Ingmar Bergman's Cries & Whispers is a story of death, real death and the walking dead, as epitomized by three sisters: Agnes (Harriet Andersson), Maria (Liv Ullmann) and Karin (Ingrid Thulin). At the turn of the century in Sweden, Maria and Karin come to visit their dying sister Agnes, who is in terrible pain from what is probably cancer. Agnes has perhaps a fantasy idea of her sisters, as the last scene tells us. In truth, Agnes is the only one capable of feeling pain; her sisters really don't want to be part of her dying process and are there out of obligation. Only the maid Anna is there to hold Agnes, to touch her, and to love her.Maria's affair hurt her marriage to the sensitive Joakim, and when he stabbed himself and begged for help, she just stood and looked at him. (Evidently he lives, though.) Karin hates her cold husband and what she does to keep him away from her is one of the most shocking scenes in the history of film.We're not told what childhood trauma, what "tissue of lies" of which Karin speaks that has driven these women to lack compassion or empathy; we know only that Maria was her mother's favorite. We don't know anything about the father. There is a homoerotic undertone to Karin's relationship with Maria, which Karin seems to both want and reject.The cinematography in Cries & Whispers in glorious, from the vivid red that is used to punctuate scenes, to the women's surrounds. In one startling scene that resembles a painting, the women sit in different parts of the room -- Maria in white, staring out the window which is framed by red drapes; Karin in gray at the piano, and on a sofa in the back, a dejected Anna. Each is lost in thought; they are miles apart.Later, as Anna reads Agnes' diary, Agnes recalls a walk the three sisters took along with Anna when they first arrived, the three sisters in crisp white with white umbrellas, Anna by their side. Stunning.The overall coldness of the family is downright icy as they talk about Anna at the end. Maria and Karin are unlikeable characters, and one has no sympathy for them. The only sympathy engendered is for Anna's ability to love and accept love in return and for Agnes' horrible suffering. Her suffering, however, ends. Her sisters' suffering will be infinite.A true masterpiece.

"Cries and Whispers" tackles one of Bergman's most emblematic subjects: communication, less as a way to express a message but as a vehicle for emotions or a vehicle leading to one's soul. The film is set in a large estate mansion, at the eve of the 20th century. It strikes by a predominance of red, tainted by the virginal white worn by three sisters. The symbolism is so striking that I guess we shouldn't get too far analytically, red refers to the emotions, the pain, the passion, and the very expression of what makes humans living persons (in "Persona", it was only when she walked on broken glasses or when she was threatened by boiling water that Liv Ullman started to talk). Bergman never dissociates life from pain and passion, and the reddish abundance remarkably contrasts with the restrained directing. The mansion is occupied by three sisters: Harriett Anderson is Agnes, dying of cancer, and she projects the ghostly mask of an imminent death so extraordinarily it's hard to think she was the luscious Monika, twenty years before. Liv Ullman and Ingrid Thullin play the two other sisters, Maria and Karin. Maria's youthful beauty and Karin's cold classiness are predictable characteristics from women of their class, and Bergman uses insightful flashbacks to enrich their personalities. Maria, disenchanted by her marriage, openly flirts with David, the doctor (Erland Josephson), the romance is so anticlimactic that it cancels off the first feeling Maria's lively personality inspires and her rejection of a despaired suicidal husband is a blatant display of heartlessness. Karin seems to be the rejected one and in a very hard-to-watch scene, she expresses her hatred toward her husband by mutilating herself with a piece of broken glass and triumphantly licking her lips, with a shocking defying look. "I suffer, then I exist" resonates like Bergman's Cogito. Ignoring compassion, Maria is below suffering; caricaturing it for selfish reasons, Karin is above it. And ironically, despite her agony, Agnes is the closest to what life represents. Yes, she suffers, but her pain is authentic. She makes some of the most realistic and dreadful agonizing sounds I'd never have experienced in my life but as painful as they were for the ears, they also expressed a vivid and ferocious attachment to life, like begging God to end this nightmare. It's like a Christic realization that life is all about feeling and suffering, and more than that, accepting suffering as a part of life and resigning to it. Both Maria and Karin are incapable of that for they are too disillusioned and too blinded by their own egos. And the strike of genius in the writing, to show where the soul's salvation can rely on, is the character of Anna, the round-cheeked maid, played all in nuance and profound humanity by Kary Sylwan. Anna wakes up in the morning, kneels before God, and pray for the soul of her daughter, and after that, she bites into an apple. She embodies the resignation to live, to love those who're present as much as those who were. She's the only one who takes care of Agnes with a maternal affection, putting her head on her bosom, caressing her and providing her the kind of maternal affection, one would need before dying. The toughest soldiers cry to their mommies when they're mortally wounded, anyone would love to have an Anna staring at him with affectionate and motherly eyes to catch the last breath. And what makes Anna so exceptional is that she is the only character, driven by faith and genuine affection, and through her, Bergman strangely accredits a certain positive role to religion. "Cries and Whispers" expresses Bergman's existential dilemma about the mindset that should prevail in life and how it takes its full meaning only facing death. The dilemma is even more puzzling because Bergman gives a chance to Maria and Karin to communicate, without the help of God. Dressed in black, they're mourning Agnes' death and the spirit that was theirs when they were expecting her to die. More lucid then, they comprehend the necessity to overcome the distance, to communicate, before one of them is bed-ridden again. And the miracle almost happens in a scene of authentic poignancy, when they start caressing each other like frail little animals, seeming to discover a whole word within the other's look. No words, except violin music, in one of Bergman's greatest moments, showing that it's never too late to reach a soul.But the film gets back to its initial pessimistic state, after a night vision, when they are incapable to talk to their sister and when the two sisters discuss with their respective husbands whether Anna should stay, or leave, with a little keepsake reminding her of Agnes. In their minds, Agnes became history, and as if they were all drunken by the whole deadly ambiance, the hangover finally passed. Anna refuses the keepsake for she had the most previous thing anyone could have, the conscience of having helped a soul to face pain and death, symbolized by the journal she finds in the drawer, revealing one of the few moments of sheer happiness, Agnes lived. This memory seems to indicate the end of Agnes' torment, her soul probably resting in peace and harmony. Is it heaven? Anna would believe so, as she would certainly believe the same if it was her own death, and she would probably deal with it with a wise serenity. As for us, and maybe Bergman, we'd rather share Anna's existential view than Maria or Karin, who'd probably have more miserable deaths. Some take the suffering as a proof of God's nonexistence, other as the proof of life, then as God's greatest miracle, and the price of that miracle is that we should also accept our mortality. I don't think Bergman supports the belief in God, but believing in nothing is not a better alternative.

This film was a very creepy, dark film that was an amazing show for people who like that kind of movie. This movie has a great use of camera work and it truly speaks to me. The use of red throughout the movie added a very dark mood and also a recurring theme: blood. I believe that Bergman was aiming to get this into the audience's minds, and he for sure succeeded. This movie effected me in many ways, especially emotionally. One of the main characters, Agnes, who is suffering from a death causing illness, is stuck at home trying to cope with that illness. Unfortunately, neither of her sisters, Karin and Maria, could help her or really seemed to care to help her. The only person who stepped up to the plate was their maid, Anna. This really effected me because I was surprised that they really weren't trying to help her even though she was their sister. When I watched this film, I was fascinated at the whole storyline and how everything played out. The only thing that I didn't like very much was the ending, but I can't think of any other way of ending it without making the story less powerful.

This film is memorable. The close ups of this film makes this movie. I loved how Bergman portrays each of the sisters problems. The acting and edits in this film makes the movie come alive. When the sister is in pain, just the close ups on the faces really makes the audience feels the pain they go through. Yet it's interesting how the cuts really show the space and distance each of the sisters have for one another. Yet in the ending, the cuts show how the sisters start to slowly mend their relationship with each other. I find some of the scenes a bit disturbing and exteme, such as when the sister decides to hurt herself to not have sex with her spouse. That is a bit extreme, but the movie goes through many extremities. The red that is always shown throughout the film really draws the audience into the film because every time there is a red flash, the audience know it's going to get more intense than before. Overall, it's a movie worth to watch! :) It starts off a bit slow but it starts to pick up, even though it's a sad movie.