Film and Visual Narrative

What one memory would you take to the afterlife?

Ingmar Bergman’s Cries and Whispers places dying at the center of family drama. What does the camera do to dying—witness, violate, sanctify? Why does family become the stage for metaphysical crisis?

Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life places personal grief within cosmic time. André Bazin’s classic essay on the photographic image helps us understand what cinema uniquely offers to thinking about birth and death.