About

I feel that in 'Persona' – and later in 'Cries and Whispers' – I had gone as far as I could go. And that in these two instances, when working in total freedom, I touched wordless secrets that only the cinema can discover. — Ingmar Bergman

Cries and Whispers soaks in some of the most sumptuous red ever committed to celluloid. From the walls and carpets of the stately manor in which the film takes place to the dresses of the sisters that occupy it, the film bleeds red. Bergman would note in his screenplay for the film: "ever since my childhood I have pictured the inside of the soul as a moist membrane in shades of red."

The film is a passionate, mournful drama in which the return of two sisters to visit their dying sibling causes long-dormant tensions to boil over. After several years of receiving increasingly tepid responses to his films, Cries and Whispers marked a return to international acclaim for Bergman. The film received five Academy Award nominations and won for Sven Nykvist's cinematography. The cast of actors portraying the sisters and the estate's maid — Harriet Andersson, Ingrid Thulin, Liv Ullumann, and Kari Sylwan — all give performances defined by their raw emotional openness.

M | Mature themes, Brief incidental nudity