Cries and Whispers

Cries and Whispers

Directed by Ingmar Bergman • 1972 • Sweden
Starring Harriet Andersson, Kari Sylwan, Ingrid Thulin

This existential wail of a drama concerns two sisters, Karin (Ingrid Thulin) and Maria (Liv Ullmann), keeping vigil for a third, Agnes (Harriet Andersson), who is dying of cancer and can find solace only in the arms of a beatific servant (Kari Sylwan). An intensely felt film that is one of Bergman’s most striking formal experiments, CRIES AND WHISPERS (which won an Oscar for the extraordinary color photography by Sven Nykvist) is a powerful depiction of human behavior in the face of death, positioned on the borders between reality and nightmare, tranquility and terror.

Cries and Whispers
  • Cries and Whispers

    Directed by Ingmar Bergman • 1972 • Sweden
    Starring Harriet Andersson, Kari Sylwan, Ingrid Thulin

    This existential wail of a drama concerns two sisters, Karin (Ingrid Thulin) and Maria (Liv Ullmann), keeping vigil for a third, Agnes (Harriet Andersson), who is dying of cancer and can find solace...

Extras

  • Ingmar Bergman on CRIES AND WHISPERS

    Reporter Marie Nyreröd interviewed director Ingmar Bergman for SVT Svensk Television in the summer of 2003, on the island of Fårö, where he had lived since 1967. In this excerpt, he talks about CRIES AND WHISPERS. At the time of the recording, Bergman was eighty-five.

  • Harriet Andersson on CRIES AND WHISPERS

    In this conversation, recorded in Stockholm in January 2012, film historian Peter Cowie and actor Harriet Andersson talk about her work in CRIES AND WHISPERS.

  • On Solace

    In this 2014 video essay, filmmaker :: kogonada explores director Ingmar Bergman’s CRIES AND WHISPERS, a film in three movements.

  • CRIES AND WHISPERS: On-Set Footage

    The following 34 minutes of silent color footage was shot during the production of CRIES AND WHISPERS. It is presented here with audio commentary by film historian Peter Cowie.

  • Ingmar Bergman: Reflections on Life, Death, and Love

    In this rare television interview with Ingmar Bergman, the director appears with his frequent star Erland Josephson for a candid, highly charged discussion. The interview was conducted by journalist Malou von Sivers for TV4 International Sweden in 1999.

  • Roger Corman on CRIES AND WHISPERS