In Herman Hesse’s novel The Bead Game, Joseph Knecht, having passed all the stages of training, received the main advice from a music teacher who took care of him from a young age that the truth should be sought not in books or in a game, but in himself, from a hermit, a Chinese man has learned to meditate and is in harmony with himself. Once in the monastery at the order, he met an amazing man Teguljarius, who told him about innovative and truly poetic works of art. To draw analogies with Hesse’s mediative and soothing novel, Whispers and Screams is for me a perfect picture in which the opposite characters of two believers and selfless women and two selfish sisters collide. This is a film-meditation, accompanied by a continuing horror to the very end, where this very horror is brought to a climax with a crying corpse on the bed, which is best seen from the outside world, and be alone with these unhappy and tired people.
In the film, you can see the line between earthly people and sublime, selfless people, and this game is ruled by an artist who poses eternal questions of existence. The director disposes of his attractive power as a teacher and educator, criticizing the philistinism and callousness of people who are powerless from the lack of faith. But Bergman is not only a mentor of the moral education of his audience, but also a talented surgeon who dissects the human soul. In his opinion, the soul has a red hue, which is impregnated with the entire film, playing the role of a catalyst in the dramatic component of the film. Under the knock of the clock, the daily routine for each day is known and monotonous, everyone is busy with themselves except for Anna and the patient, who keeps a diary, which only a person not her own will read.
Selfishness and non-acceptance of openness to one’s neighbor separates the sisters, and their whole home really looks like some nightmare or puppet theater. Moments of silence and solitude tear apart the personal physical whims of the relatives of the patient: Maria is the doctor David, and Karin is her husband, whom she cannot stand. Nyquist's close-ups are impeccable, but in them we see nothing but indifference, and it is not surprising that David is the first to notice the same selfishness on Mary's face. Only Anna the director gave a feeling of tender warmth and unselfishness, always ready to help. This game of people in life with the search for their own meanings, where the illusion of happiness in frozen memories seems twofold, for one sister will be a lie, and for the other happiness. The guilt complex leads to extreme and sometimes vulgar actions, this game is easy to get into, but it is so hard to get out without faith.
If we draw analogies with the classification of musical masterpieces in different eras of decline or rebirth of culture, about which the same Hesse wrote, then Whispers and Screams is a multifaceted film, where each time you can find the hidden secrets of the mental state of our society and moral decay. Bergman set the bar high in a conversation about death, where the tears of a dead person are more sincere than those of living people. Paradoxically, a film about the extinction and death of human life, yet about faith.
Few teachers in the arts have managed to elevate a person on film so much: Dreyer and Tarkovsky stand alongside Bergman, but watching Whispers and Screams a few years later, I came across people in greater trouble than myself. There's bloodletting, there's also hysterical talk of suicide, where kindness is taken for weakness, and that kindness can be given a strong slap in the face to know what kind of people it's dealing with. And only the silent Anna leaves a feeling of regret, but I have met such selfless people more than once on my way, and therefore not all is lost.
Thank you, Master, for such an important lesson.
Bloody red. The apologist is considered Jallo and Argento. Was it in vain? Bergman proves otherwise with his emotional thriller. Absolutely dark chamber space, filled with flashes of passionate emotions and scarlet walls. A multilevel equation of relationships that units can solve. From half hints and fantasies, the sensation of the real is blurred, fading into the shadow of an overcast history of memory. Instead of female bromance - discord and screams of pain, play and vacuum of feelings, exalted inability to share warmth with loved ones, support and empathize.
Werner Herzog said that for Bergman, the starting point is the human face. Undoubtedly. The film is designed according to the theatrical formula, so the destroyed communications between the characters come to the fore. Resentiment through the pupils and lip lines, indifference is fixed on the eyelids and hidden in words. In general, another directorial revelation, which in the modern oversaturated world still looks in one breath.
It's like a child catching those shadows and looks. Why is this sedentary moralizing without a goal, when you can not just talk, but arrange a real scold for the audience. Destructive stress breaks through the veil of the screen, pumping mercantile excitation. A nauseating sense of poison. Favorite film experience for lulling some, danger of losing balance for others. There is no strict formula! Cinema must have an impact in one way or another, so that even an untrained viewer can realize the magnitude of the plan. As long as it does not heal old wounds and cause moral confusion.
Chaotic admiration can be expressed even in the carefree phrase thrown immediately after leaving the hall: "Nothing is clear, but very beautiful." All! That's enough. Form described. If you want to move on to understand the content of what is happening, you can send a request to Wikipedia or other popular resources. This important home experiment should help to focus, catch a veiled meaning. But if after reading nothing cleared up, and your net is empty, then there is nothing wrong. At least you tried! Not even every professional has an intertextuality checklist, so don’t worry. This is just the beginning of the journey.
It is incredibly difficult to single out one thing in a work, to specify a specific detail, an object in which absolute truth is hidden, when Bergman himself is so stubbornly multifaceted and vast (although many have tried). He does not spare the viewer, does not babysit and does not care for him. His only requirement is psychological stability and iron patience. Only they will help to find the keys to the box with secret signs and artifacts. Even in this portable quest you often have to compete in search of meaning with more experienced masters, it’s okay, personally I do not like safe entertainment.
Searching for interpretations is a thankless task. It seems to notice something hidden and hidden from impenetrable eyes – in fact not so important. After all, it is almost impossible to accurately determine this solemn moment of “initiation into the secrets of cinematography”. When a sense of self-satisfaction and complacency opens dark doors into the world of arthouse, where nothing is clear but so much inspiring levitation, it becomes stuffy. The main thing is to have enough time for new views and happy discoveries. After all, the pleasure of watching often does not depend on the acceptance and understanding of what is happening on the screen.
In his famous work 'Whispers and Screams' Ingmar Bergman presented his favorite actresses from different periods on the screen. The star of the initial period of cinematography master Harriet Andersson, who starred in such famous films as ' Summer with Monica', ' Smiles of a summer night' and ' Through dull glass', plays a seriously ill girl from an aristocratic family who spends the rest of her harsh days in the family estate. She is cared for by two sisters and a family maid, Anna.
The older sister performed by Ingrid Tulin, who shone with the master in such films as ' At the origins of life', ' Communion' and ' Silence', released in the years of creative maturity of the director, differs from others by a harsh cold disposition that does not want to accept love from anyone whose origins lie deep in childhood.
The younger sister, on the other hand, bursts with love for everything around her, perhaps because she was once the favorite of her mother, whom she looks like two drops of water. She was played in the film by the star of masterpieces of the Scandinavian master Liv Ullman, who showed herself amazingly in such films as 'Persona', 'Shame' and later in 'Scenes from married life'.
The maid performed by the little-known Kari Sulvan has the most natural feelings for the dying heroine, showing true love that she never felt from her sisters.
The picture is full of memories of all the key characters, reflecting the dissatisfaction of the life lived at the moment, in which there is a place for bitter losses and irreversible circumstances that prevent you from manifesting the best that is inside.
The final scene amazes with the sadness and simultaneous joy of the main character from the long-awaited meeting with her sisters. Only at this moment did Love flood with great power into the restless heart of the heroine. But this moment was enough to prepare yourself for something bigger.
Magnificent acting, filigree directorial work and strikingly subtle disclosure of human nature formed another invaluable creation of the great filmmaker Ingmar Bergman.
How do you endure this pain in life? Let her go. If you do not let go, will you actually live? .
“All my films could have been black and white except Whispers and Screams,” Bergman quotes from his book Paintings.
And indeed, the film turned out, in my opinion, a masterpiece from the visual side - from the selected main colors of the picture (red, white, black), excellent camera work by Nyquist, for which he later received several prestigious awards, including an Oscar, to total control of everything that appears in front of the camera: makeup, hairstyles, costumes, furniture, wallpaper, even small interior items, such as candles and statuettes - everything was carefully checked separately in front of the lens.
The picture shows the relationship between the sisters who met in the family mansion at the request of one of them - dying of cancer Agnes. The sisters who come, who are completely different from each other, but equally incapable of loving anyone other than themselves, still maintain a relationship with each other, and show rare attention to the dying sister, only because they are bound by blood kinship. Both sisters do not care much about Agnes’ torment, they have their own personal lives, with their own worries and problems. Maria enjoys her beauty, youth, she is literally filled with life, and watching her death is very difficult and unpleasant. Karin is an introverted, strong woman who has experienced a lot. Because of her disappointments in people and in life in general, she has forgotten how to show care, and no longer wants to show her feelings, and Agnes needs care and support from her family, which she very much lacks. But in addition to the three sisters, Anna is still in the house - a maid hired to look after the patient. And it is in Anna that Agnes finds for herself a truly dear, close to her person who is able not only to change her bed linen and bring food, but also not to pretend to empathize, motherly care and show her real, sincere feelings.
By its design, the picture tries to show that real close people can be neither those with whom you have a kinship, but those in which you can find something of your own, close in feeling and spirit.
In his diaries, Bergman often referred to "Whispers and Screams" 39 as a "consolation film." Perhaps the director really consoled himself that in strangers you can find relatives. Perhaps his blood relatives did not show him proper care and attention, in those moments when he needed them very much, and in later life, he sought love and support in strangers.
The apotheosis of the work of the great Swede is his tape of the 70s “Whispers and Screams”, which is not already associated with specific texts of Kierkegaard, but better than others expresses the very spirit of his existential philosophy, in it eternal questions are exposed to unbearableness, the desire for truth and standing in the face of death are depicted in all undisguised and merciless clarity. Now, thirteen years after the first viewing of Whispers and Screams, it does not have the overwhelming effect on us as it did when the author of these lines was 19 years old.
Much in the picture now seems artificial and tortured, the characters are dotted and unfinished, the desire to strengthen the visual component is excessive, but nevertheless, this tape develops Bergman’s signature themes with a rare for the director inexorability and ruthlessness. Taking as the basis of the script concept of the relationship of the three sisters, the director makes not just a curtsey towards Chekhov, he enriches the absurdity of his drama with the terrible naturalistic details of human dying.
One of the sisters is dying from a deadly disease, the other two cannot find a common language, only the maid who lost her daughter is the only comforter for the dying. Actively using close-ups, the camera of Nyquist bites into the guts of human souls, trying to get to the truth at all costs. Maria is looking for herself in sensual pleasures (Liv Ullman is sexier than ever), Karen, on the contrary, goes headlong into business, becoming more masculine (Ingrid Tulin is tough and muscular). The speech of the priest at the body of the deceased Agnes is remarkable: in it Bergman the screenwriter demonstrates that the atheism he declares is no more than bravado, heartfelt, sincere words about the meeting of the soul with God could write and demand from the actor that only a believer play it.
“Whispers and Screams” is a concentrated Kierkegaard movie, for like no other Bergman film, Angst is felt here – a concept introduced by the Danish philosopher, meaning existential horror, fear not only of death, but of being in general, “the world”, as Heidegger later called it. The scenes of dying in the picture are scary, but still short-lived, much more terrible than the experiences of those who survived and who watch the death of the Other. This can be compared to the feelings of the Mother of God on Calvary: She knew and understood everything, but she could do nothing to see her Son suffer. And here again, Bergman demonstrates himself as a Christian artist, because the iconographic allusions are evident in Agnes’ consolation scenes by the maid Anna.
Anna is the only character in the picture who is not fixated on herself, only she is capable of compassion, someone else’s pain for her is her personal pain. Limiting the film to only female characters, introducing men into the plot as extras, Berman, like Fassbinder in Petra von Kant's Bitter Tears (a tape shot in the same year as Whispers and Screams, which is amazing!) shows the viewer the giant resources of a female soul capable of surviving the unbearable. Where a man commits suicide, like the hero of Max von Sydow in Communion, the woman goes on, continues to live, holding her heart together.
“Whispers and screams” is a landmark picture for the late Bergman, like many of his mature films, it is like a dream, and was born out of a dream (as he himself wrote in his book “Pictures”: “the film was born from the scene of three women on a red background”), it has a lot of illogical and shocking (take, for example, Karin’s self-torture), but it does not leave despite all this pressing feeling, does not cause such acute pain as “Saccordance”, there is a lumension, the belief that any suffering is filled with meaning, that it brings us closer to God, if this compassion.
And despite the lack of understanding of the divine plan, sometimes the inability to unite his will with the will of a suffering God, Bergman’s hero, like Kierkegaard, can exclaim: “Even if I am the only unpardoned sinner in hell, there I will glorify His justice.”
This painting by Ingmar Bergman is perhaps one of the most ruthless works of world cinema. Unlike Bergman’s “Earthly glade”, in which, for all its depression, there is still some semblance of catharsis, “Whispers and Screams” plunges into an atmosphere of unspeakable sadness, showing the audience to what depth of moral decline can bring a person indifference, lies and hatred, demonstrates what people who have lost the ability to love and empathize become.
Two sisters visit a third, dying of a serious illness. It would seem that a completely ordinary everyday situation, but the director fills it with a peculiar meaning, symbolically contrasting the gentle and kind Agnes, who even after death is not able to find peace, begging for at least a drop of sympathy and love, her sisters who buried themselves alive. And if one, deprived of love and warmth from childhood, first on the part of her mother, for whom she was almost a stranger, and then on the part of her husband, a cold and calculating cynic, plunged into the depths of hatred for the world, humanity and herself, then the second became an empty and windy individual, living in ersatz feelings, narcissistic and equally indifferent to her loved ones. Dry, indifferent, full of neglect, sisters, if they are able to take care of a seemingly close person, it is only at the level of formal, fussy actions; for them, a dying relative is a burden, and if they regret something, it is only about certain moments of the past associated with it. And, again, they are opposed by the maid Anna, who can truly love and empathize with Agnes, treating her as if she were her own daughter. And, alas, no one except the terminally ill Agnes, her love and care simply do not need.
The heavy, pressing, tense atmosphere of Whispers and Screams is emphasized by a contrasting color scheme. The abundance of blood-red color of the walls, floors and curtains, combined with the whiteness of dresses and blankets, the blackness of costumes and mourning veils, additionally affects the psyche and at the same time emphasizes both the painful anticipation of the end and the tense relationship between the characters. Without the magnificent visual series and stunning camera work of Sven Nyquist, this film would hardly have become so heavy and gloomy.
Perhaps one of the film’s most painful moments is its ending, when each of the two remaining sisters tries to find a way to reconcile, at least a little closer, and stumbles upon a wall. A wall of misunderstanding, indifference and hatred, a wall they built with their own hands. Deeply unhappy, the heroines, although some part of their souls, strive for true love and understanding, but spiritual blindness reduces all their aspirations to nothing.
The verdict is an unusually strong and heavy drama about the whole depravity of human souls, a true work of art, permeated with painful sadness and darkness. An impressionable person can plunge into depression for several days.
The film, which raises, perhaps, one of the most acute topics: family relationships, love and acceptance, what to do if people are not blood-bound than the so-called closest.
All of us (well, maybe not for all, but certainly many) are brought up in the rhetoric that relatives are not chosen, they must be loved, forgive everything, in any case communicate and generally sacrifice themselves for them. Put everything you have on the altar of family values. Right now! And then watch them trampled and burned, for no one wants your sacrifices.
Beautiful Bergman shows how a woman, torn by agony, dies not from some disease, but from dislike. Since childhood, she felt unnecessary, lonely, abandoned; her mother was jealous of other sisters and waited only for reproaches. And the pain that appeared in the little girl over the years has grown into something uncontrollable.
In the finale, Bergman gives a light move that the whispers and screams that the heroine (the sick woman) constantly heard subsided once - when there were sisters and a caring nurse (who was not without bodily warmth), they were calm, friendly and quite joyful. This feeling of harmony, love and simply happiness became the light that conquered the darkness with its whispers and cries.
In parallel, of course, this topic (search for yourself, love, understanding) is also revealed in the lines of other heroines. And this provides additional ground for reasoning that the unmet thirst for love and understanding from childhood lasts through life. Neurotic mood swings, self-doubt, conscious rejection of sensuality or hypertrophied demonstration of it are all consequences of those childhood problems that adults cannot solve. No matter how wise and powerful they think they are.
The conclusion is made by everyone.
The film is a study of the nature of the female energy (not the energy inherent in women, but the female energy - anima, which is present in both men and women). It is this energy that gives people love, laughter, tears and the desire to breathe.
It is difficult to say that the film unfolds any events, we see how painfully Agnes dies (from lack of air, oxygen). She is surrounded by her closest people - sisters Karin and Maria, and the maid Anna. Agnes loves her sisters, but there is no intimacy between the sisters. The only person who gives sincere care to Agnes is the maid Anna (who lost her daughter during her illness).
Agnes doesn't like the touch of men. Karin kills her feminine side, she admits that her life has become so mechanical that she thinks about suicide, touching her is not pleasant. Mary was once an ardent girl, but now her face is only a lying smile and indifference. Maria could not turn from a charming girl into a grown woman (she still tries to play with eyes and smiles, have lovers - but this does not help her), and Karin immediately became a frozen old woman, killing all her emotions.
In my opinion, Bergman himself points to one of the possible salvations - this is religion, faith in God (Agnes has it - the priest says this, the scene of Anna's prayer is also shown). The meaning of life according to Bergman is love, concern for others, humility.
Throughout the film there is a mechanical ticking of the clock, in the sketch there are many sculptures (frozen life / beauty / energy), in Maria’s room there are dolls and a large doll house. The energy in the film is the red walls, the blood of the heroes and their piercing screams.
8 out of 10
Room. Red walls. Three sisters. One dies... That’s the whole plot of “Whispers and Screams”, there are no unexpected plot twists, intricate dialogues, there is no scale of what happens when localized events. But, nevertheless, it is an absolute masterpiece. Why, you ask? The film easily makes its way through the screen and grabs the viewer by the throat, like the notorious “Bell”, because Bergman once again shows what sooner or later each of us felt or will feel. It's certainly death. Death, which is near, caresses someone next to you, you can even feel her breath, and if you are not careful, she will burn or take with her.
Interestingly, the idea for Whispers and Screams came to Bergman during his work on Touch, a year earlier. The very touch that Agnes’ sisters crave to exhaustion, but at the same time fear it, are afraid to jump over the tongues of the deadly flames raging around the bed of their own sister. Death here takes on an invisible form that knocks on the door that separates the sisters from each other.
The secret of this film lies in its simplicity and ease with which it crosses that inevitable boundary between film and reality. Bergman is unique in that it gives you the opportunity to touch your own secrets, hidden far beyond the inside of your soul, to secrets, often rejected and painful, but no less attractive and sweet. In the end, I will note the amazing ensemble of actors and especially Harriett Anderson, her smile on a dying face I probably will never forget.
10/10
Dead souls and the living dead...or everything you wanted to know about death but were afraid to ask Ingmar Bergman.
It is known how to treat sick domestic or farm animals. They are put to sleep, slaughtered, or shot, thus achieving a double advantage for themselves and for the most miserable creature, whose grievous sufferings are suppressed in an instant. The behavior of animals that are clearly aware of their near demise is worthy of close study. Cats, for example, not only do not require any attention to their person, but even, if possible, look for the quietest, most unsociable and dark corner to meekly let go of the spirit, while trying as little as possible to squeeze others. Such asceticism is a rare phenomenon among people. It's not like that. Not only in life, but also in death, we need a companion (a son, a wife, a god... at least a dog!). Relatives can not always understand the feelings of the doomed, and if this happens, you can see how relatives, friends, acquaintances, doctors and other subjects turn around the suicide bomber, diligently drawing a picture of some active activity, work, help. Sincerity is equal to zero, which the patient himself understands, because one should not be deceived - most often this action is a simulacrum that performs a protective function against the NOTHING, invisible, inexplicable, terrible and omnipotent, whose name is death. Behind the disorderly and unsuccessful external activity hides an archaic fear, carefully eliminated by modernity. It cannot be bought off, cured with the help of modern methods, it is impossible to know and explain, resorting to the most profound hypotheses. It can only be overcome by the movement of spirit, will, sincerity and faith, which goes against all logical constructions. In observing the sick, each of us sees not his exhausted, suffering body, but his own death, challenging us to a duel. You're against nothing. Naturally, most, if not all “live”, whether they are the closest relatives or unfamiliar doctors-professionals somehow retreat and pass, preferring to refrain from contraction.
Maria and Karin, young girls, come to see their beloved sister Agnes, whose name ("pure" or "holy" redemptive sacrifice) perfectly describes the whole situation. Innocent, kind-hearted Agnes at the behest of either the Lord, or nature, or other higher forces (or perhaps none at all, which is most terrible), as if atonement for the sins of all living, experiences wild, unbearable, dying pains when cancer metastases slowly, diligently and inevitably devour her insides. The sisters, of course, are always nearby, they are ready to help put the patient to bed, wash, refresh clothes, read, open a window. The only thing they forgot to do was to be with Agnes Spiritually, not just physically, performing some (useless and absurd) action. It seems that, unhappy before her death, she still found that calmness, peace and meekness of spirit characteristic of suicide bombers in the last moments of life. However, the way to heaven was closed to her. Agnes is coming back. From the lifeless and weak-willed moment ago, the bodies again burst out unspeakable anguish of sobbing, pleadings and tearful, insane moans. Sisters cannot and do not want to believe in such phenomena. Spewing curses at their sister, in horror and disgust, they run to lock themselves in their rooms. But you can not lock yourself away and this case will change their lives, ideas about the world, people, themselves and their own essence (which we will reveal later). The only person in the whole world who was not afraid to come to Agnes for help is an honest, meek and courageous servant Anna, faithfully devoted to her sisters from the moment of birth, who grew up with them in the same house. Living in Christ, she is not surprised by the resurrection of the mistress, realizing that souls sometimes need an earthly guide to ascend to heaven. Without fear, with all the power of sincere faith, she looks into the bottomless abyss of death for Agnes, saving her soul. Sisters, of course, tend to regard what happened as a momentary darkening of the mind and feelings caused by emotional shock. They settle with Anna and say a cold goodbye, offering to take something from the house for the "memory of Agnes." She refuses. She will remember her mistress, friend, true sister to the grave.
But what happened to Karen and Maria after the above events? My opinion is purely subjective and does not claim absolute certainty (which does not exist in this matter). Once in a hopeless, existential situation, they discovered the truth about themselves and their own essence. This truth forever paralyzed and fettered their souls. Now they have no choice but to feel eternal disgust for their “person”. Deafening themselves with horse doses of reality (which today contributes in every possible way to the oblivion of their “I”), soon they will again adjust to the “normal” life, pretending that nothing ever happened. And there was everything. Continuing the tradition of Kierkegaard’s philosophy close to him (both physically and materially), Bergman argues, and not without reason, that no external sources give an idea of “what is good and what is bad.” You will not find an article in the criminal code that requires a spiritual transfer of a dying relative to the kingdom of heaven. The categories of guilt and sin escape modern society, only external behavior is regulated, while sin itself is an invisible, elusive, but fatal movement of the soul! The professional position of the director is not in any way condemning, but only stating the spiritual fall of the heroines. Why are judges and lawyers here? They will judge themselves, and this is perhaps the most terrible punishment that man has invented. Agnes is alive even in death, but her sisters are dead in life.
Purely technically, the already rich visual range with the majestic, archaic, luxurious atmosphere of the family estate is enhanced by incredible coloristics. The background of the picture is pressing on the psyche, the authoritative red and white color, which leads both the sisters and the audience to even greater confusion, almost bordering on madness and revelation. Every thing in the frame, as if quietly and slowly dies under the deafening tick of the family clock, measuring the approach of eternity. Also, it is not by chance that Bergman transfers the time of action to the turn of the XIX - XX centuries. In history, it bears the seal of a special, painful and milestone for the whole world, the transition from naive, sincere, albeit dying in agony, romanticism (symbolized by Chopin and Anna) to cold, strict, pragmatic rationalism, complete death of feelings (sister). Coupled with, the movie turned out somber. Very. The only scene where the situation is slightly discharged (natural tenderness of greenery) is the last in order. It shows Agnes' happy memories of walking in the garden with her "kind, good sisters" recorded in her diary. The episode expresses Bergman's attitude to creativity and memory as salvation from death and the only thing that will remain after us.
So, he gets a picture that has crossed the artistic framework and entered the field of existential, personal being of the viewer. Therefore, it is somehow inappropriate to whisper about her genius or shout eulogies loudly to her. We don’t choose these movies, they choose us.
The playfulness of feelings instead of real compassion. . .
What is a human being born for? For happiness, we admit. But sometimes reality is much harsher than our dreams.
So did Agnes. Sick, on the verge of death, she wanted to see as much real support as possible beside her, but in return... just fake smiles of support that have nothing to do with real human sincerity and love. Whose relationship is more intimate than that of three sisters? There is no connection between them as such. But the maid Anna gives Agnes all her maternal warmth, care, and, I do not fear this word, love!
Agnes feels her, she is grateful to her, but she is not able to express all this, since the disease eats her from the inside, which makes it difficult to even say a word.
But why? Why is this indifference happening? Maybe because two sisters are mired in their problems, or too busy with themselves, their appearance, and the death of a third sister for them is just a life experience?
It's hard. It is hard to think that this really happens in almost every fifth family, where one of its members is fatally ill.
And the ending touches to the deepest strings of the soul. This summer garden, where there are echoes of memories of a happy pastime with her sisters, is the only thing that makes Agnes’ heart burn and rejoice.
Loneliness is an absolute thing. The only thing that exists. Everything else is a figment of our imagination, an illusion.
(c) Ingmar Bergman
In the center of the plot are three sisters: the terminally ill Agnes (Anderson), the mentally unbalanced severe “impairment” Karin (Tulin) and the outwardly cute merry Maria (Ullman). The sisters dislike each other since childhood, and carefully hide it, but Agnes’ deadly disease gradually destroys the foundations of this misunderstanding and exposes their most secret thoughts and feelings. All these transformations are watched with interest and ill-concealed neglect by the maid Anna (Sulvan), the only person in the house who sincerely and hard endures the illness of his mistress.
The work of the iconic Swedish director Ingmar Bergman is certainly not intended for the general public. “Whispers and screams” is a classic, in the best sense of the word “art house” – an author’s film with a pronounced creative handwriting, painful self-digging and turning inside out everything that is called the word “man”. And I understand perfectly well, and I do not blame those people who watch (or do not watch) this picture through force, through the very “I do not want, but I will.” Especially since I have one foot on this side.
The key motif of Whispers and Screams is human indifference and, as a result, loneliness. Agnes is filled with feelings in her sisters only at the moment when she realizes that she is terminally ill, and that she has no one closer to these people. And Maria and Karin only perform a symbolic act of reconciliation after the death of Agnes. It’s hard to say how many true feelings there were in that conversation, but what’s not 100% is for sure. I liked the fact that Bergman himself does not try to understand the reasons for this behavior of the sisters and does not give any hints. It shows only the result - one way or another all three of them came to indifference and loneliness, and what was the impetus in each case - it does not matter.
In principle, the theme of the film would be quite suitable for a more mainstream product. After all, are few good movies about loneliness and "emotional poverty" being made in Hollywood? In my opinion, it is enough, and they all find their viewer. However, Ingmar Bergman is not in vain considered a classic of “art house”. In his film, everything should be shown as hard as possible, difficult and sometimes even unbearable. There is no posturing in this - the author has the right to express his style. However, one must be aware that any viewer has the right to accept or reject this style. So I swear I’ll never say a bad word to a person who honestly admits that he couldn’t see this Bergman movie.
I thought a lot of things were too much here. From the blatantly theatrical and buffoonery manner of the game, ending with strange and rather controversial scenes (for example, the act of some hmm. sexual self-torture on the part of Karin - it was too much). And despite the very short duration of this film, there were too many static, silent and protracted scenes. Yes, perhaps they carried a certain idea, conveyed an emotional atmosphere and background, but watching this elitist slowness sometimes became somewhat awkward. But what I liked one hundred percent was the camera work and the overall visual construction of the picture. The cool thing is to do everything in black and red. Even the usual dimming between scenes turned into “reddening”, which gave a dark, Gothic component to the events taking place on the screen.
As a result, I can only say once again that “Whispers and Screams” (as, apparently, all Bergman’s work) is not just a film for everyone, but rather only for a few. On the other hand, the picture is strong, deep and correct. Although not without excessive "author" elitism.
Steps and rustles. Fogs and rustle. Screaming the pen on paper and measuring the ticking of the clock. Screams, sobs and prayers. A graceful lace collar under a tormented, dipped face. Perhaps the trick is not to say about the universal meaning, but that the meaning, for which the universe is not enough, can be packed without distortion into rose petals on the table or confused in the lace of the mussaic curtain.
The interiors are beautiful, but their very beauty seems to be unreal, the characters sometimes seem suspended in them, as if in a vacuum. But when a text is saturated with symbols, something transcendent, ambiguous, eternal, incomprehensible, it can suddenly turn into something more everyday, extremely earthly, concrete, tangible. And a fragment from a broken glass, and lust, grotesquely emphasized, and the pages of the diary of the deceased, and much more... In all this you can see stained symbols, allusions to something, but you can allow for them the meaning that lies directly on the surface!
Not for nothing hasty, responsible, diligent, sincere, caring for her “little girl” ... and not shy of any work Anna may comprehend something heavenly, transcendental, otherworldly, while remaining the same reliable and local. How striking is the contrast with the absurd stiffness and sophistication of Karin and Mary. Such pretentious ladies are not averse to exposing themselves tormented by some supernatural, extra-world concerns, but in fact are not so mysterious as a plump and as if unsightly maid, and their extreme pretentiousness and showiness cannot be veiled with pompous rituals, and aristocraticism always dulls the mind. Karin can not even undress herself without a maid, and being naked, she dresses again in a pretentious night girl, although she will soon be alone with her husband, in which situation nakedness is much more appropriate, which would symbolize frankness even with close people.
... It is so frightening to learn about yourself: are you not one of those people who are really capable, if the ghost of a deceased loved one appeared to them, to call what happened “indecent”?
In the end, for some reason, an extremely unpalatable and banal result lingers in my mind: if misfortune happens, one must work, preferably physically and extremely hard, then harmony will come, like Anna’s, and such great gentlemen who wander in the shadows of prejudices, whose white hands are not defiled by work, and whose mind is not defiled by understanding the most ordinary things...
Relationships between people can develop in different ways. We are used to people with little acquaintances can be kept closed. Distance and restraint of feelings in this case can hardly become a reason for the accusation of selfishness. It so happened that the manifestation of love for every neighbor is an ideal that remains for the majority very remote from real actions and deeds. But if showing care for a stranger is something of a feat, then showing care for your loved ones is certainly considered a duty.
The three sisters are linked in the film by blood kinship and the sad circumstances that brought them together again. One of the sisters is terminally ill, and wants to spend her last days with the people closest to her - two sisters. The patient has no other blood relatives. The nature of her sisters is different: the elder is prim, calculating and cold; the younger is soft and more open, but frivolous and unstable.
Despite the siblings’ blood relationship, they are far from each other. A sense of duty brought them together in one house, but their inability to love makes them strangers. One of the sisters is given little time, and you need to hurry to be with her, show your love, have time to say everything that was not said before. But as the patient suffers from severe bouts of pain, so her sisters are tormented by the expectation of a solution. The presence of close people who are alien in feelings, in the inner world, causes even more suffering.
Only one person is in a house that is willing to share the pain of a dying person. This person is neither a sister nor a relative, but just a housekeeper. She calms the patient and consoles, shows maternal care, gives her a genuine sense of love and participation.
A stranger was closer to his family. The confrontation of empathy and selfishness comes to the fore. Sisters cannot be happy in their lives without being able to show genuine feelings for their sister. Their fate is indeed difficult and tragic. They cannot adequately thank the maid for her act, cannot establish peace in their families, cannot find happiness and peace in their lives.
The tragedy of the alienation of a person and the ability to show saving care about him are fully revealed by the director.
The film is strange, fascinating, philosophical. Can you call it a masterpiece? Yes, to some extent (scenario, camera work, entourage) is a masterpiece.
Bergman is ruthless to the viewer. Almost as ruthless as Trier in Antichrist. But everything has to pay. And the “sweet torment” of the viewer is the payment for the philosophical gift that awaits him at the end of the film. What? Everyone has their own.
What happens in the red rooms, the silence of which is broken occasionally - whispers and screams, and constantly - the ticking of elegant clocks - is known only to three sisters: the dying Agnes, the tender Mary, the callous Karin, and the silent maid Anna. The sisters dislike each other since childhood, but Anna, as a home, for many years does not allow the family estate to turn into ruins, and only thanks to her, the “red” house still keeps in its walls memories of a distant and irretrievably gone childhood.
One of the most important and frightening aspects of the film is the incredibly realistic depiction of Agnes dying of cancer. I will say without exaggeration - it becomes very uncomfortable from the heartbreaking cries of the unfortunate woman, from her torment, manifesting itself in convulsions and grimaces of pain on the emaciated face.
The clock runs, Agnes dies, the end comes.
The film is filled with pain and fear. The atmosphere of death lasts throughout the picture and even after the death of the sick Agnes, it does not dispel. Agnes is still conscious! She died, but her consciousness has not yet left her. And this is a horror that cannot be assessed. Dead, stiff Agnes, only a few minutes in her life was really happy, wants to see the sisters, wants to feel their tenderness, feel their closeness. But Maria and Karin are terrified to leave the gloomy room in which their late sister lies.
And only Anna, as always, remains close, ready to do anything, as long as her mistress finally finds eternal peace.
Bergman’s film is highly appreciated. Their trophy will find both sense seekers and aesthetes-contemplators, who enjoy skillfully assembled scenery.
I am not going to go to extremes and that is why -
Happiness is when you don’t want something better, and you’re grateful for your fate, whatever it may be.
Three sisters from aristocratic society live their petty-bourgeois, superficial life until one of the sisters is on her deathbed. The coming death reveals all the inner contradictions, emotional anguish, the sense of meaninglessness and falsehood of their lives, and this for a while brings the sisters closer together, between whom there is no real, human intimacy.
Perhaps the main idea in the film is that paradoxically, the main event in the life of every person is his death. It is she who is the faithful “litmus test” that tells us how to live, and the main character of the film, Sister Agnes, thanks to the imminent death approaching her, concluded that happiness is when you do not want to want the best, and you are grateful for your fate. You do not need much for happiness, the main thing is to feel the warmth of your relatives and loved ones, and give this warmth to them. A person who does this in life is not afraid of death.
Bergman built his next masterpiece like a skilled surgeon dissecting souls. He is ruthless in this process, for he exposes to the very depths the dark corners of human conscience and consciousness, causing hitherto unknown emotions and thoughts. This film is like life itself, which brings pain, but it is through the experience of pain that it heals the wounds. So the Bergman movie is difficult to watch, painful, sometimes disgusting, but it is not a banal spiritual masochism because in the end you realize that it heals, brings the necessary, beneficial awareness and peace. These are all his paintings that I have seen, such is the essence of his art. Those who like it, I dare to recommend to view Bergman’s “Sacrament” (1962) and “Persona” (1966). The theme of life, death, the meaning of human existence, all this is the leitmotif of the complex, contradictory, but at the same time, beautiful and bright world of cinema by Ingmar Bergman. I'm not going to say anything about acting, you have to see it! If you haven’t seen Whispers and Screams yet, don’t wait.
In the attic in the shadows I look at the spider in the morning rays.
Weltfremd - The Omega Point.
How do you see what your eyes cannot see? How do you show that your eyes will never understand? How do you make sure you don’t believe them with your eyes? You have to forget that what you see is real, that it matters, and that it looks exactly the way you see it. For example, you can watch a movie, for example, you can look at what your ears hear, for example, you can listen to what your eyes see - it's so simple. Never admit to yourself that what you saw is complete. In theory, all this under the film “Among the white clouds”
“These people live alone. Or small groups. They are separated from each other by an hour of walking. And sometimes all day. Completely isolated from society, these people lead a life of difficulties, overcoming which is the basis of our lives. Far among these mountain valleys lives a monk. I call him my teacher. This text is from the second film. The text is essentially useless. Of course, I need a second movie as another mind game. Outwardly, this game may look one way, internally another, for me the third, in some way really quite different. But the basic essence still has a basis, which came up with something that decided to go through me, even though it could go through any other. That's a whisper. And at the same time, it's a scream. The director divides them because Bergman is a straightforward researcher – he talks about what he sees, not about what he may not notice. It’s really hard to write or show things you don’t know. And you can only guess, so the brain requires clear explanations of the film, not the real one. But I know it's necessary now.
For Bergman, it seems that God is something charming, as for most people who have never encountered God, but only heard from their mother. Mother knows that God exists and she hears him. Mother, if we are about a real mother, and not the image of a woman who went and gave birth to a child, took him to the doctor, loves him and feeds, protects when a drunk skier in a papier-mâché rickshaw rushes at him (in principle, this can be used as a tongue-in-cheek), takes him to the kindergarten on the M5 or Carrera GT, the real mother, is the connection between the closed eyes of a person in a dream - life, and open eyes after life. I will note that you can open your eyes in your lifetime, and this is partly why “Among the White Clouds” is used, although any Buddhist film can be used as a next trip, but, as they say in any of them, there will be no use if a person has no intention and practice. It’s like people who do yoga can never know what they’re looking for because they’re not really looking for anything. But it doesn't matter. But it does matter in life.
After microwaved seeds, the head cooks a little worse, and something in the film was still close. It is obvious that the image of death and the touch of God to each of the sisters. In general, the scene with the revival of the dead man is wonderful, because in it all the cynicism of people before their faith in God, and admiring their visual liveliness and the importance of life. As soon as life begins to speak at the level of death, and whispers - then you immediately have a headache and want to listen to drama and bass - EI3 (- Bad Company - Crucafixion?) People hooliganize with their sensitivity. The movie was great, Bergman was picking his nose.
