disinterested_spectator
This would have been a good movie for "Mystery Science Theater 3000" to take up. After all, if this movie is going to have characters stand around not saying very much, and then have them sit around not saying very much, and then have one of them lie in bed dying of cancer and not saying very much, and then have two sisters talk to each other without giving the audience the benefit of hearing what they are saying, the "MST3K" team might just as well have supplied some witty dialogue.I suppose Ingmar Bergman, while making this movie, said to himself, "Boy, all my movies are profound, but I'm really being profound in this one," and I suppose those people who make up the art house crowd shared in that opinion. I mean, what can be more profound than making a depressing movie about the slow, agonizing death of a cancer victim; a maid who comforts that cancer victim by giving her the benefit of a couple of naked breasts; a woman who cuckolds her husband until he impales himself, who then actually asks her to help him (how exactly?); two sisters teasing us with a little lesbian incest; one of those sisters telling her maid to quit looking at her just before she gets completely naked while the maid looks at her; and that same sister picking up a piece of broken glass and shoving it up her vagina so that she can smear the blood all over her face in front of her husband?As for this last, I thought that after she forced the broken glass up her vagina she was going to invite her husband to have sex with her. Normally, such a twisted thought would never cross my mind, but it seemed like a reasonable expectation at the time. If Bergman had put that in the movie, it really would have been profound.
Jose Cruz
This is perhaps one of the most accessible Bergman films and one of the least pretentious, which is frankly a problem that I think some of his films have. It is a highly dramatic work of art. I should notice that I am very rigorous on my rating system: 8/10 is for an excellent film, indeed less than 100 films that I have seem score 9 or higher. So one shouldn't think that I found this film bad, only that it wasn't among my favorites ever.The camera work of this film is excellent and the cinematography looks like something from a late Kubrick film.Highly recommended for fans of art films that have a plot, characters and drama (which some Bergman films lack, such as The Seventh Seal).
Jocelyn Aguirre
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.
benitez_azucena
Cries and whispers showed us siblings that don't get along are brought together by the death of their sister Agnes. Bergman used the color red brilliantly throughout the film. I believe that the color red not only symbolizes inferiority of the human soul but also the pain each individual character carried. This film also in a way related to the passion of Christ by Agnes' death leading to redemption to her sisters, and by her maid Anna sort of representing May the mother of Christ. Maria (Agnes' most beautiful sister)wanted more attention from her husband but since she received a little bit of attention she searched for it through the doctor. her other sister wanted to receive less sexual attention from her husband so she made herself bleed to see if he would still want to touch her still.
AD
