INGMAR BERGMAN
Winter Light
Presented here is an episode of the mainline CriterionCast podcast. I have been a regular contributer to this podcast for a couple of years, and have been honored to appear on a number of different episodes about individual films in the Criterion Collection.
Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:16:02 — 104.4MB)
This time on the podcast, Scott Nye, David Blakeslee, Trevor Berrett, and Arik Devens discuss Ingmar Bergman’s Winter Light .
“God, why hast thou forsaken me?” With Winter Light, Ingmar Bergman explores the search for redemption in a meaningless existence. Small-town pastor Tomas Ericsson (Gunnar Björnstrand) performs his duties mechanically before a dwindling congregation, including his stubbornly devoted lover, Märta (Ingrid Thulin). When he is asked to assuage a troubled parishioner’s (Max von Sydow) debilitating fear of nuclear annihilation, Tomas is terrified to find that he can provide nothing but his own doubt. The beautifully photographed Winter Light is an unsettling look at the human craving for personal validation in a world seemingly abandoned by God.