Right from the opening shots this film speaks volumes without having to listen to one line of dialogue. One of the great things about Ingmar Bergman's films is that he can tell stories without flooding your ears with explanations. This story is about pain and even though a central character is dying a painful death, it's the inner pain of the other characters that is shattering. Agnes (Harriet Andersson) is the one dying and her two sisters and the maid take care of her in her last hours. As the film continues we learn more about each character through flashbacks as the death of Agnes has made the others come together. Maria (Liv Ullmann) is flirty and more shallow and in her flashback we see her having an affair with David (Erland Josephson) the local doctor. When her husband Joakim (Henning Moritzen) comes home he figures out what is going on and attempts suicide. Instead of helping him, Maria backs away. The other sister is Karin (Ingrid Thulin) who is depressed and self loathing and she is in a loveless marriage to Fredrik (Georg Arlin) who is much older than her. She self mutilates her vagina with a shard of glass to keep her husband from being intimate with her. The maid is Anna (Kari Sylwan) and she truly loves Agnes and she is also religious and the story gives a hint that maybe Anna and Agnes were lovers but this might just be Anna's motherly nature. Agnes finally dies and its through her death that Maria and Karin now must face one another. Something has happened to these siblings but Bergmann doesn't let on what that is. *****SPOILER ALERT*****
Towards the end of the film the two sisters let Anna go and tell her that she can take a token of Agnes's memory. She says "No" but at the end we see her with Agnes's journal and reading about a good day in her life. Anna is the only good hearted person in the film and its pure Bergman that this character is treated so callously by the others. Bergman was an agnostic and the treatment of Anna is reminiscent of the ending to Robert Altman's "The Player". In that film Cynthia Stevenson's character was good natured which has no place in Hollywood! Here, Anna is discarded without so much as a thought. But I think Bergman admires Anna. She is a pivotal character to counteract the misery of Maria and Karin. This film won an Academy Award for cinematography and the great Sven Nykvist shot it. The use of colors is very evident throughout this film and red and black are the dominant tones. The walls inside the mansion are red and so are some of the curtains. During the flashback sequences the scene would fade in and out with the color red. Bergman wanted red to symbolize the inside of a bleeding soul. After Agnes's death the characters wear black dresses to mourn and its in striking contrast with the red walls. These shots are beautiful to look at. There is so much to discuss with this film but just let me say that this is the bleakest film that Bergman ever directed. Even more so than in "Persona" which was more dialogue driven. Harrowing story is a must for all that love independent and foreign films.
Towards the end of the film the two sisters let Anna go and tell her that she can take a token of Agnes's memory. She says "No" but at the end we see her with Agnes's journal and reading about a good day in her life. Anna is the only good hearted person in the film and its pure Bergman that this character is treated so callously by the others. Bergman was an agnostic and the treatment of Anna is reminiscent of the ending to Robert Altman's "The Player". In that film Cynthia Stevenson's character was good natured which has no place in Hollywood! Here, Anna is discarded without so much as a thought. But I think Bergman admires Anna. She is a pivotal character to counteract the misery of Maria and Karin. This film won an Academy Award for cinematography and the great Sven Nykvist shot it. The use of colors is very evident throughout this film and red and black are the dominant tones. The walls inside the mansion are red and so are some of the curtains. During the flashback sequences the scene would fade in and out with the color red. Bergman wanted red to symbolize the inside of a bleeding soul. After Agnes's death the characters wear black dresses to mourn and its in striking contrast with the red walls. These shots are beautiful to look at. There is so much to discuss with this film but just let me say that this is the bleakest film that Bergman ever directed. Even more so than in "Persona" which was more dialogue driven. Harrowing story is a must for all that love independent and foreign films.