“CRIES AND SISTERS”

By Raymond Benson

One of the late, great Ingmar Bergman’s skills as a filmmaker was to write and direct memorable roles for women. He was one of the few directors, such as Ford or Altman or Allen, who repeatedly relied on a “stock company” of actors throughout his career. While there were many wonderful male actors who worked for Bergman (Max von Sydow, Erland Josephson, Gunnar Björnstrand), we generally remember the women—Liv Ullmann, Harriet Andersson, Ingrid Thulin, Eva Dahlbeck, Bibi Andersson, among many—for baring their souls on screen in Bergman’s challenging, difficult works that always elevated the art of film to breathtaking levels.

Cries and Whispers is an excellent example of the power of the female actor. It’s essentially a four-woman chamber piece, taking place in the late 1800s in Sweden, about three sisters and a servant, their relationships to each other, to their pasts, and to their stance on mortality. It stars (in alphabetical order) Harriet Andersson, Kari Sylwan, Ingrid Thulin, and Liv Ullmann, and it is arguably Bergman’s most well-known picture in the U.S. It premiered in late 1972 but its general release was in 1973, thus qualifying it for the ’73 Oscars. It’s Bergman’s only film to be nominated for Best Picture (as opposed to Foreign Language Film), competing against the likes of The Sting (which won), The Exorcist, American Graffiti, and A Touch of Class (how did that one get in there?). Bergman was nominated for Director and his Original Screenplay. Despite all that, one could argue that the real star of the film is Sven Nykvist, whose cinematography did win the Oscar that year, and deservedly so.

As one of Bergman’s few films in color, one must recognize the difficulty Nykvist had in photographing rooms that were entirely red—red walls, red carpeting, red furniture, red bedspreads—with touches of white in the drapes, clothing, fine china, and sheets. Contrasting these intense shades with the flesh tones of human beings and making it all work, especially in the early 70s, is nothing short of remarkable. Thankfully, The Criterion Collection has seen fit to upgrade their original DVD release to Blu-ray, and the results are absolutely gorgeous. The new 2K digital restoration is superb.

On the surface, the story seems simple—Agnes (Andersson) is dying of cancer. Her two sisters, Karin and Maria (Thulin and Ullmann), are holding vigil and waiting for the inevitable to happen, but it is the servant, Anna (Sylwan, who made her extraordinary film debut with the picture) who does all the caretaking. The four performances are gut-wrenching. Ullmann actually plays a dual role as the sisters’ mother in flashbacks, and there are men on the periphery as well, including Bergman regulars Erland Josephson and Anders Ek.

In the movie’s 91 minutes, Bergman explores these women’s fears, loves, prejudices, and faiths through flashbacks, dreams, and conflict with each other and themselves. Never in Bergman’s work was the influence of playwright August Strindberg more palpable, but there is a great deal of Anton Chekhov at play here as well. This is serious, complex, soul-searching—and soul-shattering—stuff.

Sounds rather grueling, doesn’t it? Well, it is, but that doesn’t make it any less entertaining. The director’s use of the color red is fascinating—film scholars have interpreted it to represent the “inside of the womb,” or perhaps the “color of the soul.” For me it’s the interior of the heart, and it’s a simultaneously warm and cold one. For, ultimately, what the movie is about is the pain that we can cause our loved ones, the very people for whom we are supposed to provide solace.

The extras include a wonderful new and revealing interview with Harriet Andersson conducted by Bergman scholar Peter Cowie. There’s a 2001 introduction to the film by Bergman. “On Solace,” by the terrific video essayist ::kogonada, dissects the three acts of the film. There are thirty minutes of behind-the-scenes footage narrated by Cowie, the theatrical trailer, and the port-over from the original DVD release, Ingmar Bergman: Reflections on Life, Death, and Love with Erland Josephson, a fifty-two minute dialogue between the director and actor. The booklet contains an essay by film scholar Emma Wilson.

If you’re debating whether or not to upgrade from Criterion’s original release, the answer is a resounding YES. If you’ve never seen Cries and Whispers, then you’re missing an essential piece of cinematic brilliance.

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