The Silence
The Silence
| 23 September 1963 (USA)
The Silence Trailers

Traveling through an unnamed European country on the brink of war, sickly, intellectual Ester, her sister Anna and Anna's young son, Johan, check into a near-empty hotel. A basic inability to communicate among the three seems only to worsen during their stay. Anna provokes her sister by enjoying a dalliance with a local man, while the boy, left to himself, has a series of enigmatic encounters that heighten the growing air of isolation.

Reviews
Colibel Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.
Comwayon A Disappointing Continuation
Doomtomylo a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.
Allissa .Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.
Claudio Carvalho While traveling back home by train, Anna (Gunnel Lindblom), her son Johan (Jörgen Lindström) and her sister Ester (Ingrid Thulin) that is very ill have to stop in a foreign country in Timoka City and checking- in a hotel until Ester recovers from a crisis of her illness. Ester is a translator but she does not speak the language, therefore they need to communicate by gestures with the locals. Ester is cult and controller and Anna is still attractive and very promiscuous. They are emotionally separated and without any sibling's feelings; therefore each sister just speaks to hurt the other while Johan wanders in the empty corridors of the hotel. "Tystnaden" is a film about lack of connection and communication that in certain moments seems to be a silent movie. There are very few, but sharp and ambiguous, dialogs between the two sisters and it is not clear whether they had an incestuous relationship in the past and the weird way that Anna treats her son, sleeping naked in the bed with him or asking him to soap her back (at least, for non-Swedish viewer). The performances are awesome as usual in a Bergman's film, with wonderful black-and-white cinematography, use of shadows and camera work. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "O Silêncio" ("The Silence")
Ilpo Hirvonen Ingmar Bergman started his career by making social films in 1950's. Even that the themes were big and universal, the films had a lot of personality. But in early 1960's Bergman moved to an even closer, more personal subject when he started to make his Faith Trilogy (Through a Glass Darkly, Winter Light and The Silence). In these films Bergman researches the faith and disbelief in people. He grew up in a catholic family, but is an atheist or at least an agnostic himself. In the Faith Trilogy he studies, and shows us how religion, concept of God, the Bible - Christianity, have affected our own moral standards.As the title say the film is very silent, a very quiet film and this reinforces the intensity of it. The Silence is a story about two estranged sisters, staying the night in a strange town. People in the town speak a weird language, which reminds one of Estonian language. The mood in the city is dreamy, thrilling and perhaps threatening. The other sister has a young son, who spends his days wandering in the hotel corridors. The older sister drowns her loneliness in alcohol and the younger in sex.Ingmar Bergman's production is fascinating, mostly because he tried so many different things - but never letting his own unique style alone. The Silence is a very silent film, which narrative is based on gestures, facial expressions - cinematography. But his TV-series, which is also a film, Scenes From a Marriage is strongly about the dialog. It's full of long, slow-paced sequences filled with dialog and that's what makes it so great. Many see The Seventh Seal and Fanny and Alexander as his best films, but I myself prefer the Faith Trilogy, it's very artistic, dark, meaningful and challenging. I wouldn't like to put them in order, but I must say that The Silence is the most mature, intelligent and challenging of them. Even if one doesn't understand everything in it, something makes one come back to these film. The same is with all European masters who challenged their audiences, Federico Fellini, Jean Luc Godard and Krzysztof Kieslowski.The Silence felt like a very personal film, but its subject is universal. Just as with many films by Kieslowski in this the subject is hidden below the surface. One might wonder: "What does this have to do with God or religion?" But if you're used to artistic films or just pay attention you'll see it. One has to give oneself to the film. Cinematic art at its finest, a masterpiece.
laetusindei The Seventh Seal was an absolute masterpiece. After seeing it I thought, "Wow! I've GOT to see more Bergman!" I thought this because The Seventh Seal addressed struggles that are common to all of us; hope, faith & death. Yet at the same time it managed to address these with compelling characters that provided a glimpse both of the beauty of life and of the deep hardship. Seeing Winter Light was then, different. It offered only bleakness, which being new to Bergman I should have been prepared for but I still found the story moving as it showed the extent of this priest's depression.I see The Silence and what do I get? ... Nothing. I really can't think of anything eventful at all that happens in this movie. Common arguments I hear in favour of this movie is that "you are not supposed to relate to the characters. You're supposed to be shattered by their loneliness and their inability to communicate". Which is fine, just as long as something actually happened. I really cannot think of anything that happens in the movie and severely frustrated I fast-forwarded through the movie reading the subtitles so I could get this over with and not watch another Bergman film again any time soon.I was initially drawn to Bergman as he was reputedly one of the great artists of cinema and I was fed up with the same commercial rubbish that was being produced year after year. This movie goes too far in the other direction. People may say there is great merit in this movie for the issues it addresses or its daringness to address them at its time of release, but none of that matters if the movie is not entertaining and this just genuinely wasn't.We go to movies to be entertained.That's it. That comes first.Bringing in philosophical themes & broken relationships is fine, great in fact, as long as the movie is still entertaining. That's what The Seventh Seal did. I really don't know why people LOVE this movie so much. I can't understand why I've only read one other review with this sentiment.However, one of Bergman's quotes was that he couldn't understand why critics loved Citizen Kane so much when he thought it was so "immensely boring". I guess it goes to show how subjective these opinions of movies really are.
dataconflossmoor This will be the first Bergman film I have commented on!! I feel that Igmar Bergman has established a plethora of paramount accomplishments in the world of the cinema industry!! His brilliance depicts abhorrent human nature which reflects a calculating subjectivity that erupts with callousness and tormented recriminations. These pejorative aspects of behavior are pertinent to the desultory plight of the characters in his films!! A typical Bergman film's portrayal of depression is one whereby it eventually becomes elevated to a new level of hopelessness!! This onslaught of sibilant human discrepancies always unearth a frightful despair in so many of Bergman's productions!! The film, "The Silence" is no exception to the rule!! The term used by a prominent movie critic from the New York Times about this movie, was "ruthless gratification"... This phraseology sums up the culprit to the primary dilemma in this film!!... I can assertively empathize with the fact that these two women are not American; what that means is that their emotional enmity is manifested very differently than "good old fashion Yankee anger". The intercontinental disposition of this film necessitates an urban sophistication which becomes a premise for judgmental injury!! Infidelity, as well as sexual experimentation, are subterfuges for a passionately nurtured loathing... In the United States, Central Park Wext intellectuals deliberately masquerade such infuriating pretenses as a way of flaunting their appropriated prestige with their cavorting intelligentsia!! To the movie audience, the actions of these two women would suggest a very disconcerting demeanor, yet, very much to the contrary, these two characters are consumed by overt resentment and deep rooted hatred!! The first rate felony for the characters in this film was to not be seen in a way they want to be seen. They were impervious to the fact as to whether they protracted any esoteric aspects to their personality in a cogent manner or not!! This was the silver screen's introduction to the nefarious venue of a sex club!! As a matter of fact, when "The Silence" came out in 1963, it was considered the most lewd movie ever made!! Usually when I comment on something being sexually suggestive for it's day, I immediately counter it with "By today's standards, of course, this seems ridiculous" however, in the case of this film, I would have to say that even now, this film is still relatively provocative.. "The Silence" illustrates pictorial nudity, and concepts of debauchery, along with degenerate sexual behavior, which are so ubiquitous, that they suggest an absolute vitiation of moral imperatives!! Bergman does a tremendously dispassionate job of directing this film, as he encompasses sexual wiles into a form of intellectual intimidation.. The acting in this movie is superb... The eccentricities of many side players with "The Silence" articulate a genre of philosophical diversification!! What are these two women really like? My assessment of them is this; Imagine if a pack of wolves went to Oxford!! There should be an unfortunate empathy for the prevailing situation in this movie... In the 1960's, films began to depict people as they really were, and not just stilted characters of exaggerated altruism!! I wish to reiterate that Bergman has always possessed an unprecedented and remarkable quality in directing, so, when "The Silence" was made in 1963, the aggregate double entendre to every critical expression with this flick, was, without question, a perfectly executed breakthrough in cinematic genius!! See this movie, but, make sure the kids are not around!! I give it five stars!!
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