But, finally, it is the dreamlike authority and insinuation of Bergman's camera that stays with us, scenes so initmate and personal we begin to feel voyeuristic, almost apologetic for watching. Two scenes are most memorable for me: the dying Agnes lying against the maternal breast of housekeeper Anna in a Pieta-like pose of unbearable sadness and the final dream/memory sequence of Agnes remembering a time when she and her sisters were happy and at peace in their mother's garden. The camera lingers on the luminous Harriet Andersson as she wistfully gives grace to her life, "which gives me so much". If those words and the expression on that actress's face don't inspire the deepest, most profound gratitude for the medium of film (and Bergman the Master), I don't know what will. Most highly recommended.
The film is a fantastic mixture of realism (a portrait of an archtypal relationship between four women) and expressionistic horror story. This is truly one of the most terrifying and effective GHOST STORIES that has been told on the screen. But of course it goes well beyond that.
Some may consider the film stagey or overly formal. It's an approach to film-making that few director's practice now and was mastered by film-makers such as Bergman and Fellini. Cries and Whispers is certainly one of the finest representations of formal film-making in the history of cinema.
Unfortunately, the movie is both stagey and self-conscious, lacking the fine subtlety that characterizes such films as "Persona" and "Wild Strawberries," and without the natural candor of "Scenes from a Marriage." "C&W" is dominated by a sea of red colors and overly-obvious stage setting in the style of Munch's paintings. A tableau based on Michelangelo's Pieta is especially heavy-handed.
Despite these problems -- or perhaps even because of them -- newcomers to Bergman or to "art films" may find the extra finger-pointing helpful and inoffensive. Others who are looking for a similarly dark treatment in a color movie by Bergman might prefer "Autumn Sonata." In any case, "C&W" is an essential film for all of us Bergman fanatics: its many points of brilliance -- especially in the first half -- manage to outshine its nontrivial weaknesses.
