Winter Light

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Min A @MinAkitasvara Feb 5 Watched Alone, Long After the Room Went Quiet. Beautiful, cold, and simple. Breathing the emptiness. The film chooses Tomas and Märta. One-sided love. No answer. Loneliness, where cruelty passes for indifference. Belief remains in the silence, hoping it might finally speak. Love waits for those who can receive it. Is there someone who sees its worth? Winter Light (1963) See more Julian Rex M @Julian_M 06/02/2025 Shocking, atmospheric, and deeply resonant, Winter Light marks yet another ingenious cinematic entry for Ingmar Bergman, whose outstanding screenplay is brought to life by Gunnar Björnstrand's breathtaking portrayal of a priest facing doubt that is complimented by beautiful performances from the accomplished ensemble cast. See more dave s @RT68722908 10/15/2022 Tomas (Gunnar Bjornstrand), the pastor of a Catholic church in a small Swedish community, is having a crisis of faith, unable to come to terms with the existence of God in the world in which he lives. After failing to provide comfort to Jonas (Max von Sydow), a depressed parishioner worried about the threat of an atomic war, he turns his back on the only person who cares for him, Marta (Ingrid Thulin), a lonely schoolteacher. Winter Light is as somber and stark a film as Ingmar Bergman has ever created…and that's saying something. Beautifully shot by Bergman regular Sven Nykvist, Winter Light is filled with haunting images and insightful dialogue that will surely spark debate after the credits roll. Despite not receiving the critical accolades that other Bergman films have received, it remains one of his most memorable films. See more júlio a @RT51210674 04/17/2022 Eu sei que esse filme tem trocentas camadas....mas realmente não consegui me conectar a ele. Atuações perfeitas....muito muito dialogo sobre fé. See more 01/30/2022 A film that lacks soul and questions a lot. At least it's a good drama. 4/10 See more William L @RT77267842 06/16/2021 Winter Light is among the more 'pure' Bergman films. There are no distractions. The plot is cut-down and streamlined to bare essentials in a story that takes on themes critical to the director's total output - the practical balance between life, faith, truth, and order in an imperfect world. A aging priest, having become familiar with cruelty and despair, finds himself in a crisis of faith as he and those around him engage in strained debates on the nature of God and their own existences, particularly in the context of their own lack of influence over their own fates. Religion, long thought infallible, is instead depicted as a mental crutch to stabilize oneself against the crushing randomness and unpredictability of life; this small Swedish hamlet has virtually no faithful in it (which is part of where Bergman draws his greatest power from, the obligatory but insincere attempts by Björnstrand's jaded pastor to console others when he himself has barely a tenuous idea of what faith is anymore). Excessively bleak, almost to the detriment of the film, in that every character is at such a low point at the start of the film that there isn't much farther for them to fall over the course of the runtime. It's all anxious handwringing with stoic faces, but I guess that's the point. It's a classic piece on a universal theme, but it's hard to shake the feeling that if this film were released today it would be very easy to dismiss it as pretentious and simplistic based on its boldfaced nature. However, it's Bergman, and while he's hardly subtle in Winter Light, the final product is the furthest thing from weak. In fact, you should be prepared to get sucked down in an existential mire. (4/5) See more Read all reviews

Winter Light

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