Winter Light
this is just me rambling for my own little cute movie diary. so if u do choose to read it and things are incoherent at times then it is what it is. this review has actually been sitting in my notes for a couple of days now. right next to my review of seventh seal and l’argent. and after sleeping on it for this long i think i am content with it. this better influence every single one of u that reads this to watch the fucking movie. <3
there are also spoilers, but bro this shit came out in the 60s. not my fault frfr and the spoiler warning thing is ugly to look at so i wont put it on.
winter light is the second of three films in an unofficial trilogy. through a glass darkly, followed by winter light, and finishing it with the silence. throughout the course of the trilogy, bergman faces his religious turmoil and puts forth his own struggles with faith into his films.
winter light specifically is not only my favorite in the trilogy, not only tarkovsky’s SECOND FAVORITE FUCKING FILM, but also bergman’s favorite in the trilogy as well as the film that he said is the closest film he has to perfection. and weirdly enough, this was the film that made him realize that he did not believe in god and converted him to atheism.
play this in a church and it’ll be the scariest movie people will have ever seen. one of the most terrifying experiences that a believer or follower of any religion could go through would be losing faith. play this to a group of atheists that dealt with religious trauma, and they’ll see it as a comforting and optimistic film for being able to relate to something so close to home.
im not going to put myself in either of these groups. i do not see myself as an atheist, and i sure as hell don’t see myself as a christian or a member of an organized religion. i am fortunate enough to not have gone through religious trauma and i will not pretend like i have. the only religious influence in my life that i had was my 1 year in a christian private school 14 years ago during preschool. my mom never pushed a certain religion onto me, and i never had to deal with a spiritual dilemma. however, that doesn’t mean that i am going to throw this movie into the trash simply because i am unable to relate to the fullest.
people say that this is a straightforward movie, and not as complex as the other movies in the trilogy. i agree to a certain extent. although it is easier to understand, i feel that given the importance of the film in bergman’s life at the time of filming makes this so much better of a watch. his father was a strict lutheran minister that was abusive. he lost his faith at the age of 8, and did not come to terms with the loss until he made winter light.
which is why there is no other bergman movie that is like this. its not the good script or the pretty shots that makes this nearly perfect in his eyes. its the fact that this liberated him from a religion in which he always saw himself stuck in.
the movie opens up with pastor tomas leading his church service. tomas is a man that struggles with his faith and ability to love because of the death of his wife. he is a hypocrite. how can someone teach others something that they fully cannot believe themselves? its like trying to convince a child that santa clause is real. you don’t do that and should instead crush their dreams and be #real.
bergman uses the pastor as a stand-in for him, saying things that he wants to say through the use of the pastor. even mentioning in the movie that the pastor’s parents wanted him to become a pastor. the pastor’s name is literally tomas ericsson. his father’s name is erik bergman, and ingmar bergman is ERIK’S SON. this isn’t the first time that bergman has used a character to reflect on his own life, but it probably is my favorite.
(ignore this and read rory’s comment. shoutout her frfr) a little bible trivia that i learned (i am so proud of myself for this), one of jesus’ apostles who doubted the resurrection of him and wanted proof of his crucifixion was named thomas. thomas. tomas. thomas. ITS RIGHT THERE.
anyways, it gets to the point where a fisherman named jonas that is on the brink of suicide reaches out to him in hopes of changing his mind about it. the lack of guidance from god drives him to the pastor to confess to him about his sense of dissatisfaction in life. tomas is such a dick during this. instead of being yk, a good pastor, he instead talks to jonas not as a conduit for god, but instead relates to him. i think the reason for tomas saying the things he said was because for him it was like looking in the mirror. he saw the hopelessness, he understood the hopelessness. he understood why he was feeling so dreadful and bleak. all tomas can say is to put his trust in the lord, then confesses to jonas saying that he feels he is a bad pastor and lost faith because of the silence of god. bruh just trauma dumped in the middle of a confessional. this as expected led to jonas shooting himself with a rifle as a way to find an answer himself since he was unable to find one from god.
then there’s marta. a woman that offer’s her love and care to tomas only to be to be ignored. marta never believed in god, and the only faith she held onto is love. however, she is the only one in the movie that loves ‘like’ god. ever-present love even to those that don’t acknowledge it. she knows that tomas doesn’t love her, but doesn’t find her own self worth to find someone that does. she is rejected by the pastor simply because he wants her love to be ‘perfect’ like god. which is ironic since bro doesn’t even believe in him. the pastor then goes on to talk about how marta is sinful, and how their intimacy is such and how she should take communion from him because of it. more hypocrisy from tomas. what a douchebag.
the relationship between marta and tomas is what i can only assume is what bergman feels the relationship between god and his followers is like. in through a glass darkly, the first film in the trilogy, he talks about god being a ‘spider god’. meaning that much like how a spider sucks the life out of their prey, he sees god as a thing that sucks the life out of their people and robs mankind for believing in something that doesn’t give back. the good goes unrewarded, the bad goes unpunished, and everyone is putting their faith in an afterlife in which there is no proof of. marta believes in love and tries to love tomas. tomas is quiet, gives her the cold shoulder, and gives nothing in return.
marta probably has one of the my most favorite scenes ever. it is a 6 minute long monologue, with marta looking directly into the camera reading a letter to tomas about her love and the belief of god, challenging tomas to a certain extent to reveal his true self. it’s bold, its emotional, its unsettling, its almost like its not acting. ingrid thulin is able to produce REAL TEARS in the MIDDLE of the scene. any other crying scene in a bergman movie prior to this has always had the actor or actress with tears rolling down their face before starting the scene.
nykvist’s cinematography really shined in this movie. for the many complex themes that the movie explores, the way the movie shows it is virtually the opposite. it is simple and minimalistic. there are no abrupt camera movements, there are long takes, and there is a lack of music. its as real and barebones as it gets. think of what bresson does with his movies, except less shots focused on hands and more focused on the face. and given the title of the movie, it looks exactly what you think of when you hear the words winter light.
it is a cold film that gives an emotional response filled with existential dread and bleakness. i think this is the charm to the movie though. it portrays the feeling of wintertime in the countryside of sweden, a country infamous for their long periods of darkness, and small amounts of sunlight. everything feels so mechanical and reflects the pastor’s attitude. everything is subtle. walls are blank. actors faces aren’t overly theatrical to convey a point, and from the 6 minute long monologue from a teary-eyed marta, to the confessional of the fisherman whose lost all hope, the eyes of the actors tell more than the script could ever tell.
a man kills himself, and another doubts his faith. a women weeps for a man that doesn’t love her back. god is silent in all of their lives. however god isn’t the only one silent in the movie. the pastor is silent when a fisherman is in need. the pastor again is silent to a woman that loves him. the ones that are not silent asked for help and received nothing in return.
something that i can say however, is that as much as this seems like an anti-church, ‘god bad’ movie from bergman, it is not. it never once tells you how you should think about religion. it tells about introspection. it doesn’t give answers, but asks questions. bergman answered his own questions with this film, and it just so happened that the answer was atheism. amen.