Critics reviews

Had it not been my first Bergman film, caught on a whim at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, I might never have watched it at all—the reviews are so tepid, and Bergman himself called it his very “bottom.” But it stayed with me for years—particularly David’s bipolar rages—and pitched me into the Bergman universe.

As usual with Bergman’s later work, this features impressive color cinematography by Sven Nykvist, who avoids the heavy-handed color-coding that would make CRIES AND WHISPERS, released the following year, such a plodding experience.

With a prowling camera, Bergman hardly explains his characters’ outer circumstances—instead, he pursues them in their most vulnerable moments, with highly inflected, painfully intimate closeups that bare their souls.

Bergman’s characteristically unflashy, pared back but precise mise-en-scène enriches the film’s levels of meaning. Nykvist’s use of Eastmancolor may suggest naturalism . . . but in the early scenes Karin’s bright red outfits . . . stand in telling contrast to the whites, greys and beiges of her surroundings, suggestive of a nonconformist spirit seeking some kind of freedom.