WINTER LIGHT

 A pastor who may be dying and who has lost his faith finds it difficult to comfort those who come to him for help. Even if Woody Allen has successfully parodied this sort of sombre Bergman drama it's impossible not to be moved by this remarkable film, the second in what has come to be known as Bergman's 'faith trilogy', (it's also the best). The opening scene alone, which takes places during a communion service attended by only a handful of people, is extraordinarily intense and everything that follows is relentlessly grim and yet you know you are watching something great. It is, as the pastor says, about 'God's silence', the absence of God; it moves us on a metaphysical level. The performances by Bergman's stock company, (Bjornstrand, Thulin, Lindblom, von Sydow), are magnificent as is Sven Nykvist's stark black and white cinematography. A masterpiece.