Click here to copy URL

Winter Light

Nattvardsgästerna (The Communicants)

1963

Ingmar Bergman

Ingrid Thulin, Max von Sydow, Gunnar Björnstrand, Gunnel Lindblom ...

7.9

4,479

Drama This is the second in Bergman's trilogy that explores religious faith and doubts in a visceral, visual, and provocative manner. On a cold winter's Sunday, the pastor of a small rural church, Tomas Ericsson, performs service for a tiny congregation; though he is suffering from a cold and a severe crisis of faith. After the service, he attempts to console a fisherman, Jonas Persson, who is tormented by anxiety, but Tomas can only speak ... [+]

	Author	Review
United States	Roger Ebert rogerebert.com	"[I] was awestruck by its bleak, courageous power (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 4)"	POS
United States	Bosley Crowther The New York Times	"Dour and chilly (...) [Bergman] has made a thoughtful, engrossing, shocking film."	POS
United States	Dave Kehr Chicago Reader	"Routine stuff from Ingmar Bergman (...) Much suffering, none of it very illuminating."	NEG
United States	Keith Uhlich Slant	"Bergman uses the subtle tenets of film comedy to strip down clichéd notions of love and faith to their bare essence (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 4)"	POS
United Kingdom	Empire	"An uncompromising picture of spiritual crisis, it commands respect for its boldness but is very hard going (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United Kingdom	Time Out	"Never a comfortable film, it's finely acted by a familiar Bergman ensemble, and the awesomely cold vistas form a perfect counterpoint to the spiritual freeze."	POS
United States	IndieWire	"'Winter Light' is as austere a film as he ever made, but within its formidable confines resonates an exquisitely observed story of haunting, internalized suffering."	POS

Return to movie

We encourage you to check the reviews' original sources. Intellectual property rights of these reviews belong to their authors and/or the correspondent media from which they have been extracted. If you'd like to help us to add more reviews to your favorite movies, just send us a message.