Ingmar Bergman identified previous films that dealt with similar themes, such as as The Virgin Spring (1960) and Through a Glass Darkly (1961).
Winter Light is often considered the second film in a trilogy, following Through a Glass Darkly and completed by The Silence.
All three films focus on spiritual issues. Bergman writes, “These three films deal with reduction. Through a Glass Darkly – conquered certainty. Winter Light – penetrated certainty. The Silence – God’s silence – the negative imprint. Therefore, they constitute a trilogy.”
Through a Glass Darkly ending with a discussion of how God is love, Winter Light further examines if understanding God is as simple as that.
Bergman stated he abandoned the idea that love is proof of God because it was unsatisfactory to explain to a character who was suicidal over fear of nuclear war. The character Blom mocks the idea of God as love, attributing the words to Tomas but quoting the end of Through a Glass Darkly exactly. Tomas’s loss of his wife, and his loss of his ability to love, is further proof to him that God has become silent. In contrast, the character Algot, presented as enlightened, equates Tomas’s spiritual crisis with sayings of Jesus on the cross and God’s “silence.”
Like Through a Glass Darkly, Winter Light describes God as a “spider-god”, with Winter Light explaining the metaphor when Tomas relates the spider-god to suffering, as opposed to his previous ideas of a God of love that provides comfort.
The ending may mean Tomas has decided God does not exist, or that Tomas learns he must keep his faith because all Christians, including Jesus, grapple with God’s silence.
In Bergman’s view, Winter Light represents the end of his study on whether God exists, after which human love became his main concern.
