30/2009
For me Bergman is a giant among giants. Though most of his work is somewhat dark and humorless, they're never hopeless. Always, there's something ultimately alive and beautiful in all his films. Cries and Whisper is my favorite film of his. It's brutal and harrowing and every other adjective you'd like to toss at it, but it's also a masterpiece of filmmaking with flawless and amazingly inspired art direction and cinematography and actresses who seemingly invested every ounce of their being into bringing these tragic and pathetic characters to complex life. Granted, this isn't easy movie watching. No one's going to confuse this movie with Ace Ventura but the demands the film makes on the viewer pay generously in the end. These three sisters (and their lifelong recriminations, resentments and jealousy for one another) seem incapable of resolving that which has crippled their relationship since childhood. They know they must find redemption as they face their mortality, but they simply don't know how. Only Anna, the maid, seems capable of providing comfort and in her arms, Agnes finds the refuge she needs in her final days. In Anna, Bergman give us the embodiment of human compassion, in Karin and Maria, human imperfections and in the cancer ridden Agnes, weakness. This triangle of the human experience was, to me, the most evident aspect of this film; that which is most compelling and debilitating. - human frailty. A beautiful, if difficult, film. If you're a serious film buff and haven't seen it, then go out and rent it today. In my opinion, required viewing for film students.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
A thought-provoking film, it doesn't seem as strong an achievement to me as it did to Bergman
Added 5/2/2009
Ingmar Bergman's 1972 film VISKNINGAR OCH ROP (Cries and Whispers) was one of the auteur's major achievements of that decade. In a Swedish country house, the dying Agnes (Harriet Andersson) is visited by her two sisters, the sensual and impulsive Karin (Ingrid Thulin), and the stern and frigid Maria (Liv Ullmann). Though ostensibly there to comfort Agnes in her last days, they are much more preoccupied with their unhappy marriages, their mysterious personal feud, and the specifics of dividing up the estate. It falls to Agnes' devoted maid Anna (Kari Sylwan) to provide any human warmth. One of the most emotionally touching aspects of the film is this contrast between the selfless love of a member of a despised underclass and the indifference (or outright disgust) expressed by Agnes' own family.
Bergman had made the transition to colour film with EN PASION of three years earlier, but VISKNINGAR OCH ROP finally exploits its possibilities. Red is ever present onscreen, whether in the red wing of the house in which Agnes lies dying, the red transitions between scenes, or the vivid blood that flows in each of the sisters' flashbacks to the decay of their marriages. Sven Nykvist's cinematography is, as always, brilliant. And though one doesn't often think of the makeup artist in a Bergman film, whoever worked on this one deserves praise for making such a glamorous actress as Harriet Andersson look convincingly decrepit.
Bergman considered VISKNINGAR OCH ROP one of his two greatest films, along with 1966's PERSONA. I must confess, however, that I have never ranked it so highly. While PERSONA continues to amaze me on every viewing, VISKNINGAR OCH ROP does tend to exhaust its overt symbolism and interpersonal dynamics right away, and I rarely come back to it. Furthermore, I feel Bergman wove too much of this film out of what had become stock gestures for him, such as incestuous siblings, and a man speaking about the need to trust God when he himself has lost faith.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Made me want to scream
Added 7/27/2009
This is one strange movie. Two sisters wait in a beautiful 19th-century mansion as the third sister is dying in the bed chamber. The dying sister is the artist of the family and is friendly with Anna, the maid, who "nurses" her when she is in distress. Sister #2 is having an affair with an indifferent doctor. Sister #3 is a frigid, unloving wretch who inexplicably puts broken glass into...ell, never mind. How any of this makes sense is beyond me.
I picked this up to get "spouse points" with my wife, but ended up in the negative column. It'll take two viewings of "The Sound of Music" to begin to make up for what I lost watching this weird piece of cinema.
But, if you're a Bergman fan, your mileage may vary.
0 out of 1 people found this helpful.
|
Severe but masterful
Added 7/23/2009
The Bottom Line:
Though I'm not sure that Bergman's use of the color red works as well as he thinks it does, I am sure that this masterfully shot film is as cold a film as you'll ever see about interfamiliar relations (and I mean that as a compliment) and probably the Bergman movie you should see if you want to get into him; it's really quite a film.
4/4
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
OMG, the final scene! Toaster in the bathtub, hello!?
Added 7/5/2009
Everybody's said everything already.
I just want to point out that the final scene is probably the biggest open wound in any film ever. After such despair and pain, we find that nobody but Agnes the housekeeper will know of the dying sister's single, obscure happy moment in life.
And I realized we all take those rare moments of happiness with us forever. These little moments in time; the only perfection we ever feel. Secrets to the grave. . . .
That Bergman takes this character's happiest moment and renders it so full of despair to the audience--only a master is capable of such irony and artistic truth.
By the way, Chopin's mazurka is expertly used here. His mazurkas are forgotten, yet they are little poetic gems full of sweet sorrow.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
|
