MoFo Movie Club April: Cries and Whispers

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As you all probably know, Cries & Whispers is not typical of my movie watching fare and I'm not usually one to go into any sort of in-depth analysis or critique of a film, so I hope the following ramblings make some sort of sense.


I just watched this film the other night, after hearing and reading so much about it.

I’m not sure I fully understood the film and I didn’t exactly love it, but I found it to be starkly beautiful and fascinating (though I listened to the MoFo podcast prior to viewing it and Yoda’s White Stripes comment kept cycling in my thoughts to the point of distraction). Rauldc called it “horrifying and endlessly disturbing,” but I found it to be actually quite believable and even relatable.

As much as we all like to think that the familial bond is one of the strongest things there is, I’m not sure that’s really the case for all or even most people. I’m not convinced that the sadness and empathy of the sisters were truly “feigned,” I think the feelings were there on some level, but were dulled considerably by the alienation the sisters felt from each other (as well as from other people in their lives) and the sort of vague feelings of revulsion that come with that alienation.

I think those same sorts of feelings and the desperation they create are what drove the scenes of mutilation and of the stabbing of Maria’s husband – both of which played out to me as being the sort of twisted fantasies of the sisters and not actual events.

The resurrection scene played out to me as being a fantasy too, but from Anna’s perspective – the only one in the story who held genuine, untainted affection for Agnes, though as Yoda pointed out, even that affection seems to be the result of a need for a surrogate child. Anna seemed to want Agnes to have some sort of absolution with her sisters, something that she was denied because they were too wrapped up in their own personal miseries. But even in that fantasy they weren’t able to give Agnes what she wanted.

In the end, I’m not sure what exactly was the point Bergman was making, but I appreciate the more realistic – albeit bleak – look at family life and interactions than what is so often churned out in Hollywood.

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How did I miss this? Gonna download and listen, if only to find out what some of you sound like.
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"Don't be so gloomy. After all it's not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."



Great to hear your thoughts and why you liked it Miss Vicky

How did I miss this? Gonna download and listen, if only to find out what some of you sound like.
Yoda and WT sound how I expected them too, I sound, well... I don't know. If you're expecting a beautiful Welsh accent you'll be dissapointed