Editing Cries and Whispers (section)

===Sex and gender roles===
Critic Marco Lanzagorta wrote, "Undeniably, ''Cries and Whispers'' is a film about the world of women, and is very open in terms of the gender and sexual politics that it portrays".<ref name="Lanzagorta"/> The story fits Bergman's motif of "warring women", seen earlier in ''The Silence'' and ''Persona'' and later in ''[[Autumn Sonata]]'' (1978).{{sfn|Orr|2014|p=67}} The film inspired essays about Bergman's view of women.{{sfn|Steene|2005|p=889}} Patricia Erens wrote, "Bergman's women in such films as ''Persona'' and ''Cries and Whispers'' are not simply objects of abuse, but creatures through whom Bergman can express his own subjective fears, his many frustrations and failures at preserving autonomy of self and control of reality".{{sfn|Erens|1979|p=100}}

Feminists critiqued the film.{{sfn|Steene|2005|p=889}} In ''[[Film Quarterly]]'', Joan Mellen acknowledged that Bergman used his female characters as mouthpieces and his women signify "the dilemma of alienated, suffering human beings".<ref name="Mellen">{{cite journal |title=Bergman and Women: Cries and Whispers |journal=[[Film Quarterly]] |last=Mellen |first=Joan |date=Autumn 1973 |volume=27 |issue=1 |pages=2–11 |doi=10.2307/1211448 |jstor=1211448 }}</ref> In Bergman's films, women and men fail to find answers to their dilemmas; according to Mellen, the men are unanswered or cannot care for anyone but themselves. However, she wrote that Bergman's women fail because of their biology and an inability to move past their sexuality: "Bergman insists that because of their physiology, women are trapped in dry and empty lives within which they wither as the lines begin to appear on their faces".<ref name="Mellen"/> Critic [[Molly Haskell]] assigned ''Cries and Whispers'' to Bergman's later filmography, which differed from his earlier works in their view of women. Women in his early films lived in harmony with each other and had more-complete lives; Bergman used the women in ''Cries and Whispers'' and his later films as "projections of his soul", revealing his "sexual vanity".{{sfn|Haskell|2016|p=315}} According to Haskell, Bergman attacked his female characters for the attributes he gave them: Karin's repression and Maria's sexuality.{{sfn|Haskell|2016|p=315}}

Academic Laura Hubner agreed with ''[[CineAction]]'' essayist Varda Burstyn's view that ''Cries and Whispers'' depicts the suppression of women, but it does not endorse the suppression and the film opposes patriarchy.{{sfn|Hubner|2007|p=136}}<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Cries and Whispers Reconsidered |magazine=[[CineAction]] |last=Burstyn |first=Varda |date=January 1986 |issue=3–4 |pages=33–45}}</ref> Rueschmann traced the emotional estrangement to the women's mother, who reacts to the era's [[gender role]]s with "boredom, anger and frustration". According to Rueschmann, her daughters assume (or reject) her position and harm themselves in the process.{{sfn|Rueschmann|2000|p=136}} Agnes' confinement to bed may reflect gender roles and expectations for women about sex, childbirth and death.{{sfn|Rueschmann|2000|p=139}} Author Birgitta Steene disputed what she called Mellen's [[Marxist feminist]] analysis, cross-referencing Bergman's realistic and metaphorical films to say that they are not the product of a sexist outlook.{{sfn|Steene|2005|p=889}}

Rueschmann quoted Bergman as saying his "ceaseless fascination with the whole race of women is one of [his] mainsprings. Obviously such an obsession implies ambivalence; it has something compulsive about it".{{sfn|Rueschmann|2000|p=128}} However, he doubted that there was much difference between men and women: "I think that if I had made ''Cries and Whispers'' with four men in the leading roles, the story would have been largely the same".{{sfn|Tapper|2017|p=50}}