The Cries and Whispers of Silence
The title of a dark and erotic final chapter of "faith" trilogy may sum up Bergman's own philosophy regarding religion and God - "God has never spoken because He does not exist". Bergman mentioned that he wanted to make a film with as little dialog as possible because "he had made many films with a lot of talking". He wanted "The Silence" to be a pure cinematographic experience where the images do all the talking. The films centers on two sisters, Ester (Ingrid Thulin) and Anna, (Gunnel Lindblom) to whom Ester is physically attracted. Esther, Anna and her 10-year-old son travel together and had to stop in a hotel located in an unnamed European country due to Esther's serious illness.

The film may be viewed on several levels -as the story of two sisters who apparently used to be close but are not able to communicate and understand one another anymore. Or it can be interpreted as a parable of Sensuality, Intellect, and Innocence, that cannot coexist in the world where God does not exist. As with every great and intelligent work of art, "The Silence" has so much to offer to its viewer, it's got so many questions to ask and it does not provide the easy answers.

Complex, suffocating, screaming through the silence, poignant, passionate, harrowing yet strangely hopeful and even funny sometimes - this is an unforgettable film, a masterpiece, a hidden treasure that has to be rediscovered and to receive as much praise and admiration as "Persona" and "Cries and Whispers" - for both of which "The Silence" was an inspiration. The acting by two Bergman's actresses is a miracle (as usual) as well as Sven Nykvist's camera work in creating the claustrophobic world where silence cries, whispers, and kills...

The last opus of the Trylogy!

This is a hard film which plays with your inner feelings without a drop of merciless. Two sisters stop in a hotel and will exchange her different opinions and points of view. One of them is frustrated lesbian without anything to give and furthermore nothing to share. The other one is the free loving mother of a 10 years old child. In this claustrophobic stage and micro cosmos Bergman will interweave a painful and harsh portrait in a hallucinating and valiant drama where the loneliness, the hopeless, the God's silence and the lack of affection will be the main springs of terrible revelations and mutual accusations.
A must for Bergman's fans and despite the elapsed time it keeps its semblance and actuality.

enigmatic
I'm an Ingmar Bergman neophyte and have seen about ten of his films to date, and I think this one haunted me the most. It couldn't leave my mind for a few days. It's crammed with hopelessness and emptiness, and to put it bluntly, is quite depressing. I was able to put up with Persona, Cries and Whispers, The Seventh Seal, and a few others with a fierce motivation to assess and analyze, but this one left me quite deflated. I think it was because of the way the little boy was used; he is left to roam the hotel occupied by weird hotelkeepers and dwarves that like to dress him up in girl clothes while his mother is out all day on sexual rampages with complete strangers, while his dying aunt spends her last days in a room upstairs. The pain displayed is so raw and unflinching that one is inclined to feel uncomfortable and wondering. I think the capper was the ending of this film on the train: mother and son leave the country and leaves the aunt alone to die, and the son, who has openly worshipped his mother all along, looks up at her with such open contempt that she visibly reacts, putting her hand to her throat. And then he looks down at this picture that aunt has given him. It ends on such an enigmatic note that one has no choice but to feel depressed for some time.

another bergman classic
Easily the finest Bergman film I�ve ever seen. I like these �chamber� movies because of the strange, paranoid claustrophobia of it and appreciate the film more in this way than as a religious insight or whatever, even though it�s the end of his whole trilogy of faith thing. I found it more likeable as an evocation of early Polanski films and the little Georges Bataille I�ve read which also often create a vaguely impending, ominous setting. The film is about two sisters who been have obviously joined and subsequently repulsed by a sexual relationship with each other and while one sister is dying in a foreign country where they don�t understand the language, the other is off experimenting in heterosexual encounters. One of the sister�s also has a kid and the movie is often seen through his eyes. For me, the movie was about communication and I guess the young boy in his black and white, innocent naivety represents the inability to articulate feelings and emotions other than in bold, crude expressions that seems also to become the sister that is not dying. The sexuality is never explicit but always feels graphic and often disturbing and this hinted, uncertain quality of the girls� relationship runs through to the child who seems only too understand things on a vague level. I�m thinking of the foreign butler who I thought was very creepy, showing the little boy pictures of dead people after enticing him with sweets. The scene with the little people I couldn�t help but think of David Lynch and his �man from another place�. Overall, a darn good movie. Highly recommended.

Still Timely
Watching this movie, I am reminded of the old Biblical story of the prophet who sought the word of God in many places but found it in the great silence. This unsentimental movie tells the tale of two sisters on their return from a vacation, one of whom suffers gravely from lung disease perhaps cancer, the other is accompanied by her little boy. While many questions lie realistically hidden in the shadows of silence--most importantly the understandable pain of the two sisters--nevertheless there is unexpected tenderness, remarkably from a stranger and a child.