Winter Light (1963)

Ingrid Thulin: Märta Lundberg

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Quotes 

• Märta Lundberg, Schoolteacher : God, why have you created me so eternally dissatisfied? So frightened, so bitter? Why must I realize how wretched I am? Why must I suffer so hellishly for my insignificance? If there is a purpose to my suffering, then tell me, so I can bear my pain without complaint. I'm strong. You made me so very strong in both body and soul, but you never give me a task worthy of my strength. Give my life meaning, and I'll be your obedient slave.

• Märta Lundberg, Schoolteacher : God has never spoken because God doesn't exist. It's as simple as that.

• Märta Lundberg, Schoolteacher : Life is messy enough without taking the supernatural into account.

• Märta Lundberg, Schoolteacher : I love you. And I live for you. Take me and use me. Beneath all my false pride and independent airs, I have only one wish: to be allowed to live for someone else. It's so terribly difficult.

• Märta Lundberg, Schoolteacher : Poor Tomas. What is it, Tomas?

  Tomas Ericsson, Pastor : It wouldn't matter to you.

  Märta Lundberg, Schoolteacher : Tell me anyway.

  Tomas Ericsson, Pastor : God's silence.

  Märta Lundberg, Schoolteacher : God's silence?

  Tomas Ericsson, Pastor : God's silence.

• Tomas Ericsson, Pastor : I don't want you. Did you hear that?

  Märta Lundberg, Schoolteacher : Yes. Of course, I did.

  Tomas Ericsson, Pastor : I'm tired of your loving care. Your fussing. Your good advice. Your candlesticks and table runners. I'm fed up with your shortsightedness. Your clumsy hands. Your anxiousness. Your timid displays of affection. You force me to occupy myself with your physical condition. Your poor digestion. Your rashes. Your periods. Your frostbitten cheeks. Once and for all I have to escape this junkyard of idiotic trivialities. I'm sick and tired of it all, of everything to do with you.

  Märta Lundberg, Schoolteacher : Why didn't you tell me this before?

  Tomas Ericsson, Pastor : Because of my upbringing. I was taught to regard women as beings of a higher order. Admirable creatures, unassailable martyrs.

• Märta Lundberg, Schoolteacher : You have a lot to learn.

  Tomas Ericsson, Pastor : Says the schoolmarm.

  Märta Lundberg, Schoolteacher : You must learn to love.

  Tomas Ericsson, Pastor : And you can teach me that?

  Märta Lundberg, Schoolteacher : I can't. That's not in my power.

• Tomas Ericsson, Pastor : I don't love you, because I love my wife. When she died, so did I. I don't care less what happens to me. Am I making myself clear? I loved her and she was everything you could never be, but insist on trying to be. The way you mimic her behavior is such an ugly parody.

  Märta Lundberg, Schoolteacher : I didn't even know her.

  Tomas Ericsson, Pastor : I'd better be going - before I spout even worse bits of senseless drivel.

  Märta Lundberg, Schoolteacher : Could it get any worse?

• Märta Lundberg, Schoolteacher : You won't survive, Tomas dear. Nothing can save you. You'll hate yourself to death.

• Märta Lundberg, Schoolteacher : What I lack entirely is the capacity to show you my love. I haven't a clue how to do that.

• Tomas Ericsson, Pastor : Don't get hysterical.

  Märta Lundberg, Schoolteacher : That's what you always say whenever you see me crying. I suppose I am a tad hysterical.

• Märta Lundberg, Schoolteacher : If only we could feel safe and dare show each other tenderness. If only we had some truth to believe in. If only we could believe.

• Märta Lundberg, Schoolteacher : I realized that I love you. I prayed for a task to apply my strength to and I received one. That task is you. This is what the thoughts of a schoolmarm might run to when the phone refuses to ring, when it's dark and lonely.

• Tomas Ericsson, Pastor : Stare all you like. I can take it.

  Märta Lundberg, Schoolteacher : I can barely see you without my glasses. You're all fuzzy and your face is just a white blob. You're not really real.