Kari Sylwan makes care convincing through physical closeness and quiet attention. Her Anna in Cries and Whispers is worth the distress of Bergman's film, even when the writing makes the differences between the women too tidy.
Fi1m perspective
In Cries and Whispers (1972), Kari Sylwan's Anna offers comfort through touch while the sisters struggle to offer tenderness. Sylwan makes that care feel practical, something one person can do for another. The physical closeness matters because Bergman's sisters are so painfully estranged. We were moved by Anna's sustained care for Agnes, because Sylwan gives the act of staying close a tenderness the family cannot manage. She is an important reason to endure a film whose severity we would not understate.
Sylwan came to Bergman's films from the Royal Swedish Ballet and Cullberg Ballet, and her physical expressiveness makes that background useful to the acting. Her screen career was brief; alongside it, she formed the dance duo Kari och Karin with Karin Thulin in 1972. She returned to Bergman as the uncredited Maria Jacobi in Face to Face (1976), her second and final screen role for him.
There is a limitation in Anna, and it belongs partly to Bergman. Liv Ullmann's Maria and Ingrid Thulin's Karin give the sisters a recognisable family awkwardness without asking us to excuse their coldness. Anna is placed so firmly on the side of compassion that the comparison can feel arranged in advance. Sylwan gives the maid quiet faith and maternal tenderness, but cannot entirely undo that division in the writing. Indeed, the more convincing her care becomes, the harder it is to ignore how conveniently Bergman has distributed the capacity to give it.
It would be a mistake to treat nurturing as a small task for an actor. Sustaining our belief in somebody's goodness is difficult when the script has so plainly chosen her to represent it. Sylwan's physical tenderness keeps Anna credible even when we can see what Bergman is doing. Choose Cries and Whispers when you can bear its severity; Anna does not make it an easy evening.
Biography
Kari Sylwan (born 15 October 1940) is a Swedish actress, dancer, choreographer and ballet teacher. She began her career as a dancer in 1956 with the Royal Swedish Ballet and the Cullberg Ballet, performing leading roles including in works by Birgit Cullberg.
Sylwan appeared as Anna in Ingmar Bergman's Cries and Whispers (1972) and as Maria Jacobi (uncredited) in his Face to Face (1976). With dancer Karin Thulin she co-founded the company Kari och Karin, which toured and appeared on television. From 1996 to 2005 she served as vice-chancellor of the University College of Dance in Stockholm and in 2005 received the H. M. The King's Medal of the 12th order for her contributions to dance.
