II
The
latest
film
in the
Bergman
cult
schedule
West 11 tt» Drive in. West 11th and Seneca.
342 4142. "Five Fingers of Death." and "A
Man in the Wilderness " Theatre opens at
6 45 pm. starts at 7:15 p.m. Tickets $1.75 a
person
North End Drive In. 99N 1»? miles north
of Overhead, 609 0445 "Sounder" and "Walk
About" Theater opens at 6 45 p.m and show
starts at 7 15 p.m Tickets $1.75 per person
Motor Vu Drive In, 41st and McKenzie
Highway. 747 5415. "Jeremiah Johnson" and
"Skin Game " Theater opens at 6 45 p.m
and show starts at 7 15 p.m Tickets $1.75 per
person
Eugene Drive In. Gienwood. oft Franklin
Bivd . 72* 7512 "High Plains Drifter" and
"Chatos Land " Theater opens at 6:45 p.m
and show starts at 7 15 p.m Tickets $1.75 per
person
Valley R iver Twin Crnema I and 11. across
from Valley River Center. 60*1633 Cinema
I "High Plains Drifter" 6:45 p.m and K): 15
p.m . and "Chato Land" 8 35 p.m.; Cinema
11: "The Cheerleaders," 6 45 p.m. and 9 45
p.m . and "The Female Animal," 8:10 p.m
Tickets tor both, $2
Cascade Drive In. Sprmgfield, "Silent
Night, Bloody Night," and "I. Monster,"
theater opens at 7 15. show starts at dusk
Mayflower Theatre, 11th and Alder, 345
1022, "Cries and Whispers " Shows at 7:30
and 915 p.m Tickets $2.
Fine Arts. 630 Main, Springfield, 747 2201,
"The Nelson Affair," 9 45 p.m., and "Mary.
Queen of Scots," 7:30 p.m Tickets. $1.75
“Have you seen Bergman’s new Film down at the Mayflower on
11th-’ No? Man, you’ve got to see it! It’s called “Cries and Whispers.”
What’s it about17 Come on-you don’t ask that kind of a question about
a Bergman Film, Just go see it. All I can tell you is that it’s beautiful...”
The above is a typical capsule review of Swedish director Ingmar
Bergman’s latest film, “Cries and Whispers.” such as might be heard
in low-rent houses and apartments all over Eugene lately. It’s sim
plistic and vague, true; but it actually contains a lot of valid in
formation about the film and the sort of niche that it Fills for cinema
freaks
Bergman, like a number of Film directors in the history of the
medium, has become the object of a kind of cult, just as someone like
Bob Dylan occupies a similar position in the realm of popular music.
The myth that has grown up around Bergman is both the cause and
result of his cult image. For an inveterate Bergman freak (such as the
hypothetical one quoted above) that myth is an important element in
the perception of any of the director’s films. Each new work seems to
treat his usual themes in a different manner and with different
relative emphasis Even someone with a casual interest and
knowledge of Bergman will have the feeling that he or she is seeing
something both new and yet recognizable and familiar. TTiis is all part
of the appeal of “Cries and Whispers.”
The feeling of familiarity is certainly justified. In his new film,
Bergman treats again the themes of time, pain, death and the comolex
tensions of human relationships. In “Cries and Whispers,” the “plot,”
that really acts only as a medium for the treatment of these themes
centers around the death of a woman from cancer of the womb, an
event that has brought her together with her two sisters and a serving
woman in the large country house they grew up in, in and around
which most of the film was shot. In time, the film is set in the 19th
century, a period which seems to be haunted itself by the shadows of
both the past and the future.
It is this haunting that is the subject of the film in one way. Agnes,
the dying woman (played by Harriet Andersson), is haunted by the
image of her mother and a desire for sororal affection which her
sisters have never really responded to. Her sister Karin (played by
Ingrid Thulin) has been hardened by an unhappy marriage to a rather
creepy old diplomat, and is haunted by her awareness of the sham
character of the relationship and the need to keep up appearances,
even that of her own hardened mask, which sometimes cracks to
reveal an almost psychotic desperation The other sister, Maria
(played by Liv Ullmann) is a seductive, almost childish woman
ha in ted by her concealed coldness, which always soaks through to
reveal the shallowness of the affection she shows outwardly to her
milksop husband, her lover, even her sisters. Anna, the serving
woman (Kan Sylwan), is a salt-of-tbe-earth character haunted by her
almost religious devotion to Agnes and the memory of her small
daughter, some years dead. These characters spend a few weeks of
their lives together, during which time they are presented with the
opportunity to come to terms with themselves and their pasts. At the
end of the film, it becomes clear that they have, on the whole, failed
somehow to take advantage of that opportunity.
Yet it is difficult to speak accurately about the personages that
move about in Bergman’s films as characters in the classic sense.
Two of the actresses, for instance, are quite familiar from earlier
films by the same director, and that fact somehow gives them a
certain integrity as actresses outside of the characters they are meant
to portray. Furthermore, these faces are so often seen isolated, in
stark, portrait-like shots that make the viewer aware that he or she is
looking at a mask of sorts. One becomes aware of Bergman himself in
this way.
It is not Bergman the human being, though, but Bergman as an
artistic consciousness. He seeks, through the film, to objectify that
artistic consciousness in the same way the Jorge Luis Borges, the
Argentinian writer, seeks to in his parable, “Borges and I,” published
in the collection “Labyrinths.” That parable establishes life, and the
process of making art in particular, as a series of experiences passing
away from a person into the impersonal domains of the past, the
world, and death. What a person casts off, then, becomes his public,
historical personality, something that exists, either vaguely or
vividly, only in the consciousnesses and memories of others. It is this
dichotomy that one becomes aware of in “Cries and Whispers.” And it
is Bergman that we feel behind every mask.
There are what might be called weak spots in the film. One is the
minister’s speech over Agnes’ body, addressed so directly to the
audience that the viewer is apt to feel very self-conscious all of a
sudden. Another is the final meeting between Karin and Maria as they
prepare to resume their separate lives. There has been some evidence
that they have in some way broken through to each other. But, as
indicated earlier. Maria suddenly turns on her sister, and the contact
is negated in an instant. There is no smoothness in these transitions,
but again this seems intentional. Bergman is, in a way, administering
slight shocks to the audience (other scenes in the film, particularly
those dealing with pain, reinforce this suggestion). Again, we become
aware of Bergman behind this facade of light.
Finally, and most importantly, there is the sheer beauty of the
film. It is shot in glowing colors, with a predominance of black, white,
and deep red. But color is not the only element so consciously
manipulated. Virtually all the shots—many of which seem almost
stills—are composed very carefully. As one reviewer commented,
almost any frame in the Him could be blown up and hung on the wall
Not only that, but there is extensive use of piano and cello pieces (by
Bach?) which at one point even serve as subkitute for dialogue.
Hie beauty, however, is not handed over without irony. For some
part of the most visually attractive scenes in the film are ones in which
pain is graphically depicted. If “Cries and Whipsers” has any
messages, perhaps this observation leads to one: Beauty is
everywhere, even in the pain life inflicts on us and the pain we inflict
on ourselves. That “Cries and Whispers” allows us to come close to
accepting this is a mark of its achievement
Stephen Bangs
art
Festival
features
Indian
culture
It was a week-end of arts and
crafts at the fourteenth annual
Indian Festival of Arts June 14-16
in La Grande.
Dancing, rituals, singing and
drumming were all part of the
arts Among the dancers were
Benjamin Pease, Jr., Festival of
Arts President, and his son
Benjie. They did a traditional
Crow Indian dance at the
festival’s opening ceremonies
The crafts exhibits included
that of Dibbon Cook, a Modoc
Indian from the Klamath
reservation. Cook is a retired
cobbler who carves eagles and
other symbols of Indian
mythology from antlers. He gave
the Indian Festival of Arts a
three-foot wooden arrowhead
with the organization’s name
carved on it.