The Silence (Tystnaden)

Ester, a lesbian intellectual, is physically attracted to her sister Anna, who is herself the sexually vibrant mother of a 10-year-old boy. While the carefree Anna indulges in casual sex, her son briefly falls in with a troupe of dwarfs and Ester wastes away from alcohol and tuberculosis. This film bleak, dense, puzzling and heavy with symbolism is explicitly erotic. Certain scenes (Ester masturbating, a couple copulating in a cinema) were profoundly shocking at the time - all the more so, perhaps, for the unadorned frankness with which they were presented. Impeccably interpreted by two of the best actresses in Bergman's impressive stable, this is a dark, passionate, elusive and disturbing work.