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Cries and Whispers poster

Movies that feel likeCries and Whispers (1972)

As Agnes slowly dies of cancer, her sisters are so immersed in their own psychic pains that they are unable to offer her the support she needs.

If you loved Cries and Whispers, the closest films we have are Through a Glass Darkly (1961), Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962) and Autumn Sonata (1978). All three share Cries and Whispers' contemplative feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is The Trip to Bountiful (1985).

🍅 92% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7.9 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Ingmar Bergmancontemplative
10 of 12 streaming nowHBO Max · Amazon Prime Video · Criterion Channel

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If Cries and Whispers hit the spot, these will too

Through a Glass Darkly poster
Through a Glass Darkly
1961 · dir. Ingmar Bergman
🍅 100%★ 7.9dramaMax

Both are Ingmar Bergman's work, and they rhyme

Karin hopes to recover from her recent stay at a mental hospital by spending the summer at her family's cottage on a tiny island. Her husband, Martin, cares for her but is frustrated by her physical withdrawal. Her younger brother, Minus, is confused by Karin's vulnerability and his own budding sexuality. Their father, David, cannot overcome his haughty remoteness. Beset by visions, Karin descends further into madness.

Cléo from 5 to 7 poster
Cléo from 5 to 7
1962 · dir. Agnès Varda
🍅 93%★ 7.8dramaMax

One thread runs through both: cancer

Agnès Varda eloquently captures Paris in the sixties with this real-time portrait of a singer set adrift in the city as she awaits test results of a biopsy. A chronicle of the minutes of one woman’s life, Cléo from 5 to 7 is a spirited mix of vivid vérité and melodrama, featuring a score by Michel Legrand and cameos by Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina.

Autumn Sonata poster
Autumn Sonata
1978 · dir. Ingmar Bergman
🍅 85%★ 8.1dramaMax

The same hand behind both of them: Ingmar Bergman

After a seven-year absence, Charlotte Andergast travels to Sweden to reunite with her daughter Eva. The pair have a troubled relationship: Charlotte sacrificed the responsibilities of motherhood for a career as a classical pianist. Over an emotional night, the pair reopen the wounds of the past. Charlotte gets another shock when she finds out that her mentally impaired daughter, Helena, is out of the asylum and living with Eva.

Winter Light poster
Winter Light
1963 · dir. Ingmar Bergman
🍅 77%★ 8drama

Contemplative drama, and it commits to that

A Swedish pastor fails a loving woman, a suicidal fisherman and God.

The Whales of August poster
The Whales of August
1987 · dir. Lindsay Anderson
🍅 64%★ 7.1drama

Common ground: brothers and sisters

The difference: The critics' underdog of the pair

Two aged sisters reflect on life and the past during a late summer day in Maine.

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? poster
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
1966 · dir. Mike Nichols
🍅 96%★ 8drama

Both lean on stillness more than on drama

A history professor and his wife entertain a young couple who are new to the university's faculty. As the drinks flow, secrets come to light, and the middle-aged couple unload onto their guests the full force of the bitterness, dysfunction, and animosity that defines their marriage.

An Autumn Afternoon poster
An Autumn Afternoon
1962 · dir. Yasujirō Ozu
🍅 95%★ 8dramaMax

Drama built on stillness, twice over

Widower Shuhei Hirayama's caretaker is his 24-year-old daughter, Michiko. Gradually, he comes to realize that Michiko should not be obliged to look after him for the rest of his life, so he arranges a marriage for her.

The Leopard poster
The Leopard
1963 · dir. Luchino Visconti
🍅 100%★ 7.9drama

The same drama instincts

As Garibaldi's troops begin the unification of Italy in the 1860s, an aristocratic Sicilian family grudgingly adapts to the sweeping social changes undermining their way of life.

The Sacrifice poster
The Sacrifice
1986 · dir. Andrei Tarkovsky
🍅 88%★ 7.8drama

Cut from the same drama cloth

Alexander, a journalist, philosopher and retired actor, celebrates a birthday with friends and family when it is announced that nuclear war has begun.

Shame poster
Shame
1968 · dir. Ingmar Bergman
🍅 67%★ 8war · drama

Both are drama through and through

The difference: Sits closer to war than Cries and Whispers does

In the midst of a civil war, a pair of former violinists in a tempestuous marriage oversee a farm on a rural island. In spite of their best efforts to escape their homeland, the war impinges on every aspect of their lives.

The Trip to Bountiful poster
The Trip to Bountiful
1985 · dir. Peter Masterson
🍅 100%★ 7.4dramaPrime Video

The drama is handled with the same confidence

Carrie Watts is living the twilight of her life trapped in an apartment in 1940s Houston, Texas with a controlling daughter-in-law and a hen-pecked son. Her fondest wish – just once before she dies – is to revisit Bountiful, the small Texas town of her youth which she still refers to as "home."

Fanny and Alexander poster
Fanny and Alexander
1982 · dir. Ingmar Bergman
🍅 100%★ 8.1fantasy · drama · mysteryMax

Common ground in both: mortality and sweden

The difference: Leans harder into fantasy than Cries and Whispers does

As children in the loving Ekdahl family, Fanny and Alexander enjoy a happy life with their parents, who run a theater company. After their father dies unexpectedly, however, the siblings end up in a joyless home when their mother, Emilie, marries a stern bishop. The bleak situation gradually grows worse as the bishop becomes more controlling, but dedicated relatives make a valiant attempt to aid Emilie, Fanny and Alexander.

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