Cries and Whispers | Autumn Sonata

“Cries and Whispers is like few movies we’ll ever see. It is hypnotic, disturbing, frightening.”—Roger Ebert

An existential wail of a drama, Cries and Whispers concerns two sisters, Karin (Ingrid Thulin) and Maria (Liv Ullmann) who keep vigil for a third, Agnes (Harriet Andersson), who is dying of cancer and can find solace only in the arms of a beatific servant. Both intensely felt and a striking formal experiment featuring one of the most overwhelming uses of color in cinema history—earning cinematographer Sven Nykvist his first Oscar—the film is a powerful depiction of human behavior in the face of death that places us on the border between reality and nightmare, tranquility and terror. (91 mins., 35mm)

Autumn Sonata was the only collaboration between cinema’s two great Bergmans: Ingmar and Ingrid, the monumental star of Casablanca (1942). The grande dame, playing an icy concert pianist, is matched beat for beat in ferocity by the filmmaker’s recurring lead Liv Ullmann as her eldest daughter. Over the course of a day and a long, painful night that the two spend together after an extended separation, they finally confront the bitter discord of their relationship. Evocatively shot in burnished harvest colors, this cathartic pas de deux ranks among the director’s major dramatic works. (93 mins., 35mm)