"Cry and Whisper" is a color film by Bergman. The director embraced the arrival of color film behind the times, but this did not stop him from using color in a dignified manner. Anyone who has seen this film will be deeply impressed by the strong red, elegant black and white in her memory. Although the film is dominated by warm colors of red, the overall atmosphere does not make people feel the slightest warmth. The sisters in white sat in the red room, motionless, like an oil painting.
Perhaps because of the subject matter and title of the film, I began to mistake it for a film adapted from a famous novel in the world. After watching the movie, I couldn't imagine where she would begin and end if this were a novel. I can’t let go of those images created by Bergman, the conflicts and needles of the sisters, those huge and shocking close-ups, those red transitions, and those religiously frozen images.
The film's depiction of women's inner world is so delicate, struggling and delicate that it even makes Almodovar a child's play. Carefree sisters Karin and Maria invite sister Agnes, who lived together as children, but is now ill, home to spend her final moments together. On the surface, or intellectually, the sisters want to try to restore the estrangement and estrangement in the past. But in fact, the distance between people, perhaps the fear of death, has become more and more distant, like strangers. Instead, the maid, Anna, was invited to take care of Agnes, exuding the love of a Virgin. A very famous scene in the film, Anna is topless holding Agnes in pain, this may be the only heart-warming scene in the whole film. At the same time, the male characters in the film are so unimportant, priests, doctors, and husbands, they are the clues that connect the sisters, and they are the other half that I occasionally think of. They are almost all characters without depth.
Touch is the estranged sister who wants to return to the original origin through touch. It is the unfamiliar sadness of the touch between men and women. It is Anna who heals Agnes's wrinkled wound. The cry is Agnes' groan in pain, and Maria's sharp voice. The screams were the wailing of a baby; the whispers were the whispers of Agnes snuggling, the strange and ambiguous whispers of Maria to the doctor, and the lingering impressions etched in her mind.
Bergman is asking, what is the relationship between people? Even if it is an acquaintance, even if it is a relative, even if it is a lover.
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