An Ingmar Bergman movie of enormous suffering, spiritual and physical, set in a bleak provincial Swedish winter. A faithless pastor can extend no consolation to his flock, specifically to the lonely schoolteacher who adores him and to the simple fisherman who lives in consuming dread of what the Chinese will do with their newly invented atom bomb. Perhaps in Ingrid Thulin's head-on monologue the suffering finally becomes insufferable -- as in a TV aspirin ad. But in general the movie's austere beauty, in lifeless countryside and comfortless dwellings, overwhelms its -- and the viewer's -- temptation to moan. With Gunnar Bjornstrand and Max Von Sydow; photographed by Sven Nykvist. (1962) — Duncan Shepherd
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