Cries and Whispers
Encyclopedia
Cries and Whispers is a 1972 Swedish film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman
and starring Harriet Andersson
, Kari Sylwan
, Ingrid Thulin
and Liv Ullmann
. The film is set on a mansion at the end of the 19th century and is about two sisters who watch over their third sister on her deathbed, torn between fearing she might die and hoping that she will. After several unsuccessful experimental films Cries and Whispers was a critical and commercial success, gaining nominations for five Academy Awards
. This included a nomination for Best Picture
, which was unusual for a foreign-language film.
Cries and Whispers returned to the traditional Bergman themes of the female psyche or the quest for faith and redemption. Unlike Bergman's previous films, Cries and Whispers uses saturated colour
, especially crimson
. It was for the color and light scheme that the cinematographer and long-time collaborator Sven Nykvist
was awarded the Academy Award for Best Cinematography
.
), who is near-death with cancer. Her sisters Maria (Liv Ullmann
) and Karin (Ingrid Thulin
) have returned to the family home to be with her. They remain distant and awkward, and struggle to comfort their sister, while dealing with shock and the fear of mortality her death is bringing to them. The deeply religious maid Anna (Kari Sylwan
), whose own daughter died young, is able to comfort her. At length, Agnes dies, and a priest (Anders Ek) arrives at her death bed. Later in the film she returns to life for a short moment. In a dream-like sequence she asks her family for love and care. For a moment Karin, Maria and the dead Agnes are getting closer to each other, only to be even more distant shortly afterwards. Only Anna is able to embrace and mourn the dead. The film is characterized by flashbacks that return to the life of the protagonists and their memories, tracing each woman's personality to the childhood they spent together. Maria remembers her failed marriage; Agnes remembers her unrequited devotion to their distant mother; Karin struggles with self-harm.
The last flashback, from the deceased Agnes' point of view, is narrated with her diary, and shows her sisters descending upon the house clad in white, like angels. The last words are Agnes whispering "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."
and loans of 200,000 SEK he also had to ask the Swedish Film Institute
for support to finance the 1.5 million SEK budget. To save costs the main actresses and Nykvist gave their salary as a loan and were nominally co-producers.
, where Bergman received an overwhelming emotional response by the audience. and where it won the Vulcain Prize of the Technical Artist
. At the 46th Academy Awards
it was nominated for five awards, the Academy Awards for Best Director, Best Original Screenplay
, Best Cinematography
, Best Costume Design for the costume designer Marik Vos
and unusually for a foreign-language film for Best Picture
. In the end Sven Nykvist won the cinematography award for his work as director of photography. To qualify for the academy awards the film was rushed to a premiere in Los Angeles county, before the official premiere in Sweden a few months later.
Cries and Whispers was nominated and won several other awards on festivals and from critics associations. At the 27th British Academy Film Awards
Sven Nykvist was nominated for Best Cinematography
and Ingrid Thulin for Best Supporting Actress
, at the 30th Golden Globe Awards
the film was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film
. and at the David di Donatello
ceremony Ingmar Bergman won in the category Best Foreign Director
and Andersson, Sylwan, Thulin and Ullmann won the Special David award. In Scandinavia the film won the Guldbagge Awards for Best Film, Harriet Andersson for Best Actress and Sven Nykvist the Special Jury Price, the Jussi Award for Best Foreign Director and the Bodil Awards
for Best European Film
. The film won also several awards from critics associations, including the New York Film Critics Circle Awards
, National Board of Review awards
and National Society of Film Critics awards
.
Ingmar Bergman
Ernst Ingmar Bergman was a Swedish director, writer and producer for film, stage and television. Described by Woody Allen as "probably the greatest film artist, all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera", he is recognized as one of the most accomplished and...
and starring Harriet Andersson
Harriet Andersson
Harriet Andersson is a Swedish actress, known outside Sweden for being part of one of director Ingmar Bergman's stock company....
, Kari Sylwan
Kari Sylwan
Kari Sylwan is a Swedish actress, dancer, ballet teacher, and choreographer. Sylwan started as a dancer in 1956 at the Royal Swedish Ballet and at the Cullberg Ballet. At both companies she danced leading parts, for example the title role in Cullberg's The Lady from the Sea, based on Ibsen's play,...
, Ingrid Thulin
Ingrid Thulin
Ingrid Lilian Thulin was a Swedish film actress.-Biography:Thulin was born in Sollefteå, Ångermanland, northern Sweden, the daughter of Nanna and Adam Thulin, a fisherman...
and Liv Ullmann
Liv Ullmann
Liv Johanne Ullmann is a Norwegian actress and film director, as well as one of the "muses" of the Swedish director Ingmar Bergman...
. The film is set on a mansion at the end of the 19th century and is about two sisters who watch over their third sister on her deathbed, torn between fearing she might die and hoping that she will. After several unsuccessful experimental films Cries and Whispers was a critical and commercial success, gaining nominations for five Academy Awards
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
. This included a nomination for Best Picture
Academy Award for Best Picture
The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to artists working in the motion picture industry. The Best Picture category is the only category in which every member of the Academy is eligible not only...
, which was unusual for a foreign-language film.
Cries and Whispers returned to the traditional Bergman themes of the female psyche or the quest for faith and redemption. Unlike Bergman's previous films, Cries and Whispers uses saturated colour
Saturation (color theory)
In colorimetry and color theory, colorfulness, chroma, and saturation are related but distinct concepts referring to the perceived intensity of a specific color. Colorfulness is the degree of difference between a color and gray. Chroma is the colorfulness relative to the brightness of another color...
, especially crimson
Crimson
Crimson is a strong, bright, deep red color. It is originally the color of the dye produced from a scale insect, Kermes vermilio, but the name is now also used as a generic term for those slightly bluish-red colors that are between red and rose; besides crimson itself, these colors include...
. It was for the color and light scheme that the cinematographer and long-time collaborator Sven Nykvist
Sven Nykvist
Sven Vilhem Nykvist was a Swedish cinematographer. He worked on over 120 films, but is known especially for his work with director Ingmar Bergman...
was awarded the Academy Award for Best Cinematography
Academy Award for Best Cinematography
The Academy Award for Best Cinematography is an Academy Award awarded each year to a cinematographer for work in one particular motion picture.-History:...
.
Plot
Cries and Whispers takes place in a lavish mansion in the 1800s, filled with red carpets and white statuary. It depicts the final days of Agnes (Harriet AnderssonHarriet Andersson
Harriet Andersson is a Swedish actress, known outside Sweden for being part of one of director Ingmar Bergman's stock company....
), who is near-death with cancer. Her sisters Maria (Liv Ullmann
Liv Ullmann
Liv Johanne Ullmann is a Norwegian actress and film director, as well as one of the "muses" of the Swedish director Ingmar Bergman...
) and Karin (Ingrid Thulin
Ingrid Thulin
Ingrid Lilian Thulin was a Swedish film actress.-Biography:Thulin was born in Sollefteå, Ångermanland, northern Sweden, the daughter of Nanna and Adam Thulin, a fisherman...
) have returned to the family home to be with her. They remain distant and awkward, and struggle to comfort their sister, while dealing with shock and the fear of mortality her death is bringing to them. The deeply religious maid Anna (Kari Sylwan
Kari Sylwan
Kari Sylwan is a Swedish actress, dancer, ballet teacher, and choreographer. Sylwan started as a dancer in 1956 at the Royal Swedish Ballet and at the Cullberg Ballet. At both companies she danced leading parts, for example the title role in Cullberg's The Lady from the Sea, based on Ibsen's play,...
), whose own daughter died young, is able to comfort her. At length, Agnes dies, and a priest (Anders Ek) arrives at her death bed. Later in the film she returns to life for a short moment. In a dream-like sequence she asks her family for love and care. For a moment Karin, Maria and the dead Agnes are getting closer to each other, only to be even more distant shortly afterwards. Only Anna is able to embrace and mourn the dead. The film is characterized by flashbacks that return to the life of the protagonists and their memories, tracing each woman's personality to the childhood they spent together. Maria remembers her failed marriage; Agnes remembers her unrequited devotion to their distant mother; Karin struggles with self-harm.
The last flashback, from the deceased Agnes' point of view, is narrated with her diary, and shows her sisters descending upon the house clad in white, like angels. The last words are Agnes whispering "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."
Cast
- Harriet AnderssonHarriet AnderssonHarriet Andersson is a Swedish actress, known outside Sweden for being part of one of director Ingmar Bergman's stock company....
as Agnes - Kari SylwanKari SylwanKari Sylwan is a Swedish actress, dancer, ballet teacher, and choreographer. Sylwan started as a dancer in 1956 at the Royal Swedish Ballet and at the Cullberg Ballet. At both companies she danced leading parts, for example the title role in Cullberg's The Lady from the Sea, based on Ibsen's play,...
as Anna - Ingrid ThulinIngrid ThulinIngrid Lilian Thulin was a Swedish film actress.-Biography:Thulin was born in Sollefteå, Ångermanland, northern Sweden, the daughter of Nanna and Adam Thulin, a fisherman...
as Karin - Liv UllmannLiv UllmannLiv Johanne Ullmann is a Norwegian actress and film director, as well as one of the "muses" of the Swedish director Ingmar Bergman...
as Maria (and her mother) - Anders Ek as Isak, the priest
- Inga GillInga GillInga Gill was a Swedish film actress. She was born in Stockholm, Sweden and died there of thrombosis.-Selected filmography:* Thirst * Dreams * The Seventh Seal * Brink of Life...
as Story teller - Erland JosephsonErland JosephsonErland Josephson is a Swedish actor and author. He is best known to international audiences for his work in films directed by Ingmar Bergman, Andrei Tarkovsky, and Theodoros Angelopoulos.-Biography:...
as David, the doctor - Henning Moritzen as Joakim, Maria's husband
- Georg ÅrlinGeorg ÅrlinGeorg Adolf Wilhelm Årlin was a Swedish film actor who appeared in 50 films between 1940 and 1988.A native of the southern city of Karlskrona, renowned as Sweden's only baroque city and site of the country's sole remaining naval base, Georg Årlin died in Lövestad at the age of 75.-Selected...
as Fredrik, Karin's husband - Linn UllmannLinn UllmannLinn Ullmann, originally Karin Beate Ullmann, is a Norwegian author and journalist. A prominent literary critic, she also writes a column for Norway's leading morning newspaper and has published four novels....
as Maria's daughter
Production
Writing and pre-production
Bergman's films were difficult to market commercially and thus foreign capital was not available to finance the film. Bergman then decided to shoot the film in Swedish and not in English as his previous film The Touch (1971 film) and to finance Cries and Whispers through his own production company Cinematograph. Although he used personal savings of 750,000 SEKSwedish krona
The krona has been the currency of Sweden since 1873. Both the ISO code "SEK" and currency sign "kr" are in common use; the former precedes or follows the value, the latter usually follows it, but especially in the past, it sometimes preceded the value...
and loans of 200,000 SEK he also had to ask the Swedish Film Institute
Swedish Film Institute
The Swedish Film Institute was founded in 1963 to support and develop the Swedish film industry. The institute is housed in the Filmhuset building located in Gärdet, Östermalm in Stockholm...
for support to finance the 1.5 million SEK budget. To save costs the main actresses and Nykvist gave their salary as a loan and were nominally co-producers.
Soundtrack
- "Suite No. 5 for solo Cello in C Minor, 4th mvt 'Sarabande'Cello Suites (Bach)The Six Suites for Unaccompanied Cello by Johann Sebastian Bach are some of the most performed and recognizable solo compositions ever written for cello...
" by Johann Sebastian BachJohann Sebastian BachJohann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
. Played by Pierre FournierPierre FournierPierre Fournier was a French cellist who was called the "aristocrat of cellists," on account of his elegant musicianship and majestic sound....
. - "Mazurka in A minor, Op.17/4" by Frédéric ChopinFrédéric ChopinFrédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....
. Played by Käbi LareteiKäbi LareteiKäbi Alma Laretei is an Estonian-born Swedish concert pianist.Her father was a diplomat in the service of the Republic of Estonia; when the Soviet Union invaded the country he and his family fled to Sweden. Laretei has had a long and distinguished career as a pianist and in the 1960s...
.
Reception
Cries and Whispers was extremely well received by critics. The New York Times' Vincent Canby called it a "magnificent, moving, and very mysterious new film". Writing about the film in his series on "Great Movies", film critic Roger Ebert says "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."Awards
Cries and Whispers was shown out of competition at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival1973 Cannes Film Festival
The 26th Cannes Film Festival was held on May 10–25, 1973. At this festival two new non-competitive sections were added: 'Étude et documents' and 'Perspectives du Cinéma Français' ....
, where Bergman received an overwhelming emotional response by the audience. and where it won the Vulcain Prize of the Technical Artist
Vulcain Prize
The Vulcain Prize of the Technical Artist is an independent film award for feature films at the Cannes Film Festival official selection since 2003...
. At the 46th Academy Awards
46th Academy Awards
The 46th Academy Awards were presented April 2, 1974 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles. The ceremonies were presided over by John Huston, Diana Ross, Burt Reynolds, David Niven....
it was nominated for five awards, the Academy Awards for Best Director, Best Original Screenplay
Academy Award for Best Writing (Original Screenplay)
The Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay is the Academy Award for the best script not based upon previously published material. Before 1940, there was an Academy Award for Best Story for writing. For 1940, it and the award in this article were separated into two awards. Beginning with the...
, Best Cinematography
Academy Award for Best Cinematography
The Academy Award for Best Cinematography is an Academy Award awarded each year to a cinematographer for work in one particular motion picture.-History:...
, Best Costume Design for the costume designer Marik Vos
Marik Vos-Lundh
Marik Vos-Lundh was a Swedish costume designer and production designer who won the Academy Award for Costume Design in 1983 for Fanny & Alexander.-Filmography:*The Virgin Spring...
and unusually for a foreign-language film for Best Picture
Academy Award for Best Picture
The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to artists working in the motion picture industry. The Best Picture category is the only category in which every member of the Academy is eligible not only...
. In the end Sven Nykvist won the cinematography award for his work as director of photography. To qualify for the academy awards the film was rushed to a premiere in Los Angeles county, before the official premiere in Sweden a few months later.
Cries and Whispers was nominated and won several other awards on festivals and from critics associations. At the 27th British Academy Film Awards
27th British Academy Film Awards
1974----Best Film: Day for Night The 27th British Film Awards, given by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts in 1974, honoured the best films of 1973.- Best Film : Day for Night * The Day of the Jackal...
Sven Nykvist was nominated for Best Cinematography
BAFTA Award for Best Cinematography
-Best Cinematography - Colour:* 1963 - From Russia with Love - Ted Moore** Nine Hours to Rama – Arthur Ibbetson** The Running Man – Robert Krasker** Sammy Going South – Erwin Hillier** The Scarlet Blade – Jack Asher...
and Ingrid Thulin for Best Supporting Actress
BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Best Actress in a Supporting Role is a British Academy Film award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding supporting performance in a film...
, at the 30th Golden Globe Awards
30th Golden Globe Awards
The 30th Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best in film and television for 1972 films, were held on 28 January 1973.-Best Actor - Drama: Marlon Brando - The Godfather*Michael Caine - Sleuth*Laurence Olivier - Sleuth...
the film was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film
Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film
The Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film is one of the awards presented at the Golden Globes, an American film awards ceremony.Until 1986, it was known as the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Film, meaning that any non-American film could be honoured...
. and at the David di Donatello
David di Donatello
David di Donatello, named after Donatello's David, is a movie award assigned each year for cinematic performances and production by Ente David di Donatello, part of Accademia del Cinema Italiano. It is the Italian equivalent to the Academy Award. There are 24 categories as of 2006.- History :The...
ceremony Ingmar Bergman won in the category Best Foreign Director
David di Donatello for Best Foreign Director
The David di Donatello for best foreign film director, or in Italian, Migliore Regista Straniero, was given from 1966 until 1990.-1967:*David Lean - Doctor Zhivago-1968:*Richard Brooks - In Cold Blood-1969:...
and Andersson, Sylwan, Thulin and Ullmann won the Special David award. In Scandinavia the film won the Guldbagge Awards for Best Film, Harriet Andersson for Best Actress and Sven Nykvist the Special Jury Price, the Jussi Award for Best Foreign Director and the Bodil Awards
Bodil Awards
The Bodil Awards are the major Danish film awards given by Denmark's National Association of Film Critics . The awards are presented annually at a ceremony in the Imperial Cinema in Copenhagen. Established in 1948, it is one of the oldest film awards in Europe...
for Best European Film
Bodil Award for Best Non-American Film
The Bodil Award for Best Non-American Film is one of the categories for the Bodil Awards presented annually by the Danish Union of Film Critics . It was created in 1948 and is one of the oldest film prizes in Europe. This category was called "Best European Film" until 2001, when it became the "Best...
. The film won also several awards from critics associations, including the New York Film Critics Circle Awards
New York Film Critics Circle Awards
New York Film Critics' Circle Awards are given annually to honor excellence in cinema worldwide by an organization of film reviewers from New York City-based publications. It is considered one of the most important precursors to the Academy Awards....
, National Board of Review awards
National Board of Review of Motion Pictures
The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures was founded in 1909 in New York City, just 13 years after the birth of cinema, to protest New York City Mayor George B. McClellan, Jr.'s revocation of moving-picture exhibition licenses on Christmas Eve 1908. The mayor believed that the new medium...
and National Society of Film Critics awards
National Society of Film Critics
The National Society of Film Critics is an American film critic organization. As of December 2007 the NSFC had approximately 60 members who wrote for a variety of weekly and daily newspapers.-History:...
.