"Actor: Inga Gill"

• Cries And Whispers | DVD | (25/02/2002) from £26.98   |  Saving you £-6.99 (-35.00%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Ingmar Bergman’s Cries and Whispers is a brilliant and at times shockingly traumatic piece of chamber cinema. It also represented a renaissance for Bergman, whose previous few films had flopped commercially. Set in a large house with interiors done out entirely in a disquieting red and against a soundtrack of ticking and barely audible chatter, the film features three of Bergman’s female stalwarts. Harriet Andersson plays Agnes--a thirtysomething woman dying of cancer--Ingrid Thulin plays her sister Karin--non-tactile and caught in a marriage with a man she finds physically repulsive--and Liv Ulmann is the almost childishly sensual second sister Maria. Kari Sylwan, meanwhile, stars as the earth-motherly maid Anna, whose cradling of the dying Agnes against her naked bosom is one of the centrepieces of the movie. Much of what transpires here can be construed as fantasy sequence, including one extraordinary incident in which Thulin cuts her vagina with broken glass and smears the blood over herself, in order to avoid sex with her husband. Agnes’ unbearable cries of anguish in her death throes, however, are all too real. Many familiar Bergman themes are explored in Cries And Whispers--mortality, the existence of God (here doubted by a Pastor) and the space between people. However, they are set against a singular, blood-red, dreamlike ambience that is irresistible. This is Bergman at his finest. On the DVD: the dominant red backdrops of the movie are richly enhanced in this edition. Text-only extras include notes from Bergman’s own memoirs. In a lengthy extract here, he reveals that he had considered Mix Farrow for the part of one of the sisters. Philip Strick’s additional notes add further context and background--it seems that the film’s success in America was due to its distribution by, of all people, Roger Corman. --David Stubbs

• The Seventh Seal | DVD | (24/09/2001) from £11.39   |  Saving you £8.60 (75.50%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Ingmar Bergman's classic drama celebrates its 50th anniversary with this cinematic re-issue.

• Cries And Whispers | DVD | (28/01/2013) from £17.09   |  Saving you £-4.10 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The relationship between three sisters is masterfully explored by Bergman in Cries and Whispers. In rural Sweden around the turn of the century three sisters reside in a vast manor house with their housekeeper. Agnes lives out the last days of her life in pain hoping for companionship and affection. Surrounded by her sisters Agnes takes comfort in the fact that her remaining time can be spent with those close to her. However dissatisfaction in their day-to-day lives and the estrangement that they feel from one another causes the sisters to become increasingly self-absorbed. Special Features: An extraordinarily rich visual experience Cries and Whispers is that rarest of things - a true masterpiece Star and director filmographies Scene selection Philip Strick film notes Extract from Bergman’s book Images - My Life in Film The Bergman collection trailer Region 0