Narrating time toward death: Film analysis of Cries and Whispers (Viskningar och rop, Ingmar Bergman, 1972)

Abstract

The research is focused on the movie Cries and whispers (Viskningar och rop, Ingmar Bergman, 1972). Is developed following a hybrid methodology: in the first place, we will develop a narratological classification following the classical categories of, among others, Gaudreault, Jost and Gómez Tarín. In the second place, we will face a concrete textual and interpretative microanalysis of some major aesthetical aspects of the movie. The structure of the article will be composed by: a brief review of the previous bibliography, the methodological explanation, the concrete narrative analysis of the movie followed by the appropriate interpretation, and finally, the conclusions. At the same time, the narrative analysis will be focused on the next topics: the different narrators, the filmic strategies connected with the categories point-of-vieu and focalization, and the concrete spatial and temporal coordinates of the movie. The interpretation will connect several thematical and aesthetical marks -specifically, from The seventh seal (Del sjunde inseglet, 1957)-, showing some clear evolutions on Bergman’s style.