Winter Light (1963) User Reviews

Loneliness, Uncertainty, and Hope

[mark-1523 · 9/10 · 13 July 2005]

Clearly Marked Minor Spoiler

Nattvardsgästerna is dominated by Ingrid Thulin's virtuosic performance as Märta- the mistress of Pastor Tomas Eriksson who is played with superb control by Gunnar Björnstrand.It is not a difficult film to watch. It is not particularly gut-wrenching like "Viskningar och Rop" can be to some, and is much less ambiguous than works like "Persona" and "Tystnaden". Very tightly edited, the film moves with measured pace to a conclusion that, like those of Bergman's best films, offers hope for the characters- if they are willing to work for it.

As the film opens, Pastor Tomas Ericsson is mechanically performing his duties as Pastor to a shrinking congregation in remote Sweden. Like him, the Lutheran Church he serves is depicted as mechanically struggling to survive. Talk and action by Ericsson and other officials in the back rooms of the church are about collecting the offerings (donations), controlling costs and other mundane issues. The lack of concern over their missions or goals underscores how these men and their church have tumbled into the rut of existing for the sake of existing.

God is silent in this film. The silence envelopes and oppresses the main characters of the film because there is no voice of order or authority to drown out the incessant chatter of uncertainty and loneliness in their own hearts. What was mistook for the voice of God was only the echoes of their own pleas for comfort, rationality, and, more importantly, a sense of purpose. Since God is silent, a good deal of this film is about how individuals cope with that silence and, as two characters are able to show, this process of coping can bear valuable spiritual fruit.

Beautifully lit and photographed under the guidance of the famous Cenematographer Sven Nykvist, the film intersperses brief moments of simple beauty with long stretches of what I can only describe as magnificent unobtrusiveness. This unobtrusiveness is something one can appreciate in subsequent viewings when there is time and attention available for studying the film visually- it is the unobtrusiveness of near-perfection where scene after scene is believably and consistently lit so that the characters stand out in luminous clarity. We are, thus, able to forget that we are watching film and concentrate on the characters, their words, expressions, and actions.

While Björnstrand's Tomas Ericsson may be what one thinks of as the main character in this film, Ingrid Thulin's uninhibited performance as Märta is, by far, more gripping. The disciplined stiffness of the Ericsson character is very competently handled by Björnstrand- I can think of no better actor for the role because Björnstrand is so able to make Ericsson's mask of indifference ooze with the character's true inner pain. However, Märta, Ericsson's mistress, is far less inhibited than he is and her portrayal provided Ingrid Thulin with far more range which Thulin exploited in one of the greatest performances of her lifetime. Frustrated, hopeful, affectionate, and starving for affection, the Märta character injects the film with the human warmth and life that makes it work. Her pain and struggles are not those of the audience, but they are portrayed so believably by Thulin we cannot deny them.

About one-third of the way into the film we are treated to one of the great sequences in movie history- Märta's letter to Thomas. He starts to read the letter and the film cuts to Märta reciting her letter to us . In two long takes interspersed with a brief flashback, Ingrid Thulin addresses the camera so naturally and believably that she is clearly speaking to us. Add to this the before-mentioned magnificent unobtrusiveness of the cinematography and the sense that she really is speaking to us- the viewer- becomes eery. Furthermore, what she has to say is, at least, for mainstream media, thought-provoking- even touching.

Märta's hope and openness contrast to Ericsson's closed bitterness. His case seems hopeless since he seems, like another character, to have lost hope entirely. As unsympathetic a character as he is with his rudeness, whining, and selfishness, we still see a glimmer of hope for him in the end of the film. ((((((MINOR SPOILER)))))) He stands at the end of the film delivering a sermon to a church empty of all but Märta.((((((End Minor Spoiler))))))

Some viewers have expressed the opinion that the ending is distressingly pathological, that it represents Ericsson trapped in the empty and meaningless rituals of living. I see it as him being resolved to go on with life. The rut lies before him, if he chooses to remain in it. However, he could also chose to climb out and renew his quest for personal fulfillment. The choice is his and because he still has that choice, the film ends, for me, on a hopeful note. Of course, in a sequence just before the end of the movie, Ericsson has a conversation with the church Sexton- Algot Frövik- which does much to put Ericsson's suffering and unhappiness in context- we see that others live with far worse and still preserve themselves spiritually and morally.

Who should see this film? Bergman fans should. So should individuals who are not familiar with Bergman but who enjoy simple dialogue-driven stories that have their own statements about what could be called the Basic Questions of life- it's meaning and our role in it. Viewers who expect a definitively anti-God stance will be badly disappointed. While there are anti-religious elements- they are muted and set forth plainly in a manner that strikes not at religion so much as any institution that outlives its sense of purpose and direction. This is far more subtle than saying the story is anti-Christian- for it actually is not. Those expecting an exploration of God will be disappointed- this film is about human perceptions of God. Finally, some considerable appreciation can be had by those who enjoy watching beautifully shot and edited black-and-white films.

Captivating, but so cold

[ian_harris · 8/10 · 30 January 2003]

This is a captivating film, one of Bergman's most inward-looking and cold pieces.

The performances are terrific. Gunnar Bjornstrand is at his excellent best, Max von Syndow is predictably good. I would single out the women performers for particular praise in this film: Ingrid Thulin is outstanding as the spinster who cannot break the ice that encloses Bjornstrand's pastor. Gunnel Lindblom plays a small but superb part as the desperate wife of the suicidal von Syndow.

This is not plot and action stuff, nor is it any good for you if seeing depression in others makes you depressed. It is a microscope study of desperation and depression. It is a small canvas film – my personal preference is for Bergman's larger canvas work such as The Seventh Seal and especially Wild Strawberries. Of his darker, psychological work, again I would express a preference for Persona and also Through a Glass Darkly. But I'm comparing greatness with greatness – if you like Bergman's work this one's a must see.

Spinster Blight...

[Xstal · 8/10 · 5 February 2023]

The coldest thing you'll ever hold, a heart of stone within warm folds, impenetrable and dark, extreme, devoid of hope, bereft of theme.

You should wear a pair of thick socks and a woolly hat to avoid the icy tendrils that permeate throughout, and keep your gloved fingers crossed you never reach the depths of doubt and despair portrayed through the remarkable performance of Gunnar Björnstrand who, as Pastor Tomas Ericsson, has misplaced the vital elements that brought him to the pulpit. And if that isn't enough Ingrid Thulin delivers the most persistent and resilient performance of a woman who won't let go.

Right near the top of my Bergman list and any other list

[gkbazalo · 16 August 2004]

After watching this film 4 or 5 times over the years, it has moved into the top spot on my Bergman list and is one of my all time favorite movies. There is not a wasted moment in this film. It consists of one great set piece after another. What a cast! Gunnar Bjornstrand gives the best performance of a clergyman since Claude Laydu in Diary of a Country Priest and even outshines him due to the interaction with the rest of the cast. Ingrid Thulin is just outstanding as his former mistress, not only in the long closeup where she bares her soul to Bjornstrand through a letter she has written, but in several scenes where she endures humiliation after humiliation from him in an effort to cut through the wall he has built around his emotions. We also have the little community of church inhabitants--the cynical organist, the hunchbacked handyman, the stern rector. Each one challenges Bjornstrand's faith in a different way. Above all, we have Max von Sydow as a depressed parishioner, looking to the pastor for a reason to continue living and finding none. As we learn in the supplementary material to the Criterion DVD, Bjornstrand was quite sick with bronchitis during filming and this adds to the credibility of his performance. This is absolutely a 10 out of 10. A great,great film.

The closest thing to a perfect film I've ever seen

[davew-5 · 10/10 · 22 July 2000]

It's a real shame that you are unlikely to find this movie in your local video rental store. It's relentlessly concentrated, uncompromising and beautiful. It's paced slowly at the beginning, drawing the viewer in, but repays the effort you put in (and it's pretty short).

The story focuses on a disillusioned priest in a remote village who is unable to accept the love offered him by Marta, his friend, and unable to offer the conviction of his faith to save a fisherman from suicide. There are several hidden references to the crucifixion: the time covered in the movie (noon to 3 pm) is the same as the time Jesus spent on the cross; the location of Marta's skin disease corresponds to the "stigmata" or wounds from the nails.

I can't recommend this film strongly enough. Every time I see it I am stunned by the beauty and meaning in every single frame.

perfect

[odbeester · 10/10 · 20 December 2005]

possibly my absolute favorite Bergman film. Gorgeous, the way a fresh blanket of snow on a frigidly cold winter night is.

Brutally bleak, "Winter Light" may be about losing religious faith, but I don't think you have to have a religious faith to identity with Gunnar Bjornstrand's character, the pastor of a small town. His "faith" is as much a will to live as anything else.

Bjornstrand and Ingrid Thulin are amazingly good, and Max von Sydow does more with a few subtle expressions, and very little dialog, than most any actor is capable of.

Not a film to watch in the dead of winter if you suffer from SAD, unless you're like me and get a perverse type of therapy from confronting the hopelessness head first.

One of the greatest!

[gorevich · 10/10 · 30 March 2005]

I watched this film the other night, and this struck me as perhaps the most profound and "real" movie that I have ever seen. It deals with the silence of god, and meaning of life. With the brilliant photo by Sven Nykvist, the surroundings comes alive unlike most other movies with color! If you've ever lived in that scenery (cold pine-forested northerly countries) It appears almost as if it were in color, as if one is there at that moment.

Needless to say, the actors makes fantastic performances.

I find it pointless to say much about the plot, it is well summarized on this site, it is also a very personal movie to watch and therefore any type of "analysis" that is revealed to the viewer before he or she has seen the movie, may interfere with their own personal view on things.

Truly a masterpiece among movies, completely free from unimportant elements, a clear, uncompromising questioning of ones faith in god and life.

10/10

"God, my God! Why hast thou forsaken me?"

[Alexandar · 10/10 · 26 April 2005]

"I think I have made just one picture that I really like, and that is Winter Light…Everything is exactly as I wanted to have it, in every second of this picture." – Ingmar Bergman

"Winter Light" concentrates around the middle-aged priest named Thomas (extraordinarilly played by Gunnar Björnstrand) of a small Swedish church and his spiritual and emotional struggles during the one winter afternoon.

Tomas founds himself as a non-believer. He realized that he actually became a priest because he was weak, anxious and neurotic and not because of his faith. As a young man, not knowing the REAL world and its TRUE nature, Tomas became a priest. His wife was everything to him, yes. She encouraged his "believes". With her, his believes (or self-deceptions) were stable, steady. After her death, they were shaken (so were his whole life and its purposes) because he encountered the "real world".

After his wife's death he met Marta, schoolteacher – simple and realistic woman (played by brilliant Ingrid Thulin). Marta is in love with him. But he is bored with her and avoids her. Reasons for that are not very clear to the viewer or Tomas himself. He feels isolated and detached from the rest of the world. All the meanings and purposes of his life suddenly disappeared. Whole his life was one big – LIE.

So, why is he avoiding Marta? She is the real representation of the ''real world'' since being an atheist. Marta is the symbol of his failure, she ''reminds'' him that he dedicated whole his life to – nothing.

This is not, however, a religious film. It's a lot more exploring the real human nature and its possible ''faults''. It raises some universal issues like: ''Am I doing good things because I am a good person (because I have a good character) or because I am afraid of the consequences (because I am weak, fearful)''?

"Winter Light" is also masterfully crafted movie with formal elements absolutely supporting (and adding to) the issues of the script. It is a very cold movie with no music (intentionally). Sven Nykvist, Bergman's cinematographer did excellent job with his contrasted black and white photography, focuses and mise-en-scene conjuring up the emotional isolation and distances between the characters.

The Silence of God

[JamesHitchcock · 6/10 · 14 April 2020]

This film's Swedish title literally translates as "The Communicants", but it is generally known in English as "Winter Light", a somewhat inappropriate title given that Scandinavian winters are more noted for darkness than for light and that the theme of the movie is what could be described as spiritual darkness. The film begins with Holy Communion in a small church in rural Sweden one winter's morning. Apart from the pastor, Tomas Ericsson, there are only a handful of people in attendance. The principal characters are the widowed Tomas, his mistress Marta, the handicapped sexton Algot and Jonas Persson, one of the parishioners.

Tomas is going through a crisis of faith, although perhaps it would be more accurate to say that he has been going though a crisis of faith for several years, at least since the death of his wife, and possibly for longer. He is tormented not so much by the non-existence of God as by the silence of God, the idea that God exists but wilfully refuses to reveal himself to His worshippers or to respond to their prayers. Marta claims to be an atheist and insists that God does not respond because God does not exist. Yet even her position is not as straightforward as it seems. Despite her atheism, she still attends the church services, and when she suffered from eczema she admits that she prayed to God for a cure. When her eczema cleared up, however, she did not credit God for the cure she had prayed for. She loves Tomas but realises that her love is not returned because Tomas is still in love with his dead wife.

Persson, a fisherman, also has religious doubts, but his main worry is the obsession that the Chinese Communists are developing an atomic bomb and will use it to bring about a nuclear holocaust. This seemingly specific worry, however, is only a symptom of a much greater psychiatric depression from which Persson is suffering. Algot is a relatively minor character for most of the film, but is given a lengthy and important speech near the end, in which he points out that even Christ on the cross suffered from the same doubts which are afflicting Tomas. ("My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?")

The theme of "the silence of God" does not necessarily make "Winter Light" an anti-religious film; it is a theme which has been dealt with by some highly devout writers such as George Herbert, who frequently complained that his longing for God was left unsatisfied. It is also a theme which lies at the heart of one of the greatest films of recent years, Martin Scorsese's "Silence".

I would not, however, rate "Winter Light" as highly as that masterpiece. I must admit that I have not always been Ingmar Bergman's greatest admirer. Others will disagree with me, but at time I find him a very uncinematic director, and "Winter Light", with its almost total lack of physical action, its lengthy conversations, its long, lingering takes, especially close-ups, and its slow, deliberate camera movements, is a good example of what I mean. Although the film was made as late as 1963, in visual terms it looks more like a film from a much earlier date, a survivor of the "filmed theatre" style of film-making from the thirties and forties. On a philosophical and intellectual level the themes which Bergman deals with are interesting ones, but this seemed to me to be a story which might have worked better as a stage play than as a movie. Or perhaps even better as a prose novella. 6/10

Best film ever about life

[-Peter- · 10/10 · 22 January 2006]

With this one Bergman touches the inner soul like no one ever did on film. The movie is about depression, how to deal with your principal beliefs when you don't believe in them anymore, "God's escaping me..." We feel the priest running out of strenght and slowly fading away in his disbeliefs, he then finds a man who he can relate to (Due to the depression he has, as heard about the bomb which the Chinese are creating, they are learnt to hate) He kind of uses him to give himself the power to get on with his own life, he doesn't listen to the man, but he explains his own problems, due to this the man kills himself, it's now the task of the priest to tell his wife, and by this he finds himself again, feeling again what his role in this so cruel world is. "What's the meaning of life" he says, "we can only know if we fight against ourself and our inner soul which leads us to suicide" that's why we live. Everything fits together so perfect, it's almost like I was living the movie. The characters play excellent, the cold winter settings make part of the mood the film was made for, make you feel, and that's why this movie is so excellent. It's a not so easy one but once you understand what it tells you realise why this movie exceeds storytelling of today's crap we get to see in theatres. Few films are so true and realistic.

I haven't seen all of Bergman's films, but for now this is the masterpiece 10/10

Love, God and Silence

[claudio_carvalho · 7/10 · 2 November 2010]

In the cold winter in the countryside of Sweden, the pastor Tomas Ericsson (Gunnar Björnstrand) is a bitter man living a crisis of lack of faith in God after the death of his beloved wife two years ago. After the mass, Karin Persson (Gunnel Lindblom) seeks out the pastor with her husband, the fisherman Jonas Persson (Max von Sydow), and tells that Jonas is tormented by an existential crisis when he learns that China has an atomic bomb and intends to commit suicide. Tomas unsuccessfully attempts to comfort Jonas but he is not convincing due to his lack of faith and Jonas kills himself with a shot of rifle in his head. Meanwhile, the schoolteacher Märta Lundberg (Ingrid Thulin) is in love with Tomas, but the widowed pastor rejects her love with bitter and tough words. In the end, Tomas discusses with the sacristan the true suffering of Jesus Christ in the Passion of Christ.

"Nattvardsgästerna" is the second part of Bergman's Trilogy of Silence with an unpleasant story of unrequited love, lack of communication and lack of faith on God. The pastor Tomas Ericsson is one of the bitterest characters that I have ever seen, and his speech to Märta Lundberg is one of the cruelest and coldest of a man to a woman in love. The performances are awesome as usual in a Bergman's film, with wonderful black-and-white cinematography, and this cold film does not have soundtrack. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Luz de Inverno" ("Light of Winter")

"I think I have made just one picture that I really like, and that is Winter Light

[Galina_movie_fan · 10/10 · 30 January 2008]

Everything is exactly as I wanted to have it, in every second of this picture." – Ingmar Bergman

"Winter Light", the second film in the writer/director Ingmar Bergman's trilogy of "faith" or "Silence of God" (it follows "Såsom i en spegel" (1961) ... aka "Through a Glass Darkly" and precedes "Tystnaden" (1963) aka The Silence) is a masterpiece of minimalism with great performances and appropriate static, dark and gloomy "wintery" cinematography. This is a very personal and important for Bergman film for it deals with the loss of Faith - the master was very proud of this work. Bergman, aided by his regular cinematographer Sven Nykvist and performances by Gunnar Bjornstrand, Ingrid Thulin, Gunnel Lindblom and Max von Sydow had created a compelling, tragic, and thought-provoking film about a village priest (Gunnar Bjornstrand) who can't give much comfort and hope to those who need them as he feels none for himself. Ingrid Thulin plays Martha, a local school teacher, the woman who loves him and tries to reach him through the wall of desperation and depression that surrounds him.

Grim, dry, depressing and visually stunning, but Pastor Tomas Ericsson is really hard to relate to

[debblyst · 6/10 · 14 December 2005]

In his not-to-be-missed, detailed interviews to Scandinavian filmmakers/critics Jonas Simas, Torsten Manns and Stig Björkman published in France as "Le Cinéma Selon Bergman" (1973) -- inspired by the Hitchcock/Truffaut/Chabrol interviews, and with material selected from over 50 hours of conversations in the span of 5 years -- Bergman reassesses "Winter..." in affectionate but moderately critical terms. He quotes his wife (as of 1962) Käbi Laretei's comment about it: "Yes, Ingmar, it's a masterpiece, but a boring one!" (or "dreary one", according to another translation).

Not that it is really boring, at least not for IB's fans (as myself); and not that it's REALLY a masterpiece. It IS one of his driest, grimmest, most depressing films along with "Shame". As usual, there are magnificent scenes: every one Max Von Sydow is in (what an actor -- with barely a single line to speak he builds a very complex character); Åke Fridell's character, who's got the best lines; the argument between Gunnar Björnstrand and Ingrid Thulin at the cottage. Bergman's and Nykvist's visual conception is riveting: you can FEEL the cold of the bleak Swedish winter. However, there are other scenes that seem to drag longer than necessary (even for Bergman), especially the opening church service, and, yes, the letter scene (which is the source of the great letter scene in "Persona"). But I think the main difficulty with "Winter Light" is that Bergman paints his protagonist (Pastor Tomas Ericsson, played by Björnstrand) mercilessly, making it hard for us to make any connection with the selfish bastard, whether you're religious or not. The question of faith -- that should be the important issue here -- is compromised by the incredible level of egotism of Pastor Ericsson; it's hard to believe that man has ever experienced Christian compassion. Bergman despises him and makes us despise him too; I, for one, couldn't manage to feel the smallest degree of sympathy for the man.

In those interviews, Bergman talks about how difficult shooting "Winter Light" was, with Gunnar Björnstrand ill and detesting his role (no wonder!!) and the influence of Bergman's traumatic religious upbringing (his father was a strict Lutheran pastor), which made it hard for him to convey sympathy for Björnstrand's character. The idea for the film came when a bishop of a small-town church told Bergman of his failure in preventing a fisherman in anguish from committing suicide. Bergman also said that Thulin's character was partly based on his second wife, who had serious eczema in her face and hands.

Christian faith has been the subject of superior films by great filmmakers -- Dreyer, Rossellini, Bresson, Buñuel, Pialat, Melville, Pasolini, and, of course, Bergman himself. With "Winter Light", I found myself thinking a lot about Bresson's masterpiece "Diary of a Country Priest". Both "Winter..." and "Diary..." deal with lonely, depressed Christian clergymen who struggle to come to terms with faith-shattering issues within themselves and the ones around them. Both live in small, bleak, grim villages and cannot find solace in people around them, or give them sound advice. Both strive for an evidence of God — a signal, a word, an inspiration to help comfort people. Both face the peak of their religious crisis in winter time (no wonder!!) and when faced with suicide (the doctor in "Diary", the fisherman in "Winter..."). But the major difference is that Bresson's priest ultimately finds a way to trust his God, while Bergman's pastor is abandoned by his ("God's silence in an empty church"). And, of course, that Bresson's priest is impossible to dislike whereas Bergman's pastor is a s.o.b. Bergman himself had been very impressed by Bresson's movie, which, in my opinion, is superior and "thicker" than "Winter....", although both display some of the most magnificent b&w cinematography the movies have ever shown (and Bergman talks proudly about the great amount of work it took to reach the right lighting for the film).

The second of the so-called "Silence Trilogy" (it was never planned as such, but you know, it was the trilogy fad -- S.Ray, Antonioni etc), "Winter Light" is, IMHO, the least satisfying of the three, overshadowed by the powerful study in schizophrenia and incest with richly elaborated characters of "Through a Glass Darkly" and the incredibly daring, close-up approach of female sexuality, childhood innocence, war threat and terminal sickness of "The Silence". Anyway, "Winter Light" is film by Ingmar Bergman — stratospheres above most mortal filmmakers. My vote: 6 out of 10 (considering it's Bergman!).

Most depressing movie ever.

[xxxloroxxxx · 1/10 · 12 September 2013]

I have always wondered what is it about Bergman that so many people acclaimed. After watching many of his films I'm still wondering as I haven't got a response yet. To those who like the technical aspects of his film making, I'll say I have seen many better ones. There's very little ingenuity to his camera movement, which is always too slow to impress me, his use of light is no better than that of silent movies made decades before and he always seems to abuse the length of many of his close-ups that are unnecessarily eternal. The acting in most of his movies is simply adequate, never of an Oscar-winning quality. And, as for his stories, well...that's probably the worst part. In Winter Light there's really no story, or is there? All we see is a man who's lost his faith fighting his inner demons in a self-destructive manner. I don't recall ever having drawn any positive pointers from any of Bergman's movies. His world is a desperate one where not even the slightest glimmer of hope is ever offered. His characters are always tortured and never seem able to find a solution or relief to their inner anguish. What's his message? That we may as well either kill ourselves or continue to live a pointless life? That no matter how hard we search our soul there's never gonna be an answer to our questions and doubts? I don't recall ever finding a light moment in his films. There's never a respite, a funny moment, a shadow of a better future. With Bergman there's never a light at the end of the tunnel. I, for one, really despise Bergman's hopeless universe and refuse to allow myself to be drawn into it. It's great to watch a movie that makes you think, but when it ends abruptly, as is the case with Winter Light, leaving everything unsolved after little or no consequential storytelling, what can you gain from that? There's not even the hint of a moral to this story, it's just another depressing, pointless exercise by a guy that must have had a very sorry life indeed. Don't watch it unless you're looking for another reason to commit suicide!

Keep some hot coffee or tea nearby.

[futures-1 · 8 November 2005]

"Winter Light" (Swedish, 1962): Just prepare yourself. Bergman is at his depressive best here. If you've ever lived in an environment that is perpetually cold, wet, and gray, you'll understand. If not, well, this film will illustrate it for you. A preacher, in serious depression himself, is losing his flock. His flock has rampant depression too. He tries to help, but it's useless. He starts looking for answers from them. No one has answers. Things happen. Nothing happens. It's the same old thing today, and tomorrow. This film requires patience. Expect no action. Even a scene change begins to seem like excitement – which is exactly what Bergman wanted for you. One scene, in which a major character "narrates" a letter she wrote to the preacher, is amazing. With a blank background, she stares into the lens of the camera, and talks "at" you – for pages. What a gutsy thing to do in a MOVING PICTURE. Avoid this film if you want more than thinking and feeling as results.

Powerful Bergman

[Andy-296 · 8/10 · 19 April 2014]

This bleak, sparse film from Ingmar Bergman focuses on a disillusioned, increasingly skeptic Lutheran priest called Thomas (Gunnar Bjorstrand, who's excellent) administering the gospel in a Swedish village to a very small congregation. He's unable to accept the love offered him by the plain school teacher Marta (Ingrid Thulin, also very good), and incapable to offer the conviction of his faith to save from suicide a fisherman called Jonas (Max von Sydow) troubled by the prospect of a nuclear war(incidentally, this was filmed just before the Cuban missile crisis).

This must have been a very personal film by Bergman (the son of a stern Lutheran priest, the director lost his religious faith as a young man). There are a lot of biblical allusions and religious discussions (we have a doubting Thomas, a fisherman called Jonas). One can nitpick here and there (one could wonder why the younger Marta is so attracted to the middle aged, aloof Thomas, or whether Jonas motivation to kill himself is credible), but if you are willing to suspend your disbelief, the minimalist direction and the great acting made for a powerful movie. Reportedly this was Ingmar Bergman choice as the favorite film he made.

Masterpiece

[Cosmoeticadotcom · 10/10 · 24 September 2008]

Winter Light (Nattvardsgästerna- literally The Communicants) is the middle film in Ingmar Bergman's Spider Trilogy (as it too references the God as a spider imagery), following Through A Glass Darkly, and preceding The Silence. Made in 1963, it represents a dramatic notching upward from the well made, but often melodramatic and symbolic, Through A Glass Darkly. Where the first film of the trilogy suffers from the overacting of Harriet Andersson, and some over the top displays of incest (for sex is a subject that the cerebral Bergman is at his weakest in handling) Winter Light is simply one of the greatest Socratic dialogues ever put to film, and as close to perfect a screenplay as a mortal is likely to produce. The acting, in every single role, is pitch perfect, yet Bergman regular Ingrid Thulin gives one of the great dominant female performances in film history, as Märta Lundberg, an atheistic substitute school teacher in a small town with a now unrequited love for a Lutheran Pastor named Tomas Ericsson (Gunnar Björnstrand), head of a church whose congregation has dwindled to a handful. The gorgeous Thulin is at her frumpiest and dowdiest looking in this film, and it seems that after an illness, she lost the affection of Tomas, with whom she had lived with for two years. Even Tomas does not believe any longer. His is a rote life, ever since the death of his wife four years earlier. He gives communion to a congregation that is bored- a boy licks the pews, others try to stay awake- including the church organist who checks his watch and reads, and the church hierarchy is dominated by money hungry apparatchiks, and Märta's swooning over Tomas is part of local gossip, which discomfits him. As he ends his noontime ceremony he is confronted by a fisherman, Jonas Persson (Max Von Sydow in a curly permanent wave) and his wife Karin (Gunnel Lindblom). The man is suffering from depression, ostensibly over the Chinese getting the atomic bomb. Of course, this is just a pretense, for we know Jonas is an unemployed fisherman, with three children and a fourth on the way, and even in the 1960s people were not so detached from reality to off themselves over an abstraction. Wisely, Bergman never reveals his true fears, as Tomas brushes him off and tells him to come back later, for a man to man talk. The Perssons leave, and then Tomas reads a letter Märta wrote him, confessing her love. It is a brilliant scene, shot with Thulin reading the words in two long takes, interspersed with a brief flashback. She addresses the camera so comfortably yet frankly that it puts the viewer in the place of Tomas, and we can later identify with his discomfit around this sincere, but needy and not altogether 'there' woman, who has suffered from a variety of ills which she feels had led Tomas to be repulsed by her. Yet, we are also drawn to her by the quiet brilliance with which she utterly guts religion with her atheistic views.

Bergman, apparently, has always stated that this was his only perfectly realized film, and while others may add to that number, there is no denying the excellence of this filmic masterwork, which shows that while Bergman had his roots in the theater, he also knew exactly how to use the filmic medium. The original Swedish title, as The Communicants, would seem to be better title for this film, which deals with connections and communications, and their fragility. While Through A Glass Darkly deals with people on an island, this aloneness is handled even more deftly here, where winter seems to be the defining metaphor- whether as the winter of religiosity or human kindness. Winter Light ranks with Wild Strawberries and Shame as one of Bergman's greatest works, which makes them essentials as films. It does not indulge in the technical masturbation of some later works, not does it rely too much on stagy overacting, as it deftly balances the inner and outer worlds of film and life. It is a truly great work of art.

Bergman's masterpiece

[Trouter2000 · 10/10 · 18 August 2007]

With Ingmar Bergman's recent passing I have been inspired to write this review, after holding off for quite some time.

I'm going right out and saying it: Winter Light is Bergman's masterpiece. Most critics, fans and lovers of the cinema will cite either Persona, The Seventh Seal, Fanny & Alexander or Wild Strawberries as the film that defined him, and while those are all masterpieces, none of them capture the internal struggle for faith and a need for God that he, and many of us face quite like Winter Light.

The film centers around a priest of a small country village who, recently begins to lose his faith, in God and human beings. He cannot offer any real advice to a depressed man, who is in need of reassurance, because he himself is not assured at all. With tragedy and hopelessness comes a truth about God, that ultimately affirms what many Christians believe. A truth that says he often is silent, and we all must face emotional doubt as Jesus did before we can become affirmed.

Its a depressing film, and it isn't easy to deal with on any given occasion due to its sheer emotional force. I found myself with a desire to turn it off because it was ringing true too closely to my own personal life. However, I persevered and was rewarded with an uplifting, yet subtle ending. It is a heavier film then any of his others, because it is a film that will most likely ring a bell with a lot of of people, whereas the ideas in his other great films can often be just viewed as ideas.

What makes Winter Light so great is its nature to cease being a piece of art, and a film and begin to become an experience to which both atheists and believers can relate. Atheists may relate to the uncertainty of God and the belief in his utter silence (he would have to be if he didn't exist), while Christians will be moved by the idea of hope amongst a world full of emotional suffering.

This is my honest review about a film that moved me deeply. I hope that you, the viewers are moved as deeply as I was by this masterpiece.

Back To Basics

[luzgannon · 10/10 · 20 January 2006]

A Lutheran rural priest performs a mass for a tiny congregation. Afterwards, he is contacted by the troubled wife (Gunnel Lindblom) of a man suffering a severe depression. The man (Max von Sydow) and the priest Tomas (Gunnar Björnstrand) has a pastoral talk, where, roles inverse, the priest complains his own spiritual agony to his embarrassed guest. The man leaves, and commits suicide immediately. - This trigs a series of discrete but inherently dramatic events and confrontations whereby the priest returns to a cold and sober attitude to his profession, his duties, and his associates. Everything goes back to an unglorious everyday state of things.

This is the film Ingmar Bergman himself is most satisfied with, feeling he finally has managed to be perfectly honest. His preceding film, Though A Glass Darkly, a masterful melodrama with a consolating end: "love demonstrates God's existence", very clearly left Bergman with an uneasy feeling of opportunism and compromise, so here he disowns it, producing the "plain and brutal truth". The Love solution does not work, since love itself is selfish and confused. The illusion of his relationship with a female school teacher Märta (Ingrid Thulin) is mercilessly crushed by Tomas in a direct encounter. Tomas tells Märta he loves only his deceased wife. Towards the end the disillusioned cantor of a neighbouring Church, where Thomans performs a mass for no visitors, however reveals that even this love was not unblemished, since it made Tomas forgetful of his congregation, causing it to melt away.

Now this subtle film is frequently misinterpreted. It's not as grim and depressing as it's told to be. It's theme is disillusion, not despair. Tomas and Märta are hard hit by the sudden crisis; but they can handle it, and quickly return to business-as-usual, and in the gray world of everyday realities, there's considerable relief in the fact life, if rather bleak, isn't really as difficult as those glorious illusions would have made it. God remains silent - but he may still exist, so, just go on with the routine services seems the only viable alternative. And this is what Tomas (and Märta) does; certainly not a hero, nor a scoundrel, just an ordinary, reasonably decent man.

This modest, low-keyed, but very smart and subtle film is the least overtly dramatic Bergman film I have seen, but it's still another towering masterpiece, a Ten; and the photo is as exquisite as ever.

Mediocre Bergman

[directorscut · 6/10 · 24 November 2007]

WINTER LIGHT is a comparatively weak Bergman film. It is a testament to Bergman's craft that even a weak film of his contains excellent acting and photography. However the characters in this film are not as well drawn or sympathetic as Bergman's better films and the plot feels stretched and sparse even at a meagre eighty minute runtime. There is also a distinct feeling of "be here, done that", if you have seen other Bergman films from this period. In fact it almost feels like a parody of Bergman's public persona - slow, unrelentingly grim and Max von Sydow. Max von Sydow is an exceptional actor but his role here is a mere extended cameo in a role that Bergman must have written as a self-parody - a fisherman on the brink of suicide because he believes the Chinese will bring about a nuclear apocalypse. If not, WTF Ingmar? WINTER LIGHT is for Bergman completists and Criterion toadies only. The next best reason to watch is is Ingrid Thulin's excellent performance.

Intelligent, thoughtful, quiet, and involving

[davidmvining · 10/10 · 22 November 2019]

This Silence trilogy isn't easy movie watching, but it's very rewarding.

Tomas, a minister in the Church of Sweden, is finishing a service at a small country church with only a handful of congregants. He speaks the words of the communion rite seriously, but dryly. We can tell by the solemn by detached manner in which he speaks that Tomas is somewhat removed from this thing that takes up his life.

With the service ended, we begin to see Tomas's relationships with some of his congregants. There is the school teacher, his lover, who's an atheist and took communion as a challenge to him. There's the married couple with the husband who's consumed by apocalyptic visions stemming from the idea of China's combination of saber rattling and nuclear ambitions (what he would do with Kum Jong Un fires the imagination a bit). We also see the hunchback who prepares each little isolated church for service and the bored organist who's leaving before he's finished playing the final song.

Tomas's doubt about God's existence, his consumption with the idea of God's silence, is overtaking his faith. He can't say anything to comfort Jonah's visions, offering nothing but pablum. He can't counter the school teachers barbs. He's lost, begging for guidance from God, but God says nothing to him. There are subtle implications that God may be trying to speak to him through other ways (a window brightening with light as Tomas takes his first large step to rejecting his own faith, for instance).

The key to understanding the film, though, really is Through a Glass Darkly. According to the essay in the Criterion book, Bergman wrote this movie as a direct response to his own previous film. Even without the essay, the connections are stark. There are no shared characters, but we hear the same repeated image of a Spider God, which should send up flags from every audience member. There's also the continued references to the idea that God is love. The two different manifestations of God are now at war with the idea that there simply isn't a God. A two front war has become three.

Which vision of God wins is actually a bit unclear, and I lean towards Bergman saying that the God is Love manifestation is the dominant one, an interesting counter to Through a Glass Darkly where the Spider God obviously won. There are key moments in the final minutes of the film that point to it. Tomas has traveled to a second church to say the service, but no one else but the hunchback, the school teacher, and the organist have shown. Will they even do it without a congregation? Tomas ultimately decides yes. Tomas has broken things off with the school teacher minutes before as Tomas has rejected both the Spider God and the God is Love visions, rejecting love itself. Just before Tomas begins the service, Marta, the atheistic school teacher, falls to her knees to pray, presumably to the God of Love.

And yet, there is still a literal silence, much like the hunchback describes must have been Jesus' experience in his final moments. His apostles had abandoned or betrayed Him, and Jesus calls out to God asking why He had been forsaken. It wasn't the physical suffering, the hunchback concludes, that took the greatest toll on Jesus, for it lasted no more than four hours and he'd survived years in different states of agony because of his condition. No, it was the silence that Jesus seems to have faced that must have been the worst.

Is God working through these people, or is there no God at all? Is God merely silent, or does he not exist? The ending suggests no solid answer, but a desire for the God of Love to be real.

These movies are intelligent, touching, and difficult, but they are also extremely rewarding to the patient viewer willing to give the films a chance.

well-made but seemingly incomplete

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 1 September 2005]

This was a typically well-crafted film from Ingmar Bergman--with excellent acting, camera work, etc. Now to many you may find the film a bit too depressing--that's certainly NOT unusual for his films! I watched it because I like unusual films but I also gotta admit I wasn't super-excited about this film due to its depressing plot. I did, however, like the fact that a minister was having so many doubts--it was unique and MUST occur from time to time. However, because the movie just seemed to abruptly end, I felt a little dissatisfied. Yes, I know that tying everything together in the end is a very Hollywood-like thing to do and MANY foreign films avoid this convention. But, I just wanted to see more and see the dilemmas unfold further.

By the way, one poor aspect of the film was the minister's ROTTON counseling session (that seemed to push the Max Von Sydow character over the edge to suicide). Following this suicide, the minister didn't seem that broken up by this or seem to take much responsibility for the suicide. I know he is described as not exactly a people-person in the film, but this was ridiculous!! This really had me hating the man and I doubt if that was Bergman's intention.

Winter Light (1963) Ingmar Bergman

[ObservationBlogger · 10/10 · 4 January 2014]

Marta Lundberg, an atheist local school teacher sits and laments at the church pew because she is deeply in love with a pastor whose faith in God, himself and Marta is dwindling into an existential nothingness. At the point of her absolute utter despair she is confronted by Satan who takes on the appearance of the church organist. This is her Garden of Gethsemane.

Welcome to Life on Earth.

I found this film mesmerizing. From the very first scene, I was pulled into this melancholic, thought provoking tour de force of art-house cinema. It is deftly directed with such sublime sensibility and intimacy. The realism is extraordinary; few if any other movies I have seen are so authentically delivered. Like many of Bergman's movies, 'Winter Light' challenges us to reflect on our own lives, our very existence, essentially what it means 'to be'.

Many reviews remark how it is steeped in connotations of religion, but I found its themes closer resembling aspects of 'Faith'. Not just faith in God, but faith in oneself, faith in one's partner, faith in what it means to be human. For me, it didn't require multiple viewings to fully appreciate this Tower of Movie. I got why Bergman said: "I think I have made just one picture that I really like, and that is Winter Light…Everything is exactly as I wanted to have it, in every second of this picture." – Ingmar Bergman from Ingmar Bergman Directs by John Simon 1972.

Despite arriving at this movie without any prior knowledge whatsoever, except that it was Bergman, as the last scene faded to black an awe of respect made me laugh as I stood from the armchair of this Bergman ride from a theme park like no other. To my mind, this isn't a movie, its best described as a vision, a vision so pure and finessed to screen that its almost like walking into someone else's dream, but by the last act you realize it could be more akin to your subconscious, because really this vision has been imparted to you.

The plot, multilayered symbolism and striking metaphors to the events of 'The Passion of Christ' and human suffering (Christians and atheists alike) could be discussed at infinite length, but I'll leave that to the 'movielogians' rather than influence the mind set of someone who may intend on watching this movie. Bring all your baggage to this movie and see how it effects you without preconceived notions of the story or plot. If you revel in films that are challenging, thought-provoking and stimulating you might also find yourself living in this movie. See this film.

Convincing character study about a priest struggling with faith and life after becoming a widower

[Horst_In_Translation · 6/10 · 26 May 2019]

"Nattvardsgästerna" or "Winter Light" is a Swedish black-and-white movie from 1961, so this one here is almost 60 years old and if you take a look at the number of votes here, you will probably see more than expected. This of course has to do with the fact that the writer and director is Ingmar Bergman, unanimously considered Sweden's finest ever and also in general among the best filmmakers out there. He was in his mid-40s when he made this one and it is not among his early or late career efforts. But at only 80 minutes, it is definitely among his shortest films out there. As for the cast, you will find the names of actors here like Thulin and von Sydow that he cast in other films as well. The latter is one of two actors I believe still alive in 2019 now that I am writing this review, but of course at a very high age already, no surprise looking at how old this film is. Lead actor who plays the character of Tomas is Gunnar Björnstrand and he is long gone sadly. But in this film, he is in basically every scene as he plays a priest who seems to have lost his faith in the Lord and we watch his struggles with himself as well as with the supporting characters. When seemingly he has come to the conclusion that it is all over and there is no future for him as a man of the church, mayhem ensues before he can tell anybody and he is needed badly. One man kills himself and leaves his pregnant wife and mother of several kids alone. Another servant of God, crippled he is (the servant, not God) in charge of a little chapel needs him as well and then there is also the boy who does not want to have anything to do with church anymore after his brother tells him the classes just aren't fun. So you could say, it feels a bit unrealistic that he starts working immediately again after telling the female protagonist of this film that it's all over, but you can also see it from the perspective that he does not need his faith to be there for the people and support them. They think it is what defines him, but he may have other motives that they know nothing about. It probably also has a lot to do with what he has been doing for decades and it's just not easy, maybe not even possible to step out from one day to the next.

Now I want to say a few words on Thulin's character as well. Honestly, I must say I found her almost more interesting and fascinating than the actual main character. First of all, you need to see her and everything I am saying about her from the perspective that she plays a really attractive woman who could have pretty much any man she wanted in any place and the scene when that other guy tells her at the end to get out as fast as she can as long as it is still possible is really telling. But obviously, she is way too deep inside already. The letter she wrote makes obvious that she very much needs a lesson in self-love as she basically admits that she only feels complete when she is loved (by Tomas). And even after the in my opinion best scene of the film when he says all these horrible things to her and she takes of her glasses and sees him (physically) for what he really is, she puts the glasses back on and leaves with him once again in a situation in which, if she was a self-confident and not needy woman, she would never want to see him again. I must say it took me a little while to really get curious about the film and also the two main characters, but when I did, I was glued to the screen. Sadly it took way too long, but maybe that was just me and not the movie itself. The parallel between the ending and the beginning is also pretty interesting in the sense that it is basically a loop if you want to say so and despite everything that happened the situation is exactly the same, even with all the process inside characters that took place. The only real difference is probably that von Sydow's character wasn't alive anymore and we don't know if Thulin's is still there. But I believe that she is because honestly if the humiliation cannot change her, then the words of her suitor won't change her either. Overall, I believe this is a movie that the Church probably did not like very much because of the frequently very critical tone about religion and (losing) faith. Maybe this is one reason why Sweden did not pick it as the country's official Oscar submission for the foreign language category that year because they thought that the then even more conservative America won't give it a chance. But it is a good film, maybe not Bergman's best because of the sub-par first half, and I also believe the rating here is definitely a bit too high, but with how things got better the longer it went, I definitely do think it is worth seeing and therefore I give it a thumbs-up and a positive recommendation. Go watch it if you are ready for the very bleak material and also the subject is to your liking. It's typical Bergman. Comedy is basically non-existent and in the one or two moments when there is a tiny little ounce of humor, it is always closely linked to tragedy. It is a film and director/writer that is not for everybody, but if you can warm up to his craft and approach, then you are in for something convincing. Give it a chance or decide for yourself because I think you will not really need my recommendation as it is most likely rather unlikely this is the first work you would be going for from Bergman's pretty admirable (in both quantity and quality) body of work.

Another Self-Indulgent Bergman "Masterpiece"

[evanston_dad · 4/10 · 23 October 2006]

God, give me a break Ingmar Bergman!!

This middle film in his "Silence" trilogy is unbearably depressing, bleak and hopeless. I've heard that Bergman had a disdain for film-making and didn't like it as a medium for telling his stories. One has to wonder, then, why he felt compelled to make so many films, especially when they all pound the same point into the ground over and over again.

He obviously had the same disdain for his audiences, as he decided to inflict his depressing frame of mind on all of us. "Winter Light" isn't a bad film technically, and I know I'm being a petulant reviewer here, but sometimes my gut emotional reaction completely outweighs any artistic considerations when looking at a film, and I just couldn't stand this, in my mind, nearly unwatchable movie.

Grade: D