This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Disappointment for a huge fan!

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

I recall first viewing this movie on a Good Friday, many years ago. I was very touched by it. I wanted very much to view the movie again but never seemed to come across it on television, DVD, or even in a recent documentary on Ingmar Bergman, where there was no reference to it. Yet, Bergman considered it his best work. So hard to explain the lack of recognition. The story takes place in three hours in which Gunnar Bjornstrand as a Lutheran minister/priest conducts a service, counsels a married couple and is called to the scene of a tragedy. He also has a philosophical discussion with his sacristan who gives a stunning insight into the life of Jesus. Finally, he tells a parishioner with brutal honesty that he has no use for her, despite her desire to marry him. The priest is suffering a complete breakdown of faith, following the death of his wife a few years earlier. He cannot pull himself out of the pit he has fallen into, let alone strengthen his parishioners in their faith. The movie was made in 1962, the height of the Cold War and a time when people were beginning to walk away from their churches and their religions. The existentialism that had crept into 20th century Christianity is very evident.It is true that the movie is very grim but it is so beautifully made, the gloominess of the film is hardly important. What does matter is how effectively the sad atmosphere is shown in this unvarnished masterpiece. There is no music or humour. Some sequences move like a slide show from one shot to another, showing the bleak landscape or the sad faces of people inside the church as a series of portraits. Ingrid Thulin and Max Von Sydow also give strong performances but the sadness and honesty of Gunnar Bjornstrand is the movie's great strength.

In the film Winter Light, we follow a pastor through a day sermon and emotional turmoil. Haunted by the passing of his wife, Tomas has questions on whether God truly exists. This film deals with the Silence of god, which Bergman explores in his next film, The Silence. The film starts with a bleak service in a small Swedish town with very few patrons attending. We see the look of doubt on his face and the various looks of trust, hope and doubt on the patrons faces as he serves them holy communion.Tomas, the pastor, is visited by a sailor, Jonas, and his wife about some concerns Jonas is having with the looming dread of China developing an atomic bomb. Jonas has trouble speaking and Tomas has trouble hiding his doubt of faith from Jonas so he asks him to return later. Soon Tomas is visited by a woman,Marta, who is an atheist but seems to show a romantic interest in the pastor while he remains indifferent. She mentions a note she had given him and asks if he had read it. He states that he hasn't. He is also sick with a cold and begins to have coughing fits which give Marta concern and drives her to beg him to marry her. He remains indifferent and she eventually leaves. Later the pastor reads the note in which the film cuts to a close of Marta speaking the words that are written on the page. This shot is a few minutes long and one of the most emotional in the film. She reveals that they have had a past romantic relationship and then sums up Tomas as a frightened man for ignoring Marta after she had a disgusting skin problem on her hands. She berates him and calls him shallow, all while looking directly into our eyes. Tomas is again visited by Jonas and this time Tomas tries again to advise him with faith but ends up admitting he has no faith. This discourages Jonas and he leaves. Marta comes around again and tries to embrace Tomas but he still remains indifferent. Then a woman comes to tell that Jonas had committed suicide with a shotgun. Tomas goes to the site of the body and then leaves with Marta. Back at Martas school house, she chastises him for not giving her attention and breaks into phony tears. Then, in a moment of truth and frustration, he reveals how sickened he was by her rash and how the only woman he loved was his wife and she could never possibly fill that void. Then her tears are real.Marta is crushed but agrees to take Tomas to Jonas' home. Tomas goes to the house of Jonas to inform his wife of her passing. She breaks down and Tomas offers a feeble attempt of counsel and leaves. Then, Marta and Tomas go to the second church to perform a 3'O clock service but the only people there are his Algot, a sexton, and Frederik the organist. Algot as a character is a contrast to Tomas because he is disfigured and yet has a more solid foundation of faith than that of Tomas. Algot talks to Tomas about the emphasis of the brief, physical punishment of Christ and its relevance when the more hurtful thing was that nobody understood Christs message and his followers who abandoned him. He asks "Wasn't God's Silence worse?" to which Tomas replies "Yes." This time, no one has shown up to the church and Algot asks if they should perform the service. But, Marta is there and the film ends at the beginning of the service. The film is an interesting one because it questions those who are in the position to provide people with counsel about there faith. Throughout the course of the film it becomes clear that Tomas is not fit to provide counsel to anyone because he has lost his faith. Like most of Bergman's films, it is bleak in tone and the subject matter is very taken very seriously. The use of black and white and simple set design reflect the despair that affects the principal characters and plot of the film. I feel sorry for the character of Tomas because of his confusion and depression after having faith in a God who does not communicate and brought him much sadness by taking his wife. I believe the films is an extension of Bergmans own doubt in his faith and also a critique of the state of the church in Sweden at the time. Technically, I found the film great and Berman is masterful in the way he constructs characters, relationships and scenes in a realistic, simple and dramatic manner. Though I am not a man of faith, I can understand a faithful mans point of view and could understand both the depressed, confused contradiction of Tomas and the reason for Bergman to make this film in order to explore his own doubts of faith and call others to do the same.

As usual, 'Nattvardsgästerna' (aka 'Winter Light') is your typical Ingmar Bergman film. Slow, monotonous and dialogue-heavy to a fault, yet rewarding for the patient (or, better yet, the VERY patient) viewer by means of its highly intelligent, even thought-provoking discussions it creates.I'm no fan of Bergman, that is to be said. He is a bit TOO slow and dull, to the point I usually watch his films on fast forward. And the 'reward', while good, rarely is worthy of sitting through over an hour of intense monotony.Yet, when tackling religious themes, I find Bergman to be much more bearable. This, 'Det sjunde inseglet' (aka 'The Seventh Seal') and 'Jungfrukällan' ('The Virgin Spring') are the only ones I've seen yet that were truly remarkable. His main characters are religious, yet face belief-shattering situations that make them question; he questions religion, yet never flat-out attacks or dismisses it but leaves it in a way the viewer is to decide. Just like his own struggle with faith in real life.In here, he does so by means of a priest (Gunnar Björnstrand) who is losing his faith. His confrontation with a depressed farmer (Max von Sydow), who tries to turn to the faith to quench his worries, as well as his romance with an atheist teacher (Ingrid Thulin) pave way for his increasing doubts. The ending dialogue with the church's sexton, in special, is brilliant and one of my favorite moments.The acting is great all-around. Not only do they rend their speeches (both dialogue and monologues) impeccably, they all convey the seriousness and the grim mood of their characters and situations. The fact they manage to keep things slow and monotonous (i.e..: no one goes out of their way to steal the show, or overact) is proof of their success.If one can get past the boredom of his films, Ingmar Bergman was undoubtedly a great director. But that is exactly the problem: cinema is supposed, first of all, to be a means of entertainment. How can you entertain with such a slow, monotone film? Even if you are trying to relay a message, to generate a thought-provoking reflection, how are you supposed to reach for the casual viewer, how are you supposed to make a wider audience interested in your work? This is a problem Bergman, as well as most 'art' directors, have always ignored.While good, and far more entertaining than Bergman's usual, 'Nattvardsgästerna' still suffers from the same faults as his entire filmography. Still, being both bearable and rewarding, this is one of his best.

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.