Winter Light

Winter Light (1963) takes place on a winter day in rural Sweden. Pastor Tomas conducts a service but no longer believes. Afterwards a fisherman comes to him, sleepless with fear of nuclear war, asking for an answer. Tomas has nothing to give him. The whole film runs across a few hours between midday and evening. Bergman stages it almost in real time and offers no escape in any scene. It is the middle film of his trilogy of faith, between Through a Glass Darkly and The Silence. Bergman spoke of it as among the work he valued most. The material comes directly from his life. His father was a pastor and as a child Bergman travelled with him to country churches; the empty church, the tiny congregation and the man performing a job he no longer believes in come from there. Gunnar Björnstrand plays the pastor, Ingrid Thulin the schoolteacher in love with him, Max von Sydow the fisherman. Sven Nykvist shot it, and the film looks entirely lit by daylight; the pallor of a winter day sets its whole register. It runs 80 minutes. Good for: Bergman, films about faith and its absence, and short tight structures. Less good for: it is cold and offers no consolation. There is effectively no plot; everything is talk and silence. What Tomas says to the schoolteacher is cruel, and unbearable for some viewers.