86% (2) The Silence 96 min, R, [Drama] [Ingmar Bergman] [03 Feb 1964]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 80%, Rotten Tomatoes: 92%, External Reviews
Awards: 3 wins & 1 nomination.
Actors: Birger Malmsten, Gunnel Lindblom, Håkan Jahnberg, Ingrid Thulin, Jörgen Lindström
Writer: Ingmar Bergman
External Links: Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: Swedish, English, German, French, Spanish Country: Sweden
Plot: "The Silence" is about the emotional distance between two sisters. The younger one is still attractive enough to pick up a lover in a strange city. The older one -- even though she is very ill -- would like to make a human connection also but cannot leave the hotel room. Traveling with the sisters is a small boy who escapes into the hotel, meets a troupe of dwarfs. Which sister is this little boy's mother?
Rotten Tomatoes: The third film in the Ingmar Bergman trilogy beginning with Through a Glass Darkly and Winter Light, this movie follows the sisters Ester (Ingrid Thulin) and Anna (Gunnel Lindblom) as they travel to their Swedish home in the company of Anna's son, Johan (Jorgen Lindstrom). While Ester is a sexually frustrated lesbian, her sister engages in numerous sexual relations with a series of men, and their sexual drives are at the root of the tragedy that befalls them during a hotel stay.
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86% (2) Scenes from a Marriage 283 min, PG, [Drama] [N/A] [11 Apr 1973]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 85%, Rotten Tomatoes: 88%, External Reviews
Awards: Won 1 Golden Globe. Another 10 wins & 5 nominations.
Actors: Bibi Andersson, Erland Josephson, Gunnel Lindblom, Liv Ullmann
External Links: Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: Swedish Country: Sweden
Plot: Ten years of Marianne and Johan's relationship are presented. We first meet them ten years into their marriage. He is a college professor, she a divorce lawyer. They say that they are happily married - unlike their friends Katarina and Peter who openly fight, especially when under the influence of alcohol - but there is a certain detached aloofness in the way they treat each other. In the next ten years, as they contemplate or embark upon divorce and/or known extramarital affairs, they come to differing understandings at each phase of their relationship of what they truly mean to each other. Regardless of if it's love or hate - between which there is a fine line - they also come to certain understandings of how they can best relate to each other, whether that be as husband and wife, friends, lovers or none of the above.
Rotten Tomatoes: Marianne and Johan always seemed like the perfect couple. But when Johan suddenly leaves Marianne for another woman, they are forced to confront the disintegration of their marriage.
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85% (2) The Virgin Spring 89 min, Not Rated, [Drama] [Ingmar Bergman] [14 Nov 1960]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 81%, Rotten Tomatoes: 90%, External Reviews
Awards: Won 1 Oscar. Another 4 wins & 2 nominations.
Actors: Birgitta Pettersson, Birgitta Valberg, Gunnel Lindblom, Max von Sydow
Writer: Ulla Isaksson
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: Swedish, German Country: Sweden
Plot: Set in beautiful 14th century Sweden, it is the sombre, powerful fable of wealthy land-owning parents whose daughter, a young virgin, is brutally raped and murdered by goat herders after her half sister has invoked a pagan curse. By a bizarre twist of fate, the murderers ask for food and shelter from the dead girl's parents, who, discovering the truth about their erstwhile lodgers, exact a chilling revenge.
Rotten Tomatoes: In this film, 15-year-old Birgitta Peterson is raped and murdered by two older men. Birgitta's father murders the bestial killers in cold blood. When the deed is done, the father begins to question the efficacy of a God that would allow his daughter's death, then permit so bloody a retribution.
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78% (2) Winter Light 81 min, Not Rated, [Drama] [Ingmar Bergman] [05 Apr 1963]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 81%, Rotten Tomatoes: 75%, External Reviews
Awards: 1 win.
Actors: Gunnar Björnstrand, Gunnel Lindblom, Ingrid Thulin, Max von Sydow
Writer: Ingmar Bergman
External Links: Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: Swedish Country: Sweden
Plot: On a cold winter's Sunday, the pastor of a small rural church (Tomas Ericsson) performs service for a tiny congregation; though he is suffering from a cold and a severe crisis of faith. After the service, he attempts to console a fisherman (Jonas Persson) who is tormented by anxiety, but Tomas can only speak about his own troubled relationship with God. A school teacher (Maerta Lundberg) offers Tomas her love as consolation for his loss of faith. But Tomas resists her love as desperately as she offers it to him. This is the second in Bergman's trilogy of films dealing with man's relationship with God.
Rotten Tomatoes: The Winter Light is the second in a trilogy of dramas by acclaimed Swedish director Ingmar Bergman that explores religious faith and doubts in a visceral, visual, and provocative manner. The first, Through a Glass Darkly, was an international success and heralded this new phase in the director's career. This compelling drama is set within a three-hour period on a Sunday afternoon in November, and begins when the local pastor, Tomas Ericsson (Gunnar Bjornstrand), is finishing his sermon. As of late, Pastor Ericsson has watched his congregation dwindle to a minimal level. Among the remaining parishioners is Marta (Ingrid Thulin) a plain-looking schoolteacher who has long been in love with the pastor. Meanwhile, fisherman Jonas (Max von Sydow) is anxiety-ridden over the nuclear power of the Communist Chinese, but Pastor Ericsson cannot help him, saddled with some overwhelming spiritual dilemmas of his own. As Ericsson struggles with his demons and faces Marta's unwanted (and to him, repugnant) romantic attentions, some hints of the qualities of God begin to surface. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
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81% (1) Scenes from a Marriage 169 min, PG, [Drama] [Ingmar Bergman] [15 Sep 1974]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 86%, External Reviews
Actors: Bibi Andersson, Erland Josephson, Gunnel Lindblom, Liv Ullmann
Writer: Ingmar Bergman
External Links: IMDb Language: Swedish Country: Sweden
Plot: Scenes from a Marriage chronicles the many years of love and turmoil that bind Marianne (Liv Ullmann) and Johan (Erland Josephson) through matrimony, infidelity, divorce, and subsequent partners.
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79% (1) Hunger 112 min, [Drama] [Henning Carlsen] [12 Aug 1968]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 79%, External Reviews
Awards: 6 wins & 1 nomination.
Actors: Birgitte Federspiel, Gunnel Lindblom, Knud Rex, Per Oscarsson
Writer: Henning Carlsen, Knut Hamsun (novel), Peter Seeberg
External Links: Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: Danish, Swedish, Norwegian Country: Denmark, Norway, Sweden
Plot: In 1890, Pontus, the starving writer, wanders the streets of Christiania, in search of love and a chance to get his work published. All he meets is defeat and suffering while his sense of reality is withering. One moment his is delighted and the next he curses everybody. All the time he manages to maintain human dignity and pride.
Rotten Tomatoes: Set in the late 1800s, Hunger is about a struggling, starving Norwegian writer (Per Oscarsson) who rejects charity, even though he lives penniless in the streets, because he believes in the strength of his talent. Oscarsson won the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival for his remarkable performance. The film is based on Knut Hamsun's novel, Sult. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi
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