From:
Date: Fri, Oct 1, 2010 at 11:22 AM
Subject: Re: CRIES AND WHISPERS: Scheduled film for 7 May 2010
To: rdca25@gmail.com
Tiffany, Eileen, Candy Jiang, Abby, Hansel, Katherine, Jeanette, Minnie, Charlene, Cherry, Sophia, Vicky Shih, Juliet, Chin, Joseph, Max, Alice Wang, Mamie, Emily, Karen, Ida, Christine, Tina, Vivian Yang, David, Vicky Lin, Anne, Vincent, Hazel, Ivana, Alice Huang, John, Christopher, April, Holly, Vivian Lin, Irving,
TiffanyIt is a strange film which is difficult to understand what the director wants to tell us. He uses lots of close up to express actress' inner feeling, such as pain or horror. and I note that Bergman used to take a extreme close up on single character with half face in light another in dark or red to tell individual story. In addition, the film is mainly constructed by three colors: red with little dark as well as white. And most characters are taken with the all-red background close up which let viewers feel disguising and uncomfortable. In general, red let people think of warm, energy, and enthusiasm but in this movie, red suggests death (Agnes), blood (Karin), and sexual lure (Marie).
EileenThe plot in this film is complicated to me. I don't know why Agnes can pretend so long that she was died. In the film I keep seeing the red fades, I thought that were the memory of the actors. When I see the explanation of the film, finally I realize that were kind of emotional expression. The film also have lots of red color things in the scene that represent some kind of emotion. Most of the part of the film don't have the music that I can hear the original sound clearly. I was very impressed by the scene which is in the beginning. I can hear clearly of the woman's breath sound. It was kind of scared to me. In the end I was confused by the relationship of three sisters, they once nice to each other and on the other day they seem not so close to each other. But in the end three of them seem so close to each other and look so happy.
Candy JiangCries and Whispers is really a difficult film to understand. It contains elements of romance—love affair and lesbian love—mystery and a little bit horror. Maybe the reason why it seems to be a mysterious and a horror film is because it is really hard to understand its meaning and because of the way the director shot the film—making the image red like blood—and because of the story—cutting oneself with a glass fragment and making a dead people talk.
For the love affair part, the director used low key lighting to express the secrecy of the love. After the doctor, David, had checked Agnes and walked out of the room, Marie called him to a side. They talked with low volume and in a dark corner. Dark here represents how secret their love is. As well, their acting reveals their secret love relationship—touching face. Although shortly before this scene, David had touched Agnes' face too; however, the feeling is different: his touching of Agnes is kind of consolation, but that of Marie is affection. What's worth mentioning is that the same gesture—touching face—is used later in the film by Marie's husband, Joakim. Before Joakim left the room, he touched Marie's face. At that moment, it made me feel that he's a little bit sad, which shows that their relationship is not two-way because Marie's not in love with him anymore.
Personally, I believe that there's love between Agnes and Anna. Whenever Agnes was in great pain, she only asked for Anna; Whenever Anna held Agnes in her arms, she bared her breasts. Moreover, in Agnes' funeral the director used a pan shot to everyone's face. When the camera panned to Anna, it stopped at her face and zoomed into her. It apparently showed that her relationship with Agnes is different from others with Agnes.
Last but not least, the clock is a familiar image. At the opening sequence, the camera used a tilt shot from the statue to a clock with the tick-tock sound. And shortly after this, the camera again panned to the clock again and even closed up to it while Agnes sickly lied on the bed. The clock is not only a familiar image but also conveyed the meaning that Agnes was dying. The tick-tock sound is actually counting down her numbered life. With every tick and tock, she was more and more close to her death.
AbbyAt the beginning of the film, it starts with very slight "ding" sound as the background music. The three most common colors throughout the whole film are red, black and white. And the changes of the scenes are using the method of fading out as the whole red and then the next scene emerging out. For the most of the scenes, the changes are between the stories and the close shot of Anna's face and then the story continues. Ingmar Bergman likes to shot the facial expression of his actors; thus he shot them with close shot with the actors looking right at the camera. There is a scene I found it pretty interesting. It is when Karin in her room with Anna and looking at the mirror. Because of the mirror reflection, there are three vivid images of tow of them. I think it is pretty unusual because in most movies, whenever there is a mirror, there are only two images in the scene. But in Cries and Whispers, there are three images of them because of the position of the mirror. Finally, I felt some scenes are very terrifying. For example, Karin uses a piece of glass hurting herself and Agnes shouting and crying when she is very sick.
HanselI think this film conveys strong emotions. These emotions are expressed in different ways; like the title of the film implies, some of these emotions are intense and explicit, while others are subtle and implicit. Agnes suffers from her illness. She is eager to reunite with her sisters and ironically it is her illness that brings them together again. However, they seem hardly attached to one another. Agnes is dying, and her pain and cries triggers various kinds of sentiments, the most prominent of all, the need for love and the fear of death. In a fantastical scene, the dead Agnes comes to life and craves for love and care from her sisters. The sisters hope and force themselves to sympathize with their deceased sister; however, they soon give in to the fear of death. Only the loving and motherly maid Anna is willing to help Agnes and gives her the love and comfort that she needs. Finally in Anna's affectionate and mournful embrace, Agnes' soul is appeased. Love is what every human being needs. Sometimes it is not found in blood ties which most people believe is the resolution. Love goes beyond blood ties, classes, gender, and above all, beyond death. People say that love conquers all, and in this film, we see that Anna's love for Agnes conquers the fear of death. The color red is significant in the film and has several meanings; it represents blood, agony, hatred, passion, etc. However, in the end, the color red seems to symbolize love, not passion nor sexual desire, but pure love, the emotion in which one person cares for another without asking for anything in reward.
Katherine
This movie is indeed a very special. The relationship among the three sisters is very complicated. More over, there is a very loyal maid, Anna, who takes care of them and also involve in their lives. In the movie, we can see that the oldest sister is very self-suppressed. A vivid example is that after she having dinner with her husband, she tried to relive her soul by hurting herself. That's really pathetic and makes me feel sorry for her. And the younger sister confuse me the most. Why she tried to become closer to her older sister but in the end she is being so cruel to her? Somehow I did not get the point. And in the movie there is a very special filming technique. When one person's story is end, the screen becomes red then goes to another scene. I did notice that there are lots of red color in the movie, but I just haven't figure out what it stands for.
JeanetteFilm Comment—Cries and Whispers—Jeanette
In this film, the director use three things frequently, red fading to bridge scenes together, close-ups and the finger touching between characters. Whenever an incident is portrayed, it starts and ends with a red fading effect. I think this fading effect is used well because it left the emotions that the characters want to express and make the audience ponder. The close-ups, especially direct close-ups, let us clearly see the actors' eyes. We can see the fear sadness through their eyes. And direct close-ups create a feeling that as if we were sitting in front of the characters. I saw many fingers touching scene as well. For example, when Marin is flirting with the doctor, and when Marin is talking to Karin. I don't know what the is the exact purpose, but, to me, the touching not only shows intimacy but also make the characters a bit pale, sick even fragile.
MinnieI wonder why director use so many red colors in this movie. The contrast effect by using the colors white and black was too scary. Like the movie 'Persona', I confused its genre of movie. (I even couldn't open my eyes, when Karin tortures herself with a piece of glass.)
To Maria, red means desire. When she wore low-cut red dress to seduce a doctor, I could match red means to her (a lust). And her touches to her sister Karin, is looks so strange. So I think, it also show her lust.
For Karin, red means indifference. I really couldn't see the scene that she tortures herself with a piece of glass. After she harmed her body, she goes to the bed and shows it to her husband. I think, this scene shows that she was in pain so long.
Red color means blood or pain to Agnes. On the surface, every person in the house takes care of Agnes. But I think, Agnes pain was from indifference of her sibling. Before she died, she screamed, "Help me. Can't anyone help me?" Only her servant Anna pays attention her pain. And we can also notice their indifference from the last part of this movie. When dead Agnes spoke them to come closer, Karin didn't even go to Agnes. Maria tried to closer the dead, but she frightened and run away from the room. Only Anna let the dead relieved by whispering.
CharleneThis film is undoubtedly as difficult as Persona. Just like the director Ingmar Bergman's movies, this film is associated with great suffering and horrible death. The use of red fades indicates a complex emotion hard to translate.
The film is centered on three sisters and a maid. One of the sisters, Karin, is an indifferent woman, I think. She cannot bear any touch of people. And the most frightening scene is that when she uses a piece of a broken glass to mutilate herself. I was totally unbearable seeing this, cannot help myself but close my eyes to avoid seeing it because it is too unbelievably horrifying. And Maria, the one tries everything to have a relationship with Agnes' doctor. She also looks on indifferently when seeing her husband stabbing himself on the stomach. Agnes, the one who suffers from cancer, is anguish every moment, and it seems that the only comfort she can get is from her maid rather than from her sisters. The impressive scene is that Anna holds Agnes with naked body in the bed like a mother holding a little baby.
CherryIn the beginning, the director of photography uses the basic shots like pan shot, tilt shot and then close-up to start this film. What audience only hear is the tic-tac of the clock, which from my viewpoint, makes me curious, nervous and uncomfortable. Because of this, I think probably this is another bleak movie, just like the film Persona.
At first sight of the striking contrast of the color between red and white, the red quilt along with the white gown and also the red color of the decoration in their reception room, I think maybe there is a symbolic meaning. And after finishing all the film, first, I think this has something to do with the love since Agnes' childhood, which she wants to get from her hard-to-understand mother. Second, also start from her point, since she is moribund because of the cancer and eager for love from her sisters (Maria and Karin) but gets almost no virtual comfort. However, I think I still cannot interpret it very well but only find that the director, Bergman, always ends up using red fades.
Sometimes in the movie, fewer words are better. Like after the physician David diagnoses Agnes, what he just says is "I think it won't last long." with his walking into dark, leaving Agnes' room gradually far away, we know what e means. I also notice the director is in favor of using close-up. For instance, Karin witnesses her husband's in pain and calling for her help (focuses on her torturous face) and in several shot Anna (the maid) is tracked along her moving and shows her inner feeling.
I think this movie's main concerned is searching love; the above about Agnes in second paragraph is an example. What's more, when Marie tries but failed to find love from David she turns to Karin, which can be observed when man-to-woman eating changes to woman-to-woman eating in the dining room. At last, I find that Bergman uses the same action, actors who peel apples in both Persona and Cries and Whisper, which maybe try to distract audience's attention but also show characters' thinking. We can also find lots of good backlighting shot such as in the beginning, Agnes stands face to us before window.
SophiaCries and Whispers is a work directed by Ingmar Bergman, so it is kind of complicated for viewers to understand or analyze. Color may be the most impressive part for the viewers. Basically, the film is composed by black, white and red. All women wear in red while all men wear in black. Every single part ends with red. Also, red can be found at some situation or some place. For example, when Agnes lies on the bed, the bed sheet is red. I assume that maybe the director wants to convey how painful Agnes feels by color. In addition, it is hard for the viewers not to notice the exaggerating facial expression on the protagonists' faces. Ingmar Bergman focuses on face and catches any variant changes on face. The viewers see how depressed and painful they feel. Without much background music, Bergman expresses the emotion in a more efficient way. The tone of whole film is weird. Bergman cuts the film into several parts and makes them combined in a theme—agony.
Vicky Shih
《Cries and Whispers》 is Ingmar Bergman's most accomplished film. It talked about the humans' death and less of emotion. Agnes is the youngest sister who has been stricken with cancer. Every time she suffered from disease, Anna is her faithful maid she could search for. Because Anna was such kind and serene, not like her sisters, Karin and Maria, both are coldness. They kept distance from each other and afraid to contact with human. Maria in the film had the strong desire. She wanted to have the affair with Agnes' doctor, but the doctor refused her. In the film, the director used white to reveal Agnes's pureness, red represented Maria's desire and black said Karin's coldness. Whole of the film covered with a murky atmosphere. It's the director's realization to the human nature.
JulietI commend the use of close-up in this film. For instance, in the scene which Agnes (Harriet Anderson) suffers heavy pain and cries in the early morning, the camera often focuses on her face. Because of using close-up to focus on her, we can see her expression clearly, and easily know that she is grieved and feels uncomfortable. In my opinion, using close-ups can express characters' state of mind, and help audiences to get the main idea in Cries and Whispers. What's more, "red" is important in this film. For example, we can often see the whole screen fades out, and then the screen becomes complete "red". For me, "red" relates to blood, agony, rage, and desire. Take one scene that impresses me a lot for example. It is the scene which Karin (Ingrid Thulin) comes to the guest room to meet the doctor. In this scene, Karin smears her lips with her own blood, and licks the blood. In fact, I am confused and shocked while seeing Karin's deed. However, after thinking deeply, I can strongly feel Karin's desire. As far as I am concerned, "red" in this scene seems to represent Karin's desire.
ChinBoth Persona and Cries and Whispers are directed by Ingma Bergman, which I think they are very hard to understand. If I have to choose which is the better movie, I will choose Cries and Whispers because the color impacts are so impressive. The color red, black and white, they have a very deep contrast with each other. Persona has a continuous story structure while I think Cries and Whispers has many unrelated scenes. I found that Bergman uses a lot of scenes that only focus on a person. There are many scenes show the frame that divided into two parts that is light and without light. Such scenes show the angel(the bright side) and the devil(the dark side). However, some scenes do not divide the two people into the bright side and the dark side obviously. This make me think of the overlapping characteristic in Persona.
My conclusion is that I don't really like Ingma Bergman's movies.
JosephThe most important element of this film lies in the skilled using of colors. Each color has its own significance in this movie. For example, red stands for both sexual desires and blood, white is for purity as usual, and black shows the sense of oppression with characters. Besides this, the cinematographer frequently took advantage of close-ups (or extreme close-ups), which could make audience focus more on characters' emotion and involve in the plot as well. Another special effect which is always shown in this film is "red fadeout." Like the breaking in Persona, red fadeout here also indicates the collapse of emotions within characters.
In my opinion, there is a strong ironic meaning in this film: people still do not know how to love each other even if they have gone through decades of history. The relationship between these two siblings, Karin and Maria, is filled with pride, control, and hatred. Moreover, Karin does not know how to love herself. She tries to hurt herself because of the entrapment in a loveless marriage. However, Agnes who does not realize the veiled strife between her sisters seems to be the most innocent one, but ironically becomes one who dies the earliest.
MaxIn the beginning of the film, the scary sounds with regular tempo accompanied by dark scenery and the silent air reveal that this movie is going to be gloomy and sad. It is just like an opening of a horrible one. Throughout the whole film, it is connected by red fadeouts. In my own opinion, the red fadeouts are just like the actions of the characters' recalling their bad memories. Also, they may indicate pain. They strongly reinforce the pain of the characters. However, because the film is connected by segments, I feel very puzzled. It is hard to fully get the ideas.
Alice WangThe movie Cries and Whispers is another film by director Ingmar Bergman. Similar to the film Persona, there are numerous short breaks or fadeouts in the movie. However, unlike the short breaks in Persona, several red fadeouts are used in Cries and Whispers to convey the emotional feelings of the characters, and in most cases the desire or passion of them. On the other hand, the three main characters Karin, Maria and Agnes are respectively represented by the colors black, red and white. The color black is used to indicate the repressed passion of Karin due to the unhappy and loveless marriage, while the color red is used to suggest the endless passion of Maria and the color white is used to show the purity of the youngest Agnes. Also, Ingmar Bergman used different ways to show the intense emotions of the characters. In Persona, he used an impressive breakdown of the shot to express the emotional separation of the two main characters due to betrayals; nevertheless in the case of Cries and Whispers, striking red fadeouts and several close-ups or pan shots are frequently used to express the extreme change of the emotions of the characters, which also adds to one of the most impressive features of the film.
MamieBased on the red background, Cries and Whisper creates a bloody and eccentric atmosphere. The whole film has three dominant colors which are red, white, and black. The red wall which combined with women in white clothes creates a strong contrast. What's more, the red fadeouts of protagonists' agonized faces appear frequently in the film. The red color symbolizesenthusiasm and sexual desire. Later we see the women plasters her mouth with blood and she curls her tongue. This is absolutely a symbol of sex. In addition, there are many homosexual complexes in the film. To tell the truth, I don't understand this film since it is focused on emotion. Why can dead people become alive? I also remember the scene that two sisters stand still and their eyes are empty just like dead people. However, they become alive as soon as the maid walks to them. This is very strange to me.
EmilyThis film talks about a story which concerned with four women. When they face the fragility of life, they think about their own sorrow in their life. The director uses red as background to fade out, which implies the break of the emotion. Red symbolizes indignation, sex and blood. In this film, the director expresses the death and life.
The relationship between the characters is complicated. The relationship between the sisters is conflict but intimacy. They love one another, but they also struggle for one another. The relationship between Anna and Agnes is intimacy although they are in different classes. When there is no one care about Agnes, only Anna takes care of her, and accompany her.
KarenMany parts of the movie such as the red fades, Karin's self-abuse, and the talking corpse (though the body isn't shown but we all know she's dead) make Cries and Whispers quite a horror movie to me. Not only all of the fade-ins and fade-outs are in red, but the color of the wall in many rooms is crimson as well. Usually when I see the color red I will associate it with passion or blood, but red has multiple meanings in this film, which varies with the indication of the scene.
The title Cries and Whispers is composed of two contrastive nouns. "Cries" probably indicates that the characters are eager to break through the limitation of their souls, trying to shout out and expose the depression and resentment that is hidden deep in their heart. On the contrary, "whispers" describes the revelation and reaction of the characters' silent nature.
My favorite part of the movie is when Bach's Cello Suite replaces the words that Karin and Maria are intimately expressing to each other. The tone color of cello is depressive but charming, which perfectly replaces human voice and creates a tranquil atmosphere. Although there are no words between the siblings, we can still feel the intimacy of their souls. Sometimes director's technique of expression is really admirable.
Ida
By contrasting the black and white clothing and using red fadeouts to indicate strong feelings, Cries and Whispers is a beautiful movie which expresses the women's thoughts and suffering. However, I personally think that it is really horrible and painful to enjoy it because the characters keep on crying, whispering and screaming. Also, some scenes are really bloody. The most impressive scene is Karin cuts herself with broken glass in her vagina and then smears the blood to her mouth before her own husband. Besides, the most impressive character is Anna who cares Agnes whatsoever. The reason I think that she is impressive is I can hardly think of someone like her can be able to take care of Agnes. Her warm-heartedness makes a big contrast with Agnes' sisters. Moreover, she cares Agnes like a lover, which is the reason why I think that Cries and Whispers may be a homoerotic horrible movie.
ChristineThe film Cries and Whispers is all about inside heart of women. Three sisters and Anna, who are different in their personalities, have their own problem about haman relationships. The name of the film Cries and Whispers is at first confused me for I didn't see any connection of them even right after I finished the film. However, a discovery that the hoarse breathing and cries of pain of Agner's is contrast to the cries of terror of her two sisters is made. The former due to physical pain, with the latter with mental torture. The weakness of human is seen on body and mind.
The mise en scene is simply composed of three major colors, red, white and black. It is perfectly arranged that each color represent indivisuals and is symbolic to three sisters personalities. Red, the anxiety of sex; white, the purity; black, the isolation. Especially the background is filled with the color red for all characters in the film are in desire, however, which are present in different forms. Agner, who has been eager for love sinse she is a little girl and was oversaw by her mom; Maria, a lovely girl who always wins attention but tend to lost in lust; and Karin, a cold and distant lady which at the end seems eager for connection with Maria. They tried to reach their desire but in the every end got nothing.
TinaThe mise en scene of this film is very artistic. It does not follow the verisimilitude but the theme of the film. The most obvious instance is the red room. Usually there is no room all in red in the world we live in, but it exists in the world of this movie because it uses red as a symbol of mental illness or complex, which filled up the world the three women live in. Also, red always occur in contrast to white, such as the women wearing white gown in the red room, or Agnes in her white bed with a red blanket, even the pale Maria and her red hair. What red stands for in this film is ambiguous; it might be seduction, desire, pain, madness, or all of the above. Nevertheless, it is certain that this color has a strong significance in this film.
Vivian Yang
Cries and Whispers, as far as I am concerned, is the most sentimental movie I have ever seen in this course. The film impresss the audience by its distinctive cinematography. First, its red fadeout, which is a familiar image of showing complex and upsurging emotions of the characters. In a sense, this technique shows the consistency of the theme-- the distorted sisterhood, erotic relationships, and the painful isolation.
Secondly, the touch also plays a significant part. While human desire is endless and impossible to be satisfied, the touch offers a strong link for the three main characters, Maria, Agne, and Karin. Notice that the touch between Agne and others is often unbearable, whereas the touch between Maria and others is rather delicate and tender. Another interesting scene falls on the touch between Maria and Karin, which presents the homo-gender love in an affectionate way.
All in all, I found Cries and Whispers so fascinating in so many perspectives that I would definetly look forward to watching next Berdman's masterpiece.
DavidIn the film Cries and Whispers, red, white and black are the three main colors, which is respectively the representative of the desire of Maria, the innocence of Agnes, and the mental distance from people of Karin. Of these three, the red is the strongest one in the film, which indicates that people's desire will never be satisfied. The story has two lines: the present and the past. Whenever the three sisters are on the screen at the same time, Bergman would arrange them to form a triangle. It shows their conflict. The images of the film look like religious paints, which have the meaning of salvation.
Vicky LinThe most impressive part of the movie, Cries and Whispers is the red frame which is used to connect the different segments. The scene will stop at the last shot of one segment then gradually fade out all the colors and become completely red to connect the next scene. In Agnes' bedroom, the walls are also red. I think the red make me feel that all the characters in the movie have crazy mind or have some different kinds of illness. The illness particularly showed on the scene when Karin hurt herself by a piece of glass and robed her blood on the mouth. I think she may want to show her disappoint or take revenge on her husband by hurting herself.
Anne
This movie is also directed by Ingmar Bergman ,same as Persona. The director used colors and characters to represent different personality. The indifference ,alienation and self-centered are which the director wanted to emphasize. In the movie ,the director used different plot to narrative each character's personality. Besides, at the end of each story the scene turn into red and using close-up on their face. As far as , I am concerned ,the red color represent the desire and the desperation. Through this movie, we can see the dark side of a person , which we seldom talked about or discuss about. The director used directly and strongly way to express this kind of topic make me think such phenomenon now in our society . In this movie , red is extremely obvious during the whole movie ,and it's also an contrast from black and white color. On the other side it's an contrast between indifference and desire.
VincentAnother Bergman's film. I have to say at the beginning, this film was quite disturbing to me. Because it shows the human's emotion in a , kind of, cruel way, or a too direct way. I can't forget the first time Agne's face showed in the film, full of pain. It's just so close ( an impressive close up shot; there were many close-up shots and zoom shots in this film) that I almost can't breathe.
In the film, I can clearly see four different women. At first, I didn't know that the color play an important role in sculpting the character. But it works; Maria's desire, Kerin's Emptiness and cold, and Agne's purity and pain, and Amma, like a saint, also has a miserable past. Four women, Four memories, four colors, and four pain. They are so much human, yet act like dolls. Walk mechanically, and speak without soul, so when their emotion are revealed, it seems much more powerful and frightening. Well, Agne finally rest in peace, and her sisters still alive, with lies and pains like they always were. Can we say it's better to be alive than die? After watching this film, I wonder. At least, Agne won't suffer anymore, and she still remember the past days with her dearest sisters which are full of happiness and peace.
HazelThe color red is the main color in this movie. It runs through the whole film. I think it may be the symbol of passion, desire, and the blood, which indicates the withering of human life. The director also regards the actresses' facial expressions as very important. I can not forget the painful emotions of Agnes when she was dying and the minor changing of emotion on Maria's face when the doctor was talking to her. Every precise emotions of the actresses have been shown up on the screen clearly. Although this movie isn't very long, however, I feel that it is so incredible to see so many feelings, emotions, like lust, sophistication, teasing, depression, longing, and loneliness in a single movie. It is so cool.
Ivana
Personally, I don't like the plot, for both the plot and the cinematography are too surreal for me to comprehend. For the plot, I can only sense the scare and hysteria through the main characters' whisper and scream, but can hardly understand their action. As for the cinematographer, I feel the bloody and sexual desire through the red background. However, I am confused by many scenes that the cinematographer only shots a half of human face—sometimes the right one, and sometimes the left one.
Alice HuangJust like most of Ingmar Bergman's films, the film doesn't have too many soundtracks except for the use of two pieces of classical music. The silence of a film always gives the audience an idea that the world in the movie is "abnormal" or unbalanced; sometimes it also creates a feeling of surrealism in this kind of movie. I also find that the director makes use of the "clock motif" frequently in this film, most of which is shot in tilt shots. I assume that it is used to indicate the irregular arrangement of time since there are lots of flashbacks in this movie.
If I don't state it wrong, the beginning part filming Agnes seems to be a long take, or a sequence of shots. The long take here is powerful because the director captures every detail of the sound or facial changes of the actress. Because it is a long take, the audience undergoes the same time the actress does. Therefore, we, the audience, can make a sense that the woman is suffering. When the director finally applies a dolly-in on the actress' crying eyes, this shot becomes the climax which shows the actress' pain.
However, when I watch this movie, there is a sequence of shots which I can't really understand. It occurs at the time when Agnes passed away, and lots of people gather at the three sisters' house. I don't understand why the director uses close-ups on every character. Is there any symbol or thought contained in these shots?
JohnI have to say that this film is really horrible. The first screen of the terrible facial expression of the actor deeply impressed me! I also scared by the action of self-hurting. I really don't know what the director want to express of the part the women smears blood to her face. The most special expression of this film is the red color using, just like the big house's background. I think that the color using maybe represent some actor's character. But I'm not really sure.
ChristopherCries and whispers is a movie go deep into the interior of human, offering an extreme expression about love, desire, and the apartheid of soul. There is three motifs in color: white, red and black, it is said that each is represented by the three sisters but I can not agree with this view, in my sight, there is no absolute distinction between them, and the fickle temperament of human being is the origin of miseries or even tragedies.
The movie scared me, the exceedingly depression among the characters constructs a scene of hell. Chinese people believe there are eighteen levels of inferno, the deeper the sufferer, from level one to level eighteen is all about physical torment, only the deepest one which named similar to "recurrence"，in this level of inferno, the spirits would not get a physical suffering, but continuously recalling the most distressed memories when who was alive.
AprilThe director applies a great deal of color red into the film from the beginning, such as the curtain, the quilt and the lounge. Also, when the story plot switches from one character to another, the dissolving transitions are covered with red. The color red suggests the hideous anger and unsettled mindset; it implies enthusiasm, however, when goes to the extreme, craziness. Furthermore, when think of red, we come up with words like violence, forbidden and in danger. These words can best describe the three sisters. Karin who hurts herself in order to rebuff her husband—violent deed ;Maria who commits adultery with a doctor—fordidden bahavior ;Agnes who is suffering from cancer—life in danger.
Each character is perplexed by a certain thing on their mind, and all the events happened in the past. They couldn't get over with it; thus, frowned and depressed expression are shown everywhere in the film.
There is only one person who appears in all the other characters' unsettling memories—Anna. Although remaining silent and obedient most of the time, she strings up the other three characters.
HollyIn this film, the director use lots of close-ups to present the characters' delicate facial expressions. The audience can observe every detail on their face. It's interesting the actresses' anger; happiness and sorrow are fully demonstrated on the scene. I really enjoy appreciating the minor changes on their face, their trembling, crying and laughter. The close-up shot enable audience to observe the actors' acting progress, seeing every movement. For example, to express sorrow, you may see the actress close her eyes slowly and then her tears drop down. She turns her face to another side, reluctant to face the truth, desiring to escape from this embarrassing situation. You can even find she trembles a little bit when taking and how her eyebrows are stuck together, showing her extremely pain and loneliness. I love the director's application of close up shot. Especially in these films, Cries and Whispers and Persona, the use of close-up can help the actresses to develop their emotion and their conflicts in movie. I like the red image in this film, too. The red symbolize vigor, joy, but also the anger, blood and death. It's ironical that the color red is usually connected with something cheerful or fantastic. However, in this film, everyone is oppressed their interaction with others. Their relationship among others is quite weird. When watching this film, you will feel a little uncomfortable. We do not find any warm or cozy atmosphere in this villa, finding only the strange love affair, the homoerotic between Agnes and Anna and the lonely big sister. I think the setting of Anna is brilliant. Anna is the only character that can be regarded as the one possessing the true love. Agnes is the purest character in this film. She writes down her thanks and blessings in her diary. Agnes' death is a turning point. Since she died, the two sisters begin to have conflicts and quarrels. They even try to forgive and accept the other one, getting out of the pain, though they seem to fail eventually. This director's movie is worth to watching several times. In this film, I think I still miss something that I would like to watch it for second time
Vivian Lin
In Cries and Whisper, it is composed of despair, solation and melancholy between three sisters. Agnes is the sister who suffers from the giant pain dies eventually in the film. They take turns to take care of her. In the period of the time, they are all suffer from past miserable memories. The scene which is astonished and impressive to me is Karin hurts herself to express the rejection to her huaband that indicates the separation between her and her older husband. The film is not so easy to understan. I wonder why Maria's husband want to suicide because of the betrayal of her wife? I am really confused about at the end of the film. Maria's husband is still alive. Karin's husband never think of his wife as a crazy woman or even he is crazy, too? The film is weaved by three sister, maid and their memories which are too bitter to recall. The red fades interlace in the film as the breaks that give me strong emtion to those figures and I am always in sypathy with their experiences. I feel their solitariness in the bigging and still feeling it at the end of the film.
IrvingThe director Bergman once said "All my films can be thought in terms of black and white, except for Cries and Whispers."After I watched this film, I feel it's true.The most obvious color is red.I think that red is a magical color which can drive people crazy.So I can feel a little bit of madness during the movie.Bergman used the red color to describe Maria's memory, and the transition from scene to scene.When a woman in this film recall their memory, or the time are different, the screen fade out to red.I think he tried to express the desire of Maria, and such desire was also exist around those four women.A color full of passionate but in the film it also express the deep sorrow in their life.Anyway, the story ended after the Agne's death, but for those who still alive, were there redemption for their pathetic soul.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment