Cries and Whispers (1972)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Cries and Whispers (1972) -- I. Bergman

Excruciating to watch, but utterly mesmerizing -- this is Bergman's strange tale of a woman dying of cancer (Harriet Andersson) in a completely red mansion in turn-of-the-20th-century Sweden. Her sisters, Karin (Ingrid Thulin, a repressed intensely negative presence) and Maria (Liv Ullmann, a fleshy indecisive and insecure presence), and her maid, Anna (Kari Sylwan, a motherly nurturing presence), are tending to her day and night.  She is occasionally lucid, occasionally in severe pain, occasionally unconsciously rasping.  In turn, we learn some past memories, internal anxieties, and current concerns of each of the characters who all have serious problems communicating with each other and their spouses.  It's painful.  However, the color palette (red and black, dominating) and the structure, full-of-close-ups and fades to red, make this unusual and experimental, and therefore exhilarating.