The Silence

Following Through a Glass Darkly and Winter Light, The Silence is the most abstract entry in the trilogy, a somewhat eerie story of two sisters, Esther (Ingrid Thulin) and Anna (Gunnel Lindblom), and the latter's son (Joergen Lindstroem), all traveling by train to Sweden but forced to stay in a foreign country when Esther's chronic bronchial problems require her to rest. A stifling atmosphere, a desolate hotel, encounters with a troupe of carnival dwarves, Anna's anchoring illness, and an empty sexual encounter for Esther underscore the unnerving feeling that God has abandoned these characters to dubious salvation in their own connection. A highly memorable film. --Tom Keogh

Description
The Silence, the third film of Bergman's religious trilogy (Through a Glass Darkly, Winter Light), depicts a world in which God is silent, a world of despair. United since childhood in a love-hate relationship of lesbian incest, two sisters struggle and part as the younger seeks her freedom in a heterosexual affair. Bergman expresses their conflict in visual terms, with little dialogue, as he probes deeply into loneliness, love, and sexual obsession. His somber view of modern man's condition, wherein human relations are grotesquely egocentric and perversely sexual, is shattering.

The Silence is a strange film fuelled by strange passions and emotions. It's rather minimalist in style, for Bergman rarely ventures outside the empty hotel, which is peopled only with a ghostly elderly porter and a troupe of circus dwarfs. With Sven Nykvist's camera exploring the space of the vast hotel corridors, it may for some recall Last Year at Marienbad but I think the film has more significant parallels with David Lynch's enigmatically bleak Eraserhead , both films sharing similar themes and a dark ambience. Symbolically, the film is not a difficult as other Bergman dramas. The sense of decay is omnipresent throughout the film - the sisters' relationship, Ester who is suffering with a terminal cancer, and the region itself with its streets patrolled by tanks, suggesting the whole damn thing is about to slip into war. And Bergman's superb use of the hotel, which the characters seemingly can't escape from, takes on almost Kafkaesque proportions. Made in 1963 The Silence still remains strong, with scenes of sex, nudity, ...and alcoholism. The film ended an extraordinary trilogy that began with Through a Glass Darkly and Winter Light ; a series Bergman made which addressed his evaporating religious faith.

Incidentally, look out for the funny scene in Woody Allen's Manhattan where Allen is horrified by Diane Keaton's merciless criticism of the film...


Still Timely   May 7, 2001
tamiii (San Juan Capistrano, Ca. United States)
4 out of 7 found this review helpful

Watching this movie, I am reminded of the old Biblical story of the prophet who sought the word of God in many places but found it in the great silence. This unsentimental movie tells the tale of two sisters on their return from a vacation, one of whom suffers gravely from lung disease perhaps cancer, the other is accompanied by her little boy. While many questions lie realistically hidden in the shadows of silence--most importantly the understandable pain of the two sisters--nevertheless there is unexpected tenderness, remarkably from a stranger and a child.


enigmatic   June 15, 2003
a viewer (new england)
4 out of 5 found this review helpful

I'm an Ingmar Bergman neophyte and have seen about ten of his films to date, and I think this one haunted me the most. It couldn't leave my mind for a few days. It's crammed with hopelessness and emptiness, and to put it bluntly, is quite depressing. I was able to put up with Persona, Cries and Whispers, The Seventh Seal, and a few others with a fierce motivation to assess and analyze, but this one left me quite deflated. I think it was because of the way the little boy was used; he is left to roam the hotel occupied by weird hotelkeepers and dwarves that like to dress him up in girl clothes while his mother is out all day on sexual rampages with complete strangers, while his dying aunt spends her last days in a room upstairs. The pain displayed is so raw and unflinching that one is inclined to feel uncomfortable and wondering. I think the capper was the ending of this film on the train: mother and son leave the country and leaves the aunt alone to die, and the son, who has openly worshipped his mother all along, looks up at her with such open contempt that she visibly reacts, putting her hand to her throat. And then he looks down at this picture that aunt has given him. It ends on such an enigmatic note that one has no choice but to feel depressed for some time.


PERHAPS IT TAKES MULTIPLE VIEWINGS   June 14, 1999
Michael Phillips (New Orleans, LA USA)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful

Although this movie is beautifully filmed and well acted, it left me hanging. I guess it would take multiple viewings to digest all that "deep meaning" and "religious significance". Still, it is very interesting to watch, especially the scenes of the young boy roaming the halls of the hotel.