PARTISAN REV lEW
CRIES AND CRITICS
PR:
I find myself in strong dis–
agreement with the review of
Cries
and Whispers,
primarily because the
style of the film, however
person–
ally
irritating to the reviewer, is es–
sential to its thematic integrity and
force. For example, Mr. Baumbach
complains the film is "enervated"
and "visually static." Clearly dis–
ease, whether moral, physical, or
psychological, erodes one's vitality,
robs one of full capacity for life, of
original response. Furthermore,
since one of the themes of the
movie is human insufficiency in the
face of death, the various characters
depend on conventions of language
and movement to see them through
the ordeal. The sisters' self-con–
scious poses, always aesthetically
striking, are never informed by
love.
Mr. Baumbach objects that
everything in the film is "self–
re ferring." Bergman has quite
deliberately created a self-contained
world whose symbols of language,
gesture, and emotion are expanded
and enriched by variations on those
symbols and which abso lutely re–
sists incursions by extraneous mate–
rial. The effect is oppressive -–
one is not allowed to escape to a
different world or time, which
might provide a tempering perspec–
tive -- but has the advantage of a
rich concentration in which the real
mystery at the center -- the
source and existence of the capac–
ity for grace and affirmation -–
remains intact.
The function of the flashbacks is
not to reveal a logical or progressive
past (which would cancel, to some
extent, the mystery of the present
159
as well as deny the fragmented and
inorganic nature of Karin and
Maria's lives), but rather to reveal
different capacities for emotional
response and disparate structurings
of reality. And although there is
probably never a "justifying con–
text" for the sexual self-mutilation
Karin performs in her memory /
fan tasy, we
are
given a convincing
catalyst in her lecherous, morally
putrified husband. Mr. Baumbach's
curious (all the more curious be–
cause he claims to have suffered so,
watching the movie) adjective
"vulgar" ignores the act's harrowing
effect as well as its central signifi–
cance: the orgasmic embrace of
death.
Finally, the ending is
not,
nor is
meant to be, a resolution of the
problems the film has posed. In the
last scene, the sisters share a few
minutes of blessedness and beauty,
as ephemeral as the white dresses
they wear or the pleasant autumn
weather. And it is only Agnes's na–
ivet~
and generosity that make
them possible, that are brighter, for
a visionary moment, than the terri–
ble gleam of irony. The "decisive"
event Maria had imagined for all of
them depends upon a love only
Agnes, ultimately, can feel and sus–
tain.
Jonna
G.
Semeiks, New York
Mr. Baumbach replies:
J
onna Semeiks and I disagree
about
Cries and Whispers,
although
not so blatantly as her letter seems
to think. Either I failed to make
myself clear or Ms. Semeiks, in de–
fense of what apparently was an
important experience to her, insists
on misunderstanding me. I don't
find the film's style
"personally
irri–
tating" (as opposed to imperson–
ally?) and I have the sense that Ms.
