Lying beneath the arches and mosaics of the moderately decorated architecture, the dusty half empty pews, and the flooded natural sun leaking down over the congregation is a clandestine struggle quietly waging war within us. In a Bergman film, this is merely setting the stage.

Winter Light is an example of a perfect film at least in the Bergman vocabulary sense. For a film designed almost in a theatrical concept for its minimalism, it remains largely cinematic and achieves a great deal over the course of a hour in real time and only an afternoon in film time. In the space between morning congregation and afternoon ceremonies, the lives of a small group of individuals is tested in the most…

"I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing." (John 15:5)

Second part of the auteur's trilogy dealing with man's relationship with God. It is literally impossible to relate with this masterpiece's protagonist unless you are a son of God. "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name." (John 1:12)

What is so absolutely accurate and brilliant about the movie is the fact that it states how agnostics, atheists, etc. lose their credibility in God based on the actions of humans, not…

I am going to ramble until I make sense of my thoughts on this:

It is no coincidence, I think, that the one person in this film to have a deeper understanding of Jesus and his own faith does so through open compassion. Algot, who is apparently physically disabled, dismisses the physical pain of Jesus in favor of the spiritual and emotional pain of being abandoned, citing it as the more severe form of pain suffered during the Passion. His insight into Jesus' suffering is in contrast to the faithless and broken Tomas, who has failed (in a manner that is, to me, a personally devastating manner) to reach out with compassion to anyone (in the course of the film).…

I watched this film two nights back, and I still haven’t a clue how I feel about it. I think there are several great scenes like when the priest reads the letter and when the bell and candle guy talked to the priest about the suffering of Christ. This film is definitely a film that people should watch because of the way it captures how someone wrestles with religion. There is something really interesting about the ending: the priest starts his service with what seems to me a stronger faith than the one he had at the beginning of the film, but he is only preaching to someone who doesn’t believe in God which is contrasted by the 8 or…

Just magnificent! Great to be able to watch it on the big screen. I was however rather tired entering the cinema, so I did have some difficulties focusing at times but it helped to have seen it before. Winter Light has some incredible performances by several actors, Gunnar Björnstrand, Ingrid Thulin, Gunnel Lindblom, Max von Sydow and Allan Edwall. Nykvist’s is also remarkable as always. There might not be a more dangerous subject than religion to study in any form of art, hence this and the complete trilogy is some of Bergman’s most daring work. But how does he succeed? How does he create such an obvious masterpiece with a study of such a dangerous subject? He does what any…