Cries and Whispers 15

Memories, dreams, and the passage of time combine in Ingmar Bergman’s visually stunning masterpiece, Cries and Whispers.

Sisters Maria (Ullmann) and Karin (Thulin) have returned to their family’s rural manor home to tend to their dying sibling Agnes (Andersson). Waiting for the inevitable, the sisters’ cold familiarity and lack of connection are thrown into sharp relief by the honest, abandoned love the family housemaid Anna lavishes upon Agnes. Troubling memories and long-repressed feelings rise to the surface in a series of sensual and metaphorical vignettes.

With a remarkable saturated colour scheme, Cries and Whispers transcends mere recreation of early 20th-century furnishings and costumes, as a magnificently unconventional chamber piece that examines the human soul and the female psyche.

Cries and Whispers is screening as part of Liv Ullmann: More Than A Muse – a celebration of the great actress, filmmaker, and emblem of 60s and 70s arthouse cinema.