Stars: Max Von Sydow, Ingrid Thulin, Gunnel Lindblom, Gunnar Bjrnstrand

Director: Ingmar Bergman

Summary: The second in Ingmar Bergman's religious trilogy which studies a village pastor, empty of faith and desperately unloved, who reveals his bitter failure to offer spiritual consolation to his flock. Swedish dialogue.

The second film of Ingmar Bergman's trilogy on religion and the loss of faith--the other two being THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY and THE SILENCE)--is an unrelentingly austere minimalist drama that takes place in a small village surrounded by a bleak, wintry landscape. Local pastor Tomas Ericsson (Gunnar Bjornstrand) has been left cold and hardened by the untimely death of his wife, his religious convictions severely shaken. He is incapable of offering counsel to a suicidal member of the congregation who comes to him for help, fisherman Jonas Persson (Max von Sydow), and cannot return the affection of schoolteacher Marta (Ingrid Thulin) after she confesses her love for him. The characters' anguish, isolation, and despair at the prospect of an absent or uncaring God are mirrored by the film's stark setting, flawlessly captured by cinematographer Sven Nykvist, in one of many collaborations with Bergman. While the figure of the stern, unfeeling clergyman was probably at least partially inspired by memories of the director's own father, a strict Lutheran minister, Bergman based his script on a true story told to him by a small-town parson who suffered from severe guilt after failing to talk one of his parishioners out of committing suicide.

WIN DVDs by rating this DVD

Average User Rating:

WIN DVDS by being amongst the first to review this DVD. Reviewing DVDs earns you bonus entries and lets you WIN DVDs!Please login before reviewing this DVD. If you're a new user, register for free and enter to WIN FREE DVDs!

The second of an Ingmar Bergman trilogy, 1962's Winter Lightis a deliberate repudiation of the "God is love" message of its predecessor Through a Glass Darkly. Gunnar Bjornstrand stars as Tomas, a pastor in a remote parish tending to a dwindling congregation, as tense and distracted as David--the novelist Bjornstrand plays in Through a Glass Darkly. He finds himself trying to counsel a local fisherman Jonas, who is plagued by a sense of impending atomic doom but realises that the religious platitudes he consoles him with--"put your faith in the Lord"--are mere drivel. He himself is wracked by religious doubts, unable to tolerate "God's silence" and unable to prevent the fisherman from committing suicide. He finds himself taking out his inner woe on his eczema-riddled mistress, played by an unflatteringly made up Ingrid Thulin.

Described by Bergman's own wife as a "dreary masterpiece", the synopsis to Winter Lightseems almost comically miserable, yet this passion play is gripping in its unsparing bleakness, bathed in the stark illumination implied by the title, ironically akin to the light of a religious epiphany. Released at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, its preoccupations and all-pervasive anxieties are especially apt.

On the DVD:Bergman's own notes reveal that Winter Lightis among his own favourites and he explains the evolution of the film's ideas at some length. Critic Philip Strick's background notes reveal that Gunnar Bjornstrand was exhausted and ill for much of the making of the film, which doubtless enhanced his anguished performance here. --David Stubbs

Main Language:	Swedish
Region:	Region 0
Special Features:	Star And Director Filmographies, Scene Selection, Philip Strick Film Notes, Extract From Bergmans Book Images My Life In Film, The Bergman Collection Trailer
Subtitles:	English
Year:	1962
Release Date:	November 19, 2001
Runtime:	77 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	T V D 3347
Label:	The Bergman Collection
Keywords:	General, Light, Winter, Drama, Communicants, Nattvardsgasterna
Genre:	Drama