YMMV / Cries and Whispers

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Some people think that Maria and Karin's flashbacks never actually happened in reality and that it's just them daydreaming.
  • Maria's attitude to Karin at the end: does it prove that Karin was correct in her assessment of Maria, or would Maria act differently if only Karin had been less awful to her?
• Award Snub: Got screwed out of a Best Foreign Film Oscar nom by getting a Best Picture nom instead, and there was no way it was going to win that. Had it been nominated for Best Foreign Film, it would probably have won... probably being the key word here, because it managed to lose the equivalent Golden Globe to a tie between two other movies.
• Jerkass Woobie: Karin is trapped in a loveless marriage to a man who doesn't give a damn about her needs and can't have an actual conversation with her, which leads her to mutilate herself to avoid sex with him. Then she gets led on by Maria, only to be scorned by her just when Karin thought she had someone she could open herself to. While her behavior throughout the film is less than pleasant, it becomes more understandable once these circumstances are revealed.
• Signature Scene:
  • The Pietà Plagiarism with Agnes and Anna might be the most famous image of the film, and even ended up on a Swedish stamp as one of the 5 most iconic movie scenes in Swedish cinema.
  • Karin's self-mutilation is considered something of a show-stealer if only because of how viscerally disturbing it is.
• The Woobie:
  • Agnes is dying slowly and agonizingly of cancer. All she wants is the love and care of her two sisters, who cannot bring themselves to give it to her, so that she is left alone and miserable in the dark with only her loyal maid for comfort.
  • Anna lost her daughter sometime in the backstory. She is treated callously by every other character except Agnes, so that when she dies, Anna gets summarily fired without any assurance of her future.