CRIES AND WHISPERS

In a house full of ticking clocks signalling the passing of time and rooms of bright red redolent of blood, three women wait for a fourth to die. Two of the women are the sisters of the dying woman , the other, their maid. Is "Cries and Whispers" Ingmar Bergman's greatest film? Perhaps not and yet it remains one of the towering masterpieces of world cinema which should tell you exactly where Bergman stands.

His extraordinary use of colour, (mostly reds and whites; Sven Nykvist won the Oscar for his cinematography), goes some way in alleviating the almost unwatchable horror of the films central situation of a woman dying in agony while those around her are powerless to help her or lessen her pain. There are flashbacks to fleeting moments of happiness and a lot of grief in the women's pasts but for the most part this rigorous and unrelenting film concentrates on that terrible journey into what? Rarely has the cinema tacked the subject of death with such an intellectual compassion as here.

As always Bergman's repatory company of players are extraordinary, down to the smallest part. The sisters are Harriet Andersson, (the one who is dying), Liv Ullmann and Ingrid Thulin, (the ones who wait), and Kari Sylwan as the maid. The men in their lives, (Erland Josephson, Henning Moritzen and Georg Arlin), also play a very significant role in shaping the lives of these women and yet they remain very much in the background. Of course, you could argue that only in Bergman's world could people behave as they do here. These people inhabit a world almost entirely devoid of joy, their only 'pleasure' steming directly from some form of pain. This picture is grim enough to qualify as a horror film and it certainly isn't an easy watch. Indeed, if anything, this was the film that finally cemented Bergman's reputation as cinema's premier master of misery. However, once seen it can never be forgotten and it's a film that repays frequent visits. I reiterate, "Cries and Whispers" is one of the greatest films ever made.