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Viskningar och Rop (Cries and Whispers)

Viskningar och Rop (Cries and Whispers) (1972)

tomatometer

67

Average Rating: 7.1/10
Critic Reviews: 6
Fresh: 4 | Rotten: 2

No consensus yet.

audience

90

liked it
Average Rating: 4.3/5
User Ratings: 8,560

My Rating

Movie Info

Cries and Whispers stars Liv Ullman and Ingrid Thulin as the sisters of dying cancer patient Harriet Andersson. Both sisters have already had brushes with death: Ullman has had an affair which prompted her husband's suicide, while Thulin has long wanted to do away with herself, at one point mutilating her own vagina out of self-hatred. As for Andersson, she has been in pain so long that she feels as though she's in the midst of death-in-life. With her two sisters wrapped up in their own

R,

Drama, Romance

Jun 19, 2001

Criterion Collection

Cast

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All Critics (29) | Top Critics (6) | Fresh (27) | Rotten (3) | DVD (14)

The much-vaunted color symbolism is so obvious as to be almost charming in its simplicity, and the gothic ambience never really resonates.

August 1, 2007 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | Comments (7)
Chicago Reader
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Ingmar Bergman's dark vision of the human condition has focused on individuals incapable of real inter-personal communications except on the most primitive level.

August 1, 2007 Full Review Source: Variety
Variety
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Bergman's hour remains resolutely that of the wolf.

June 24, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out
Time Out
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It stands alone and it reduces almost everything else you're likely to see this season to the size of a small cinder.

May 20, 2003 Full Review Source: New York Times
New York Times
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In order to understand why Cries and Whispers is a great film, it must be experienced, not merely watched.

September 19, 2002 Full Review Source: ReelViews
ReelViews
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Bergman never made another film this painful. To see it is to touch the extremes of human feeling. It is so personal, so penetrating of privacy, we almost want to look away.

August 26, 2002 Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Starring Sweden's best actresses, this is one of Ingmar Bergman's undisputed masterpieces, which was nominated for the Best Picture Oscar

March 7, 2011 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com
EmanuelLevy.Com

It's a beautifully photographed but painful film to watch.

September 11, 2007 Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

the hushed, interior tone fails to generate much drama, and the tension never explodes

November 26, 2005 Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | Comment (1)
Filmcritic.com

A stunning piece of pure cinema by a master filmmaker.

October 7, 2005
ColeSmithey.com

An amazing masterpiece.

July 25, 2005 Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid
Combustible Celluloid

The most haunting death story in the movies, exquisitely photographed, like a reverie just before the afterlife.

April 20, 2004
Nick's Flick Picks

Relentlessly discursive and somber, also hauntingly elliptical and exquisitely crafted.

July 30, 2003 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide
TV Guide's Movie Guide

Cries and Whispers is an unforgettable experience, one that causes the viewer to frequently wince in emotional pain.

July 11, 2003 Full Review Source: Flipside Movie Emporium
Flipside Movie Emporium

Audience Reviews for Viskningar och Rop (Cries and Whispers)

Ingmar Bergman, 1918-2007
March 29, 2007
brooklynspo

Super Reviewer

In a perfect demonstration that horror and trauma are the stuff of real, everyday life and not the macabre vision of fantasists, Cries and Whispers marked Bergman's recovery as one of Europe's greatest film directors.

Like most Bergman films, Cries and Whispers is concerned with death, the suffering before death and the re-evaluation of life that death brings. It centres on three sisters: one dying of cancer, another trapped in a repellent marriage, and the last engaged in an uncomfortable affair. Moving between these three women is the maid, who tends the dying woman in her agony and, in one stunning scene, holding her to her naked bosom like a mother holding a child.

It is not, then, a barrel of laughs. Bergman films are not often for casual viewing, and I certainly won't be taking this one home to watch with my mother.

Like a great classical composer, Bergman uses contrast to enormous effect. Muted sounds which force you to strain to listen are punctuated with heart-rending screams from the dying Agnes. The colour scheme is a disquieting red, fading into pastoral greens and blues as the women reminisce about their younger life.

The characters also contrast uncomfortably. The two younger sisters, Karin and Maria, are sitting the deathwatch for their sister, but their task arouses no compassion in them. They are appalled and repelled by their sister's suffering, but they will not hold her hand or comfort her. The mutual dislike for each other is palpable. This contrasts with the simple humanism of their maid Anna ? whom they callously talk about firing, once their sister is dead.

Set in the late 19th Century, the story flits intermittently between present and past, fleshing out the motivations and the stories of the sisters. One of these flashbacks confronts the audience with one of the most disturbing image in cinema, a repressed Karin cutting her vagina with glass to avoid sex with her husband.

Only a director of Bergman's calibre could make such a film riveting. Yet riveting it is. Bergman gets sensational performances from his four main leads; regulars Liv Ullmann, Ingrid Thurin and Harriet Andersson and a majestic, understated Kari Sylwan. To call this film Ibsenesque would be a slur on the originality of Bergman's vision. It is a testimony to his genius that this may not be his best film, yet it is one of the most striking films in modern cinema. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
December 13, 2009
matertenebraum

Super Reviewer

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Latest News on Viskningar och Rop (Cries and Whispers)

July 30, 2007:
Through Bergman's Past, Brightly
With the passing of Ingmar Bergman Monday, the world of cinema lost one of its most unique and...

July 30, 2007:
Legendary Director Ingmar Bergman dies at 89
Ingmar Bergman, the "poet with a camera," died in his sleep at his home in Faro, Sweden Monday at...

Foreign Titles

  • Viskningar och rop (DE)
  • Cries and Whispers (Viskningar och rop) (UK)
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