The true meaning of Stanley Kubrick's 'Lolita'

An analysis of Stanley Kubrick's film 'Lolita'

Stanley Kubrick's film 'Lolita' is about what all of us face as humans. We are all born as animals inclined to follow our desires and emotions. We are taught to suppress our desires and emotions with intelligence, morality, and restraint In short, we are taught to be civilized; however, civilized behavior is not natural or easy for us because it is in conflict with what we really are. This is why no matter how civilized we become we sometimes find ourselves in situations where our emotions or biological urges such as our desire to be loved or accepted, our lusts, anger, fear, depression, jealousies, etc., control us and make us do things that we, in our “right minds,” know are counterproductive to our health, happiness, and the happiness of others. For example:

• You speak your mind even at the expense and hurt of others
• You girlfriend or boyfriend dumps you and you stop eating or you eat too much or contemplate hurting yourself
• Someone cuts in front of you in traffic and you get mad and flip the middle finger
• You are afraid of leaving a job you hate or getting out of a bad relationship
• You have an affair
• You are expecting and you choose to smoke anyway
• You “roll with your emotions”
• You fall in love too fast
• You are overweight, the doctor tells you you’re diabetic, and yet you overeat, especially on Thanksgiving
• You know that he is cheating, yet you can't leave him because you love him

From the day we are born to the day that we die, we are in a constant war with ourselves, with what we would like to be and what we are born to be. Even the life of Jesus Christ exemplified this struggle of principle against the temptations of the flesh.

Humbert is the stereotypical idea of a civilized man: he's disciplined and well-educated; he's British and well-read; he has an English accent. His expertise in translating French poetry reflects his transformation from civilized man to a creature driven by its urges. The French language, which is his specialty, is associated with an emotion that has nothing to do with thinking. 

Lolita is the opposite of Humbert. She’s lives by her appetites, is undisciplined, and primitive relative to Humbert in intelligence. But from the start of the film, she is aware of her power over him and his superior intellect. To symbolize the subordination of intellect to nature, Humbert gives up his teaching position at Beardsley college to pursue his relationship with Lolita.

What’s in a name?

Throughout the film, the names of characters and places play a part in the overall function of the plot: 

• Ms. Haze is immature and confused about her role as a mother to a daughter she views as a rival, starting with Clare Quilty whom she had an affair with and whom Lolita has a crush on, then with Humbert who is infatuated with Lolita herself

• Lolita whose name is French which happens to be type of poetry Humbert likes to read

• Mr. Swine, the manager of the 1st hotel where Humbert and Lolita share the same room

• Clare Quilty whose last name hints at the many identities he assumes throughout the film

• Lolita’s friend Mona whose name is a sexual connotation just by the sound of it

• Ms. Le Bone

• Dick, Lolita’s husband

• Camp Climax

• etc.

Also, Lolita’s nickname in the film is Lo. Considering the fact that all names in this film calls attention to something in each character, the significance of the nickname isn’t random. Lo suggests Lolita’s intellectual development in relation to her potential. All of her decisions come from the way that she feels, her lack of a mature role-model, and a lack of education. In other words, Lo is low because she is deprived of what she needs to develop emotionally, socially, and intellectually. Her mother sees her as a woman and a rival and Humbert takes her out of school to keep her from seeing other boys her age. Lo, in an evolutionary sense, fits the character or any person deprived of the structure, experiences, and knowledge that separates man from animal. Throughout the film, Lolita is taken backwards in development. First, she is deprived of a mature mother to guide her to womanhood; she is treated as an object of desire by Humbert; he, then, deprives her of developing socially by keeping her away from other kids her age; finally, he takes her out of school completely. By the end of the film, both Quilty and Humbert have disappointed her to where she settles for Dick, her husband who also represents his own namesake.

“French Translator”

Humbert’s specialty in translating French poetry to English refers to how he sees Lolita and also to Lolita’s own confusion about what she is. To translate something is to convert or change from one thing to another. This is what Humbert attempts throughout the film with Lolita. Even though he is attracted to her for being the child she is, he also strives throughout the film to make her behave like a woman. Then, he tries reading poetry to her which she thinks is corny. Then, he tries to get her interested in the literature he reads. Then, tries to get her to stay in with him all day instead of participating in activities common with girls her age. Most importantly, he tries to suppress her natural attraction for other men. Lolita’s confusion starts with her own identity in relation to her mother who is just as immature as she is; this confusion then overlaps into her relationship with Humbert and meeting his expectations to act like a grown woman even though she still has the normal needs of girls her age such as being with her peers and having fun.

'Lolita': plot summary

This is a summary of Stanley Kubrick's 1962 film 'Lolita'. 

Lolita is 1962 Comedy/Drama directed by Stanley Kubrick and starring James Mason as a middle-aged man named Humbert Humbert who becomes obsessed with a 13 year old girl named Lolita played by Sue Lyons. The film is based on the book of the same title by Russian author Vladimir Nabokov who also wrote the script. The film’s obvious theme of pedophilia limited the extent to which Kubrick could explore the erotic nature of the relationship between Humbert and Lolita, restrictions that Kubrick would cite later and claim that he would never have made the film had he known how much the censorship board would restrict his vision for Nabokov’s story. Nevertheless, the restrictions imposed on the film probably did more for its lasting appeal to and influence on subsequent generations because of what it left out which has more impact on the imagination. If Kubrick had been able to do this film the way he wanted to do it, this element would have overshadowed the other themes in the film. Other actors of note in this film are Shelley Winters as Lolita’s mother Charlotte Haze and Peter Sellers as Playwright Clare Quilty. 

In proportion to its budget of 2 million dollars, Lolita was a box office success earning more than 9 million dollars. The film earned a nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay by Nabokov (1962) and won a Golden Globe for Best Promising Newcomer (Sue Lyons). 

Plot

The opening titles show Humbert’s hands painting Lolita’s toenails. The film begins with Humbert driving to Clare Quilty’s mansion to kill him for stealing Lolita. The rooms are full of junk. Humbert asks Quilty to identify himself but Quilty challenges him to a game of ping pong. Humbert puts on gloves and asks Quilty if he remembers a girl named Delores Haze as he draws a pistol. Quilty jokes as though unaware of the danger he is in. 

Humbert asks Quilty if he understands the situation, then hands him a letter explaining why he is shooting him. Quilty starts to read it but Humbert snatches it away. Quilty—still acting goofy— challenges Humbert to a boxing match; Humbert shoots Quilty’s hand. Quilty seems surprised and runs to the piano before making a break for the staircase. 

Humbert shoots him in the leg. Quilty is still blabbering nonsense. Humbert follows him up the stairs. Quilty hides behind a painting and Humbert fires multiple shots through the painting. 

Four years earlier (Humbert narrates)

He’d made some English translations of French poetry and had been invited to a professorship at Beardsley College, Ohio in the fall. Some friends referred him to a home in Ramsdale, New Hampshire where he could stay the summer. The woman of the house gives him a tour. She also happens chair a book committee and once had a playwright named Clare Quilty as a guest speaker. She shows him the artwork in her bedroom and asks him if he is married; he says no. Her dead husband, Harold, worked in insurance and she shows him the urn containing his ashes. Humbert is not impressed by her or her home and, out of politeness, asks for her number so that he can think it over. She shows him her garden and when she opens the doors, Lolita is stretched out on the lawn reading a book. She pulls the lollipop out of her mouth and peeks over her sunglasses. Humbert is transfixed. He asks when he can move in. Ms. Haze asks him what changed his mind. Her cherry pies, he says. 

Montage:

• Humbert, Charlotte and Lolita go to a drive-in to see the Mummy. At a scary part, Lolita instinctively squeezes his hand, he squeezes hers, and Charlotte squeezes Lolitas’ hand thinking it is his
• Humbert and Charlotte are playing chess and he’s positioned to take her queen. Lolita interrupts and kisses them goodnight
• Lolita hola-hooping as he watches her with a smile

They attend a summer dance at Lolita’s school. She introduces a young man named Kenny to Charlotte and Humbert. Charlotte tells Humbert that Kenny may ask Lolita to go steady tonight. Humbert is disappointed. Jean and John greet Charlotte and Humbert. Their daughter, Mona, and Lolita are close friends. John and Charlotte leave to go dance. 

Jean tells Humbert that Charlotte has a glow that she’s never had before. She adds that she and John are very broad-minded. They are sending Mona to Camp Climax. Humbert is distracted but by Lolita and Kenny who are dancing together. Playwright Clare Quilty and a sexy woman are dancing and when Charlotte sees him she runs up to dance with him.  They talk afterwards and she whispers something in his ear. He asks about Lolita.

Charlotte finds Humbert in the balcony with a bird’s eye view of the Lolita and Kenny below. Later at home, Humbert voices concern over Charlotte allowing Lolita stay out late with Kenny. Charlotte puts on some music but Humbert doesn’t want to dance. He gives in, reluctantly. Lolita interrupts them. She didn’t like Mona’s party and left early. Humbert is pleased. 

He fixes her a sandwich with lots of mayonnaise the way she likes it. Lolita gets smart with Charlotte who sends her to bed. Charlotte calms down and wants to stay up but Humbert is tired and retires to bed. Charlotte sobs. 

Humbert writes in his diary about Lolita. Charlotte fusses with Lolita about her eating habits and her messy room. She sends Lolita up to Humbert’s room with a tray of food. There, she eats all of his bacon and starts on his toast. He puts his diary away and when she asks what’s in it he tells her poetry. He reads a verse from a book by Edgar Allen Poe but she thinks it is corny. She whispers something in his ear. Then, she hand-feeds him his omelet. Charlotte tells Lolita to come downstairs and reprimands her for disturbing Humbert. 

Charlotte surprises Humbert with good news;  she’s sending Lolita away to Camp Climax! Humbert cries all that night and wakes up in time to look out his window and see Lolita putting her luggage in the car. She runs upstairs to kiss him and tell him that she will miss him. After she leaves, the maid brings him a letter from Charlotte proposing marriage. Humbert laughs. 

They get married and Charlotte wants to be with him constantly. He has to lock himself in the bathroom to write in his diary. He admits to feeling some remorse for having to sneak around Charlotte to be near Lolita. Charlotte knocks on the door for him to come out. He asks for a cup of coffee and when she leaves he sneaks out the bathroom with his diary. She appears with his coffee as he is putting it in his desk drawer. 

She asks him if he believes in God. “Does God believe in me?” he says ironically.

She shows him Harold’s gun and threatens to kill herself if he doesn’t believe in God. He sweet-talks her to put the gun down. She tells him that she has decided to rent Lolita’s room and send her straight to boarding school and then straight to college. Humbert is devastated. The phone rings and Charlotte answers it. It’s Lolita, she says and Humbert becomes alert. 

Lolita lost her new sweater and also wants to thank Humbert for sending her candy. Charlotte reprimands Humbert for doing this and he complains of her bossiness causing Charlotte to leave the bedroom. 

Humbert picks up Harry’s gun. Moments ago, she told him that the pistol wasn't loaded; it was! If, in playing a game with her, he shot her it would seem like an accident. The perfect murder! But at the last moment his conscience bothers him and he doesn’t go through with it. He hears water running but she isn’t in the bathroom. He finds her in his room, at his desk, reading his diary! She hits him with it. He tries to explain but she locks herself in the bedroom. He goes downstairs to fix them a drink. 

She clutches the urn containing Harold’s ashes. Meanwhile, Humbert is downstairs mixing their drinks and piecing together his alibi for what she read in his diary. The phone rings and he answers it. Someone tells him that Charlotte has been hit by a car. Humbert runs outside and sees his wife in the streets. The driver of the car that hit her told him that she ran in front of his car. 

Jean and John stop by to console Humbert while he is taking a bath. He says nothing so they assume he is in shock. They recall fond memories of Charlotte and then see the pistol laying on his towel. They try to talk him out of killing himself. John tells him that Charlotte had Nephritis (a bad kidney) and didn’t have long to live anyway.  Mr. Beale, the father of the man who drove the car that struck Charlotte, comes in the bathroom apologizing and insisting that his son isn’t responsible for Charlotte’s death. Humbert says nothing. Mr. Beale offers to pay for Charlotte’s funeral.

Humbert drives up to Camp Climax to get Lolita. She asks about her mother and he says that she is sick and in the hospital. He missed Lolita over the summer but she didn’t miss him and had been unfaithful. 

Quilty and his lady-friend are in a hotel chatting with Mr. Swine and making veiled references to sex. Humbert and Lolita arrive at this same hotel later. The hotel is overbooked because of the Police convention and Humbert and Lolita are rented a 1 bed suite. Humbert leaves Lolita in the room to go get a cot for himself to sleep on. He goes out on the patio and Clare Quilty is there with his back turned to hide his identity. He pretends to be a cop and asks Humbert about Lolita and the single-bed in the room they are sharing.

Later, the Black porter brings the cot up to Humbert’s room and they set it up without waking Lolita. But when porter leaves, Humbert tries to sneak in bed with Lolita but she wakes up and he ends up sleeping on the cot. She wakes him up the next morning and they talk about the games she’d learned at Camp Climax. She shows him the game that she played with a boy named Roy who worked there.  

On the road, he tells her that they won’t make it to Leppingsville because of their late start. She wants to call her mother and keeps bugging him until he tells her her mother is dead. Lolita laughs at first until he tells her again.

She pours out her grief in their motel room. Humbert is sitting by her dressed in black. They will be happy, he says, and begs her to stop crying. They’ll find a new home at Beardsley. She makes him promise not to leave her and he does. 

Humbert completes his 2nd semester at Beardsley. At home, he paints her toenails and chides her for staying out late; school lets out at 3 but she didn’t arrive home until 6. He was driving his car and saw her and Michelle in an ice cream parlor with 2 boys. Michelle looks at him funny and he doesn’t want Lolita seeing her so much.

Lolita wants to be in the school play which Clare Quilty co-wrote. Humbert doesn’t like this idea because there are boys in the play. They argue.

He arrives home one day to find the high school psychologist already waiting. Clare Quilty has taken the identity of Dr. Zemph and wants to know if any one has schooled Lolita on the facts of life. He is concerned about Lolita’s behavior and believes that she is suffering from acute suppression of her libido. He wants the district psychologist with the board of education to visit Humbert’s home to investigate.

Humbert is against this idea, however, and Dr. Zemph tells him to let Lolita take part in more school activities, particularly, the school play; this would discourage his colleagues from getting involved. Humber goes along with Dr. Zemph’s suggestion.

Play:

Humbert watches the play from backstage. The drama teacher chats with him about Lolita. The attractive woman commends him on suspending Lolita’s piano lessons the past 4 weeks. Humbert is upset and surprised at hearing this.

He takes Lolita home and demands to know where she was when she was supposed to be taking her piano lessons. She tells him that she had been taking extra rehearsals for the play. Humbert accuses her of lying and wants to take her out of school and leave Beardsley tonight. Besides, she can get a much better education with him.

She objects and her outburst brings a neighbor named Ms. LeBone over claiming that she can hear everything and that the other neighbors are starting to think about him and Lolita. Lolita leaves while Humbert and Ms. LeBone are talking. 

Humbert sees Lolita leaving a phone booth and accuses her of talking to a boy but she was actually trying to call him to let him know that he’s right about her leaving school. Besides, she hates that school and the play anyhow. Humbert is happy hearing her say this. They leave Beardsley. 

He notices a car following them in his rear view mirror. He stops at a gas station. Looking out the bathroom window, he sees Lolita talking to a man in a car and asks her what the man said to her.  They argue. A tire blows out and as they are stopped, Humbert sees a car stop behind them and thinks it’s the police. He complains about pain in his left arm and Lolita tells him she believes that he’s having a heart attack. The car behind them turns around and drives away. 

Lolita doesn’t feel well and believes that she’s coming down with something. Humbert takes her to the hospital and leaves her overnight. He visits her the next day to give her some books. She is feeling better but he becomes suspicious when he finds a pair of sunglasses and love letters on her tray; the letters belong to the nurse who takes them and leaves the room. Humbert wants to take Lolita home but the doctor wants her to stay in the hospital another 48 hours. The nurse sticks her head in the room to ask Humbert to move his car to the visitor’s parking lot. Humbert leaves. 

The telephone wakes Humbert up in his hotel room. Clare Quilty posing as a cop asks Humbert if he has seen a psychiatrist. Quilty requests a report on Humbert’s sex life. Humbert hangs up the phone. His face is clammy; his cold is getting worse. 

The next morning he stops by the hospital to get Lolita but she’s already gone. He doesn’t believe the nurse and becomes irate. The staff wrestle him to the floor and call for the straitjacket. They tell him that her uncle came to pick her up. He calms down when they threaten to call the police. They pick him up and escort him from the hospital. 

3 years later: 

Lolita types Humbert a letter calling him Dad. She’s now married and expecting. She and Dick, her husband, need some money to get out of debt. 

Humbert drives to see Lolita and Dick. She answers the door in a maternity blouse and offers him coffee and a drink but he refuses. Dick thinks Humbert is her stepfather. They met a year ago when she worked as a waitress. Humbert wants to know who took her from him. She won’t say at first but eventually gives in— it was Clare Quilty! 

She’d had a crush on Quilty for a long time going back to when he dated her mother. She wanted to be in the play at Beardsley because she wanted to be near Clare who wrote the play; she really loved him. And when she skipped piano lessons, she was actually with him. He took her from the hospital to a dude ranch in New Mexico to make an “art” movie and when she refused to participate he kicked her out. 

Humbert meets Dick who was working on the garage. He and Lolita sit together on the bed, she between his legs, both drinking a beer. They tell Humbert they plan to move to Alaska. Alaska is a great place to raise their children. Dick calls Humbert Dad and leaves. 

Humbert takes Lolita to the door, pleading with her to run away with him but she won’t leave Dick for anything in the world. Humbert breaks down then gives her 13,000.00 with no strings attached. With Harold’s gun in his pocket, he leaves Lolita and drives to Clare Quilty’s mansion. The end. 

My analysis of Elia Kazan's 'On The Waterfront'

An analysis of 'On The Waterfront' starring Marlon Brando

On The Waterfront starring Marlon Brando is 1 of the greatest films of all time. Ex-boxer Terry Malloy could've been a contender, but after taking a dive, he winds up on the dock of a Brooklyn waterfront, a pariah for conspiring in the murder of Joey Doyle, a popular dockworker, who was going to testify against Johnny Friendly. Terry is set up in a cushy job, all he has to do is tell Johnny who the rats are. But when Terry falls in love with the sister of the man he helped kill, he is forced to make a decision that pits him against his own brother, Charlie The Gent, in one of the greatest acting scenes ever filmed!

The iconic cab scene involving Rod Steiger and Marlon Brando is enough by itself to consider this as one of the best films ever made. Winner of 8 Oscars and also starring Lee J. Cobb, Fred Gwynne (The Munsters), Karl Malden, and a very young, very sweet Eva Marie Saint in her acting debut, Waterfront is a film for the ages, a prime example of great casting and acting, and extraordinary direction from Elia Kazan who, just 1 year later, put out another iconic film, East of Eden starring the late great James Dean.

Ingmar Bergman's 'Cries and Whispers': Scene Analysis

A scene analysis of 'Cries And Whispers' directed by Ingmar Bergman

Ingmar Bergman's 'Cries and Whispers' is a film about people who are incapable of expressing their feelings for one another. Here is a breakdown of scenes from the movie.

Title 1 (1:23-9:50) (8:27) Stop after Anna starts a fire

Summary

The opening scene shows us the outside of the 19th century manor—the mists, the grounds. Then the inside of the manor where we see clocks striking off seconds. Then, we see Maria played by Liv Ullman asleep outside of the room of her dying sister Agnes played by Harriet Andersson. Harriet awakens and draws the curtains of a window to let the light in. Then she sits to write in her journal that she is in pain and that her sisters are taking turns watching her. Karin relieves Maria. Agnes slept peacefully and didn’t disturb Maria’s sleep. 

Analysis

Death pervades the 1st scene: the outside of the manor is cold and shrouded in mists; the inside of the house is quiet and empty marked by the ticking of many clocks coinciding with Agnes’ imminent death; then we see the pale white face of Agnes with her eyes closed and hear her struggling to breathe in time with the clocks. We see her sister Maria in separate room, separate from each other as we are born alone and die alone. Agnes then opens the window to show a vast, empty landscape marked by autumn and dying. Then we meet the principal characters: Anna, the maid and sisters Karin and Maria. Anna’s function in the film is foreshadowed by Karin telling her to start a fire. Throughout the film, Anna is Agnes’ sole comfort. 

Red is also a pervasive motif the film associates with the pain and the burden of silence which Agnes—who acts as a Christ-like symbol in the film—bears for everyone in the film. 

footnote (s): from wikipedia

Title 2 (12:31-31:20) (18:36) Stop after Joakim attempts suicide

Summary

The scent of a rose brings back painful memories for Agnes. Of the parties they had every twelfth night and how her beautiful mother scolded her yet played and laughed with her sisters. Of how sad and lonely her mother looked walking alone and of how her mother sat alone in the drawing room. 

The doctor stops by to check Agnes. As he is leaving, Maria seduces him. But the doctor resists her and leaves. Maria hears whispers and recalls an affair she had with the doctor several years earlier. She remembers how her husband Joakim tried unsuccessfully to kill himself because of her unfaithfulness. 

Analysis

As a child, Agnes’ relationship with her mother is distant but as a result of her mother’s indifference Agnes’  is able to empathize with her mother’s loneliness and isolation.  The shots of the mother walking alone against the vastness of the estate illustrates her loneliness and isolation.

The theme of warmth is expressed by the manner in which the doctor treats Agnes, placing his hands on her stomach, his ear against her chest,  and touching her face until she clasps his hands and brings them to her chest, holding them there. This scene captures the essence of what this film is about. It is not that we, as humans, won’t suffer in this life, it is having someone there to share our sufferings with. The doctor cannot help Agnes but his closeness and warmth comforts her. Likewise, the maid Anna cannot remove Agnes’ pain but she is there throughout the film to share her warmth and provide comfort despite the fact that death is inevitable for all of us.

This scene ends with Maria attempting to seduce the doctor. In comparison with the doctor and Agnes moments before, Maria also seeks a kind of warmth from him, a flame she tries to rekindle from an affair they had once before.

In the flashback, the doctor shows Maria herself in a mirror, reading the lines in her face like sentences in a book: she is beautiful, selfish, hungry, artificial, and indifferent. In other words, her inner self is becoming more obvious with age—powerful scene! Her indifference and selfishness is what drives her husband to try to kill himself. 

But there’s a poetic moment before his attempted suicide where he presses his palm gently against his wife’s face and then his daughter’s face as if to ask where her innocence has gone—great direction by Bergman!

Title 3 (42:15-101:38) (19:23) Stop after Karin smears blood on her face.

Summary

Karin dies and relatives stop by to pay their respects. The priest does the eulogy and afterwards admits that he and Karin often talked and that her faith was greater than his. Some years later, Karin and her husband stayed for some months at the manor. They were both pursuing diplomatic careers and their relationship was cold and formal. Once as they were having supper,  sitting at opposite ends of a long table, Frederik asked her to provide him company and she said no. She asked him, reluctantly, if he wanted coffee or if wanted to go to bed and he said he wanted to go to bed and, simultaneously as he said this, a wineglass shattered and spilled red wine on the white tablecloth. He got up and told her he’d be in the bedroom waiting on her. When he left, she picked up one of the broken pieces of glass and kept it.

Undressing and preparing for bed, Karin used the piece of glass she kept on her private parts. Then she went in the bedroom, got in the bed and showed him what she did to herself and how far she would go to avoid intimacy with him.

Analysis

The eulogy by the priest sums up Agnes’ role in the film: 

“Should it be that you gathered up our suffering in agony into your body. Should it be that you bore with you this hardship through death. Should it be that you meet with God as you come to that other land. Should it be that you find His countenance turned toward you then. Should it be that you know the language to speak so this God may hear and understand…”

Agnes’ cries spoke for everyone’s inability to express their feelings and pain. In one of the rare instances of openness in the film, the priest confesses to his lack of faith in comparison to Agnes. After the eulogy, whispers take Karin back to when she and Fredrik lived in the manor and the extreme she went to to avoid intimacy with him. Their marriage was struck out of convenience, not love. This scene shows the emotional isolation of Karin’s character and her inability to be intimate with anyone, even her husband. 

Title 4 (1:14:21-1:24:20) (9:59) Stop after red fade out following Anna cradling Agnes in bed

Summary

Though Agnes is dead, her body remains in the house and in the bed where she died. Anna, Karin, and Maria are in the next room. Whispers awaken Anna but Karin and Maria don’t hear them. The whispers draw Anna into Agnes’ room where Agnes, still in bed, has tears running down her face. She asks Anna to get Karin who confesses her hatred and refuses to comfort her dead sister. Agnes, then, asks Anna to get Maria who also refuses to give her comfort, flying out the room screaming. Agnes comforts Anna.

Analysis

In this supernatural scene, both sisters take off their masks and reveal their true feelings for Agnes. Karin returns from the dead to ask for her sisters’ comfort but is denied by both. As children Karin and Maria were favored by their mother over Agnes who was isolated and, as a result could empathize with her mother’s loneliness. Their mother only showed Karin and Maria the mask of happiness and indifference and never showed them her real face, the loneliness and isolation she felt which Agnes saw. In lying to Maria and Karin in this way, their mother hurt them by only letting them see the good side of life and not the not so good side of life that would have helped them develop empathy for others. She also taught them to withhold their feelings instead of expressing them. Maria and Karin share their mother’s essence which is why Agnes loves them so much and also, like their mothers, both women provide no comfort or warmth to Agnes. 

But Anna, who suffers quietly under those who look down on her, is able to comfort and relate to Agnes’ loneliness. This scene ends with the most iconic image from the film as Anna uses the warmth of her partly naked body to warm Agnes. 

Title 5 (1:28:40-end)

Summary

After the funeral, Anna reads from Agnes’ diary recalling an autumn day when the sisters strolled the grounds. Agnes recalls the time as a happy one in which she feels very content and close to her sisters. 

Analysis

This scene is crucial to understanding Maria and Karin and why they refuse to comfort Agnes. In a flashback earlier in the film, Agnes recounts how their mother hid her true feelings from Maria and Karin whom she bred —without knowing it—to be insensitive and selfish. Therefore, the reason they seem so happy and together in this flashback is because Agnes is in good health. But it is when Agnes’ health takes a turn for the worse do Karin and Maria show their selfishness and insensitivity—their true faces. The sisters are typical of ‘fair weather’ friends—those who come around when you are OK but avoid you when you need them. This is why both women shun Agnes when she comes back from the dead and asks for warmth. In hiding her true feelings from Maria and Karin, their mother deprived them of developing humanity and empathy that would have enabled them to comfort Agnes. Anna can comfort Agnes because like Agnes, she is treated like an outsider and she also lost her daughter to an illness.

An examination of themes from Ingmar Bergman's film 'Cries and Whispers'

Cries and Whispers

Cries and Whispers is a film about how we are all existentially alone in our feelings, the need for an emotional outlet, and the need we all have for human comfort. This 1972 film is by Swedish director Ingmar Bergman starring Liv Ullmann as Maria; Harriet Andersson as Agnes; Ingrid Thulin as Karin; Erland Josephson as the Doctor and Kari Sylwan as Anna. The film received 5 Academy Award nominations, winning in the category of Best Cinematography for Sven Nykvist.  Although the film made $1,500.00 it was considered a commercial success being made for only $400,000.00. The film takes place in a mansion in the late 19th century and focuses on 3 sisters, 1 of whom is dying of cancer. The main theme of the film is how unexpressed feelings often express themselves in destructive ways. The metaphor of this theme is Agnes whose cries are contrasted with the silence of her 2 sisters who keep their own pain bottled up. Another crucial theme in the film is warmth, represented by the maid Anna who provides the film’s human element and contrast to other members of the cast, especially sisters Karin and Maria who are both cold and distant. Another theme explored in the film is redemption. Symbolically, Agnes is Christ bearing the sins and suffering of her sisters, giving her voice to the pain they feel but are incapable of expressing themselves. 

Isolation and suffering

Isolation

Isolation is a universal condition in this film. Agnes appears to be the main character this condition applies to but she isn’t because of their maid, Anna, who is always there to comfort her when she cries out. It is Agnes’ mother and 2 sisters who have no comfort and who are isolated and incapable of expressing their pain and feelings. This film is about existential loneliness, the silences, and “tissues” that prevent us from touching each other. Though there is pain and unhappiness in their lives, none of the film’s characters are able to share their pain with each other nor do they cry out for help like Agnes whose cries for help are answered by Anna. Karin has no one to share her feelings with; Maria is too selfish and Frederik, her husband, is too insensitive. Therefore, Karin expresses her pain by mutilating her private parts. Joakim, also, has no one to share the pain caused by his cheating wife and attempts suicide. The sisters’ mother has no one to share her loneliness with except Agnes whom she neglected. But it is because of this isolation and neglect that Agnes is able to relate to her mother. Like Agnes, the servant Anna, who lost her daughter to an illness, knows also what it’s like to feel lonely and isolated which is why she can relate to Agnes. 

Suffering

Suffering is another universal condition in the film in which Karin and Maria are contrasted against Agnes and Anna. Karin and Maria were favored by their mother and in the context of this theme of suffering never experienced any real suffering or loneliness that would have given them empathy. Their callousness towards each other, their sister, Anna and their husbands are consistent throughout the film. Anna and Agnes, on the other hand, have suffered in ways that made them sensitive to others’ suffering. This is why Agnes relates better than her sisters to their mother even though her mother neglects her. Agnes' suffering in isolation and loneliness helps her understand her mother’s isolation and loneliness. Anna suffers quietly as a maidservant among employers who look down on her. This and the death of her ill daughter makes her able to comfort and relate to Agnes’ pain. 

Warmth

Anna is the only person who expresses warmth in the film. This is beautifully shown when she opens her blouse to press Agnes’ head on her breast. This is also suggested when Karin tells the maid to start a fire. By contrast, Karin and Maria are cold to their sister, Anna, their husbands, and towards each other. 

Maria uses her charms for advantage and deception. She attempts to use these false charms to deceive her dead sister but when Agnes pulls her down for a kiss, the real Maria comes out and she runs out of the room leaving her dead sister to Anna’s care.

By not receiving any warmth herself, Karin is unable to provide any to her husband.

Lies

Karins' and Marias’ relationships with their husbands and each other are based on lies. The doctor points this out in the scene where he “reads”— like sentences— Maria’s face  and characterizing the lines in it as artifice, deceit, coldness, unconcern, and selfishness. In a scene late in the film, she shares an intimate moment with Karin where they appear to open up to each other. Later, however, Karin reminds Maria of this conversation and Maria smiles coldly. Her marriage to Joakim— who knows about her affairs with the doctor— is a lie. When Anna comes back from the dead and pleads for Maria’s comfort she, after 1st pretending to care about Agnes’ pain, comes up with a superficial excuse to get out of comforting her dead sister. 

Karin’s lie is silently putting up with her husband because of his wealth and position while at the same time despising him and faking periods to get out of sleeping with him. 

Pain

Sin in this movie is synonymous with the color red which has a lot to do with the inside of the human body or the human heart. Here are some examples of how red as sin is used as a theme in this film: 

• The red interior of the mansion is Agnes’s body
• Red is also the color of the nightgown Maria wears to seduce the doctor into having sex
• The red fade ins and outs are always associated with pain of some sort like the flashback of Maria’s husband attempting to commit suicide because of her infidelity
• Red is also a metaphor associated with the self-mutilation scene involving Karin

Agnes in this film is the Christ figure, carrying the burden of sins for everyone through her own physical suffering. Karin, Maria, and Anna have on white dresses at the beginning of the film to show that they have been washed by Agnes bearing their pain for them.

Ingmar Bergman's 'Cries and Whispers': Plot Summary

This is a summary of Ingmar Bergman's 1972 film 'Cries and Whispers'.

Cries and Whispers is a film about how we are all isolated experiences and feelings and the need for expression and comfort we all need from each other. This 1972 film is by Swedish director Ingmar Bergman starring Liv Ullmann as Maria; Harriet Andersson as Agnes; Ingrid Thulin as Karin; Erland Josephson as the Doctor and Kari Sylwan as Anna. The film received 5 Academy Award nominations, winning in the category of Best Cinematography for Sven Nykvist.  Although the film made $1,500.00 it was considered a commercial success being made for only $400,000.00. The film takes place in a mansion in the late 19th century and is centered around 3 sisters, 1 of which is terminally Ill with cancer. The main theme of the film deals with existential isolation and how we communicate our feelings to each other. This is a plot summary covering the main points in the film. Thanks.

Cries and Whispers

The film begins with an exterior shot of the mansion enshrouded in mists followed by a red fade in taking us inside the mansion. Here we see a montage of various clocks throughout the house. A woman in a long white gown is asleep in a chair in a room that is completely red. Maria fell asleep while keeping vigil over her dying sister. Labored breathing comes from the next room. Agnes awakens in pain. She gets out of bed and drinks a glass of water, then walks over to a clock on the fireplace. She draws the curtains to let the light in. She walks to the door and smiles when she sees her sister, Maria, asleep in the chair. 

Agnes sits at a table and opens her journal. “I’m in pain,” she writes. “My sister’s Maria and Karin are taking turns staying up.”

She returns to bed. Anna, the maid, brings coffee to Maria and Karin. They ask  Anna if anything happened with Agnes overnight. Maria admits to dozing on her watch. Both sisters are dressed in white gowns. Maria leaves  and Karin begins her shift. She tells Anna to start a fire.

Maria is in bed looking at a dollhouse replica of the mansion. Meanwhile, Karin is at a table writing. She drops her pen to the floor. Elsewhere, Anna kneels to pray before her deceased daughter’s picture on a table. Anna offers thanks to God for waking her up and making her cheerful and also offers a prayer for her daughter. 

Agnes is up and walking around in her room. A bowl of white roses sit on a nearby table. She goes over to smell 1 and the perfume brings back childhood memories of their mother who passed away 20 years ago. 

Mother is the spitting image of Marie and likes to stroll the grounds around the estate alone. Aunt Olga often puts on plays for the children and mother spends these happy occasions with Maria and Karin. Agnes is treated like an outsider. 

Agnes hides behind the curtain to watch her mother in the red drawing room in her white dress. Mother spots young Agnes and calls her into the room. With a look of pity, Mother lays her hand against Agnes’ cheek and Agnes presses her small hand against her mother’s cheek. 

The present: 

Agnes is in bed and a sound awakens her; it is the doctor. He smiles and presses his ear against her chest. He puts his hand on her stomach and she brings it to her face. He lays his hand on her cheek and looks at her thoughtfully. Anna walks the doctor out of the room. He is about to leave when he hears a sound, a whisper, turning around to see Maria in a corner partly hidden in the shadows. He goes over and she takes his hand. They kiss passionately, then he breaks free and leaves her. The confidence in her face is shaken. The whispers begin and the scene fades to red and a flashback.

A few years earlier:

Maria and Joakim, her husband, stayed at the mansion when Agnes went to Italy for health reasons. One day, Anna’s daughter took ill and Maria summoned the doctor who lived in a nearby country town. Maria assisted him with a pan of water to wash his hands and asked him to stay for supper at which she poured twice as much wine into his glass as that of her own. Smiling and watching him eat, she told him how Agnes and Karin were doing, that they were traveling about in Italy, and that Agnes was better and had started back painting. The doctor smiled faintly. He asked her how Joakim was and she told him that Joakim had gone to town on business and wouldn’t be home until tomorrow. Anna, she told the doctor, had prepared the guest room for him to stay overnight because of the weather. She asked if there was another woman and he said, “Isn’t there always?” She smiled.

Later that night, the doctor was in his room in a chair by the fireplace reading a book when someone knocked on his door. He asked who it was and Maria came in wearing a red negligee. She tried to seduce him but he got up and summoned her to a mirror to see how she had changed:

“Now, your eyes cast quick, calculating side glances. You used to look ahead, straightforwardly openly unmasked. Your mouth has taken on an expression of discontent and hunger; it used to be so soft. Your complexion is pale now; you use makeup. Your fine, broad forehead now has four wrinkles above each brow. No, you can’t see it in this light. But you can in broad daylight. Do you know what caused those wrinkles? Indifference, Marie. And this fine line that runs from ear to chin is not as obvious anymore. But it is etched there by your easygoing, indolent ways. And there, by the bridge of your nose. Why do you sneer so often, Marie? You see it? You sneer too often. And look under your eyes, the sharp, scarcely noticeable lines of your impatience and your ennui.” 

They make love.

The next day, Anna served coffee to Joakim who had returned home. She told him that the doctor came to see Anna’s daughter last night and stayed overnight because of the weather. Joakim was reading a newspaper and looked up when she said this. He got up and went to her and pressed his palm gently against her cheek. She looked up at him and he looked down into her face reading all of the things in it that the doctor pointed out the night before. Then, he left the room. She went to his parlor and found him with a knife sticking out his chest.  Whispers from the past returned her to the present. 

It’s night and  Karin is reading a book. Suddenly, she hears whispers and asks Anna if she hears them too but Anna doesn’t hear anything except the wind and the clocks. Agnes moans and calls out to Anna. Anna climbs in bed with the dying woman. Agnes is in a lot of pain and Anna opens up her gown to let Agnes lay her head against her breast. Agnes’ breathing becomes thin. Fearfully, Anna wakes up Maria and Karin and they stay with Agnes all night. Agnes wakes up feeling better. They wash her and dress her in a fresh gown. Maria and Karin help her to a chair and comb her hair and give her a glass of water. 

They read to her while Anna changes the linen on the bed. Agnes drifts off and they leave the room. Agnes wakes up screaming and Anna calms her. Agnes settles back down to her pillow and turns her face to the light coming through the window. Her eyes close. She’s dead. 

Relatives in black stop by to pay their respect. A priest gives the eulogy over her: 

“Should it be that you gathered up our suffering in agony into your body. Should it be that you bore with you this hardship through death. Should it be that you meet with God as you come to that other land. Should it be that you find His countenance turned toward you then. Should it be that you know the language to speak so this God may hear and understand. Should it be that you then talk with this god and he hear you out. Should it be so pray for us. Agnes, dear child, please listen. Listen to what I have to tell you now. Pray for us who have been left behind on this miserable Earth. With the sky above us, grim and empty, lay your burden at God’s feet, the whole of all your suffering and plead with Him to pardon us. Plead with Him that He may free us of our anxiety and our weariness of our misgivings and fears. Plead with Him that He may make sense and meaning of our lives. Agnes, you who have borne your anguish and suffering for so long are most surely worthy of advocating our cause.”

Agnes was the priest’s confirmation child (she was Catholic) and her faith was stronger than his.  He leaves. Karin hears whispers.

Years earlier:

Karin and her husband were pursuing diplomatic careers and had once stayed at the manor for some months. One day as they were having supper, Fredrik asked his wife to keep him company. Karin said no. Karin asked him if he wanted coffee or if he wanted to go to bed. Go to bed, he told her, and a wineglass broke simultaneously. He finished his supper and his wine. Then he got up and went to bed and told her he’d be waiting for her. 

She stared at the broken glass on the table then gathered the pieces in a napkin and said, “It’s all a tissue of lies.” Anna helped Karin undress and when the maid left her, Karin produced a small piece of broken glass she saved. She sat in a chair, raised her gown, and used the broken glass on herself.

When she came into the bedroom her husband was waiting. She got in the bed, straddled it, and displayed the blood between them, smearing her face and lips with it.

The present:

Karin is at the table looking at documents concerning the estate. Maria wants to talk to her but Karin refuses to. Maria wants to be closer to her Karin now that Agnes is gone. Karin leaves the room but Maria stops her wanting to know whether she said anything hurtful.

Karin reads an entry out of Agnes’ diary: “I received the most wonderful gift anyone can receive in this life. A gift that is called many things: togetherness, companionship, relatedness, affection. I think this is what is called grace.”

Karin avoids Maria’s touch. Maria touches Karin’s face. They embrace. Karin pushes her off and asks to be left alone. 

Maria and Karin discuss the formalities of the estate over dinner, the division of furniture, china, etc., They send Anna out the room to discuss what to leave her. They decide to give her a trinket. Karin tells Marie that she things about committing suicide and that she hates her. Maria smiles. 

Karin goes to the next room and screams. Maria embraces her and they talk to each other in silence.

Red fade in:

Anna hears her daughter whispering. She goes into Agnes’ room and sees tears flowing from Agnes’ closed eyes. Agnes asks Anna if she’s afraid and Anna says no. Agnes asks for Karin. Anna summons Karin to the room and leaves. Karin recoils in horror. She tells Agnes she hates her and leaves. Agnes cries out for Maria and Anna summons her to the room. Agnes asks Maria to come closer and to give her her hand. Agnes, pulls Maria down and kisses her. Maria screams and flies out of the room. Anna comforts Agnes and tells the sisters that she will stay with her. 

Maria: “There’s my daughter I must think about. She must realize that also, my husband needs me.”

Karin: “Its pure morbidity; she’s already begun to rot. she has foul spots on her hand.”

Anna cradles Agnes.

Following Agnes’ funeral, Maria, Karin, and their husbands discuss the matter of the estate. Karin sends Anna out so they can discuss what to leave her for looking after Agnes for the past 12 years. Frederik wants her to have nothing. She is young and strong and has had it easy up to now. Karin insists on a trinket and Fredrik reluctantly goes along with the idea.  

Karin rings a tiny bell for Anna to come in. Joakim tells her she can stay until the end of the month. Karin offers her a memento of Agnes’ but when Anna refuses it Fredrik mocks her: “She’s trying to play a nice role,” he scoffs. 

Everyone leaves. Maria and Joakim scrape a few dollars together to give Anna. Karin stops Maria to ask her about their last conversation and what they said to each other. Karin reminds Maria of the touch she had given her that day but Maria plays dumb and acts cold. Karin is disappointed. Maria tries to kiss her but Karin rejects it.

Anna lights a candle and sets it by her daughter’s picture. She reads an entry from Agnes’ diary recalling the sisters walking together all wearing white dresses. They sit in a swing and Anna pushes them. Agnes admires Maria and Karin looking very content. The end.