2. Winter Light (1962)
Everything sucks in Minister Tomas' life. His church has a congregation of about 3/4 people, he seriously doubts God's existence and on top of that he has a cold. Moreover, Jonas, one of his few parishioners has developed a deep depression over the state of nuclear weapons development in the world. Tomas talks to Jonas but can offer him little comfort - confessing to the poor man that he has lost his faith. Jonas kills himself. Tomas' atheistic ex-mistress sends him a letter berating him as a lover and a man. They have a bitter fight and he tells her she couldn't measure up to his late wife. He also has to inform Jonas' new wife that she is now a widow. At a 3pm service he gets into a theological debate with the church sexton about God's silence when Jesus called out for him on the cross. The sexton asks Tomas why bother with the service since there is no one here. Tomas says Marta is here and begins the service. One of Ingmar Bergman's most personal films, the plot basically plays out the Great Man's demons about his faith in God and his world view. A stark, black and white film with no music, Winter Light forces you to focus on the depressing themes of the film and leaves you pondering a whole heap of issues. It is a very good film, and highly rated by Bergman himself, but is so austere, it's not the kind of film that leaves you feeling "Wow! This is a really great film I want to watch over and over!". It's a masterpiece but you couldn't develop tender feelings towards it - it's simply too heavy going.