Cries and Whispers

Whether resulting from director Ingmar Bergman’s reputation or from the material itself, the credits and opening sequence are imposing, at a Swedish estate around the turn of the century, with leads Liv Ullmann and Harriet Andersson introduced, unconscious, in Cries And Whispers, 1973.

Still not a word of dialogue spoken, we infer that Agnes (Harriet Andersson) is convalescing and her attendants are her sisters (Liv Ullman as red-haired Maria, Ingrid Thulin as Karin) and a maid (Kari Sylwan), director Ingmar Bergman deliberate in his exposition, early in Cries And Whispers, 1973.

Director Ingmar Bergman resumes ailing Agnes’ (Harriet Andersson) internal monologue, and a flashback in which Liv Ullmann, already seen as her red-haired sister Maria, appears as her brunette mother, events at the same family estate in 19th century Sweden, in Cries And Whispers, 1973.