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Cries & Whispers

Original title: Viskningar och rop
  • 1972
  • R
  • 1h 32m
IMDb RATING
7.9/10
39K
YOUR RATING
Harriet Andersson and Kari Sylwan in Cries & Whispers (1972)
Theatrical Trailer
Play trailer2:19
1 Video
99+ Photos
Period DramaDrama

When a woman dying of cancer in early twentieth-century Sweden is visited by her two sisters, long-repressed feelings between the siblings rise to the surface.When a woman dying of cancer in early twentieth-century Sweden is visited by her two sisters, long-repressed feelings between the siblings rise to the surface.When a woman dying of cancer in early twentieth-century Sweden is visited by her two sisters, long-repressed feelings between the siblings rise to the surface.

  • Director
    • Ingmar Bergman
  • Writer
    • Ingmar Bergman
  • Stars
    • Harriet Andersson
    • Liv Ullmann
    • Kari Sylwan
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    7.9/10
    39K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Ingmar Bergman
    • Writer
      • Ingmar Bergman
    • Stars
      • Harriet Andersson
      • Liv Ullmann
      • Kari Sylwan
    • 249User reviews
    • 78Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Won 1 Oscar
      • 22 wins & 12 nominations total

    Videos1

    Cries & Whispers
    Trailer 2:19
    Cries & Whispers

    Photos142

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    Top cast22

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    Harriet Andersson
    Harriet Andersson
    • Agnes
    Liv Ullmann
    Liv Ullmann
    • Maria
    Kari Sylwan
    • Anna
    Ingrid Thulin
    Ingrid Thulin
    • Karin
    Anders Ek
    Anders Ek
    • Isak
    Inga Gill
    Inga Gill
    • Storyteller
    Erland Josephson
    Erland Josephson
    • David
    Henning Moritzen
    Henning Moritzen
    • Joakim
    Georg Årlin
    Georg Årlin
    • Fredrik
    Ingmar Bergman
    Ingmar Bergman
    • Narrator
    • (voice)
    • (uncredited)
    Ingrid Bergman
    • Spectator
    • (uncredited)
    Lena Bergman
    • Maria as a Child
    • (uncredited)
    Lars-Owe Carlberg
    • Spectator
    • (uncredited)
    Malin Gjörup
    • Anna's Daughter
    • (uncredited)
    Greta Johansson
    • Undertaker
    • (uncredited)
    Karin Johansson
    • Undertaker
    • (uncredited)
    Ann-Christin Lobråten
    • Spectator
    • (uncredited)
    Börje Lundh
    • Spectator
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • Ingmar Bergman
    • Writer
      • Ingmar Bergman
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews249

    7.938.9K
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    Featured reviews

    6AlsExGal

    I just did not "get" this one

    If you're sick of the current trend of having movies use a mostly teal color palette with orange for the explosions, then this is the movie for you. Ingmar Bergman and his cinematographer, Sven Nykvist, use a palette of red, red, red, red, and red as a backdrop for their story of three sisters in circa-1900 Sweden. Agnes (Harriet Andersson) is dying of cancer, and her two sisters Karin (Ingrid Thulin) and Maria (Liv Ullmann) come to comfort her in her final days. Not that they're much comfort, since the whole family is dysfunctional for reasons that are never clearly delineated. And they all have bizarre sexual hangups.

    I'm sure I'll be in the minority, but I found that when it comes to dysfunctional families, this movie pales in comparison to Bergman's later Autumn Sonata. There, the characters are real people and it's easy to identify with them. Here, they seem like little more than ciphers standing in for basic human emotions. It doesn't help that the film is grindingly tedious when it isn't being gratuitously creepy (in the creepy old uncle way, not in the horror movie way). What was the point of the "dream" sequence toward the end, anyways? 5/10 for the story, 9/10 for the cinematography, which won Nykvist an Oscar - it's not just the overwhelming use of red that makes the cinematography interesting. Since I think story is worth more than cinematography, at least to me, I give it a six, mainly because it is Bergman and I want to cut him some slack.
    Galina_movie_fan

    The Sounds Of Cries And Whispers Or A Study In Red

    The idea of this film that is considered by many as Bergman's crown achievement came to him in his house at Faro where he lived by himself for sometime in a melancholy state of mind after a rather painful breakup. One image kept coming to him and it was a very vivid and persistent image of a red room (red walls, red furniture) and four women sitting at the window in the room and dressed by the fashion of the beginning of the 20th century. He could not shake the image out of his mind and he knew that the only way to deal with it would be to start writing about the women – who were they, what was their relationship, their lives, their fates?.. He also knew that should the movie be made of his writing, the dominating color of it would be red. Bergman talked with affection and gratitude about his friend and long time collaborator Swen Nykwist who spent many days creating the passionate haunting red world of "Cries and Whispers. The title came to Bergman from one of the reviews on a Mozart's sonata (he does not remember which one). The sonata was described as sounds of cries and whispers…

    "Cries and Whispers" is about pain, death, love, lust, hate, and self-loathing. There are more than one scene in the film that I found unbearable, horrifying and depressing. In the same time, it is about beauty and power of life, every minute of it - how little we appreciated it until it is too late. Typical Bergman's subjects, Bergman's actresses giving amazing performances, strikingly beautiful – it even hurts your eyes cinematography by Sven Nykvist - typical Bergman's masterpiece - what less do we expect from him? I admire the brilliance of it: acting, cinematography, Bergman's simple but devastating approach to Death as an inevitable part of life. The ending is heartbreaking - with Harriet's face and her words from beyond the grave about appreciating every minute of life...

    Powerful and devastating film.
    jrc007

    My first brush with Bergman

    It was a haunting and shattering film experience, as promised.

    I've never before seen a Bergman film, however, judging by the praise awarded to "Cries and Whispers," I decided to try this one out first. And I couldn't have been more rewarded. The film, even though it clocked in at a short ninety-one minutes, I estimate less than half of those minutes contained dialogue. As Gloria Swanson put it in "Sunset Boulevard," they "had faces." And how they used them! The facial expressions and mannerisms the characters in this film used were breathtaking. Going from Liv Ullman's smug, teasing grin in her flashback scene with the doctor to Ingrid Thulin's anguish-cum-rhapsody in the scene with the broken class (that undoubtedly stays in the minds of all who see the film for one reason or another!) is truly incredible. Each character uses their body language to convey the meaning of their characters and their situations. In fact, I could have watched the film in Swedish without English subtitles and still have known perfectly well what was going on. The dialogue was truly superfluous and unnecessary. Combining the characters' body language with Bergman's masterful use of color to convey the personalities of the characters as well as their environment in general is something that (1) I've scarcely, if ever, seen used in a film before and (2) could not stop marvelling at its brilliance.

    The performances were top notch. All of the performances by the four leading ladies were exceptional and perfect in every way. The homoeroticism that pervades the film is perfectly captured by the ladies in a manner that is not sexual, but rather something the farthest possible being from sexuality.

    I do not even need to speak of Sven Nykvist's cinematography beyond that it is perfection incarnate.

    I am now convinced that Bergman is a master, and I cannot wait to see another of his films! Sure, the film is depressing and certainly is not for those who think that "The Italian Job" is the best film of the year, however, for those who can just watch the relationships of the sisters unfold in all its splendor and anguish, this is truly a work of art rivalling those of any medium.

    MY RATING: 10/10 (and I don't give tens lightly)

    HIGHLIGHTS: Liv Ullmann, Harriet Andersson, Ingrid Thulin, Kari Sylwan, Sven Nykvist's cinematography, Bergman's use of color and his direction in general
    9gftbiloxi

    One of Bergman's Most Powerful Works

    Upon its release CRIES AND WHISPERS was hailed as one of Bergman's finest films. Although it has not quite held onto that original evaluation, it remains a very fine film--a subtle and delicately performed drama as remarkable for its silence as for its occasional moments of dialogue. And in many respects it offers an extremely good introduction to Bergman's work.

    Like many of Bergman's films, CRIES AND WHISPERS shows the director's preoccupations with memory, communication, time, community, and death. The story is bleak: Agnes is dying and her sisters Karin and Maria have come to attend her during this final illness--but they prove unable to communicate in a meaningful way with either Agnes or each other, and Agnes' emotional care is left largely to her long-time maid, the devoted Anna.

    As the film unwinds, we are bought into the memories of each woman in turn. The dying Agnes (played with powerful realism by Harriet Andersson) not only grapples with increasing pain, she recalls with regret the emotional separation that existed between her long-dead mother and herself. Sister Maria (Liv Ullman), a mindless sensualist, recalls an act of adultery that has poisoned her marriage; Sister Karin (Ingrid Thulin), who is emotionally cold, recalls an act of self-mutilation designed to thwart her husband's desires. Only the maid Anna (Kari Sylwan), with a peasant's directness, actually works to be of comfort, even going so far as to cradle Agnes' head on her naked breast and dreaming of comforting Agnes while her sisters fail.

    The film is ever so delicately tinged with subtle elements of lesbianism, sadomasochism, and incest, and the emotional problems experienced by Maria and Karin are at least partly sexual in nature--but these are not the focus of the film so much as they are surface indications of a deeper internal turmoil. As to what that deeper turmoil is... Bergman might say it is the nature of life itself. We each stand alone, usually in denial of our own mortality, usually unable to reach each other in any meaningful way. A deep film, and in spite of its occasional awkwardness a memorable and touching film. Recommended.

    Gary F. Taylor, aka GFT, Amazon Reviewer
    8Xstal

    The Unfathomable Depths of Despair...

    Cocooned within a shell, an echo chamber close to hell, as your resonance rebounds, and your conscious thoughts just hound; in a prison made so strong, it encases all lifelong, only two ways to escape, one involves a lifelong wait; though you put on a brave face, mask reality with grace, to remain a little distant, the façade is inconsistent; it's the curse of who you are, the situational bazar, as you're nurtured to be who, the polar opposite of you.

    Ingrid Thulin is immense, Harriet Andersson is outstanding, Liv Ullmann is brilliant, the direction and cinematography surreal, the story far from pleasant and often full of pain.

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    Related interests

    Emma Watson, Saoirse Ronan, Florence Pugh, and Eliza Scanlen in Little Women (2019)
    Period Drama
    Mahershala Ali and Alex R. Hibbert in Moonlight (2016)
    Drama

    Storyline

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    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Ingmar Bergman explained the use of the color red in this film: "'Cries and Whispers' is an exploration of the soul, and ever since childhood, I have imagined the soul to be a damp membrane in varying shades of red."
    • Goofs
      When Anna wakes up Maria late at night, Maria follows her out of the room barefoot. After they get Karin, Maria has slippers on.
    • Quotes

      Anna: [reading Agnes' journal entry] "Wednesday, the third of September. A chill in the air tells of autumn's approach, but the days are still lovely and mild. My sisters, Karin and Maria, have come to see me. It's wonderful to be together again like in the old days. I'm feeling much better. We were even able to take a stroll together. It was a wonderful experience, especially for me, since I haven't been outdoors for so long. We suddenly began to laugh and run toward the old swing that we hadn't used since we were children. We sat in it like three good little sisters and Anna pushed us, slowly and gently. All my aches and pains were gone. The people I'm most fond of in all the world were with me. I could hear them chatting around me. I could feel the presence of their bodies, the warmth of their hands. I wanted to cling to that moment, and I thought, "Come what may, this is happiness. I cannot wish for anything better. Now, for a few minutes, I can experience perfection and I feel profoundly grateful to my life, which gives me so much."

    • Connections
      Featured in Liv Ullmann scener fra et liv (1997)
    • Soundtracks
      Mazurka in A minor, Op.17/4
      by Frédéric Chopin (as Chopin)

      Played by Käbi Laretei (as Kabi Laretei)

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • March 5, 1973 (Sweden)
    • Country of origin
      • Sweden
    • Languages
      • Swedish
      • German
      • Danish
    • Also known as
      • Gritos y susurros
    • Filming locations
      • Taxinge-Näsby estate, Mariefred, Södermanlands län, Sweden
    • Production companies
      • Cinematograph AB
      • Svenska Filminstitutet (SFI)
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    • Budget
      • $400,000 (estimated)
    • Gross worldwide
      • $37,068
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 1h 32m(92 min)
    • Sound mix
      • Mono
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.66 : 1

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