Details
Movie Description
In THE SILENCE, sisters Anna and Ester (Gunnel Lindblom and Ingrid Thulin, respectively) are passing through an unspecified European country on their way home from a trip, accompanied by Anna's young son, Johan (Jörgen Lindström). They check into a hotel, where the kindly old maitre d' (Håkan Jahnberg) ministers to the ailing, alcoholic Ester and attempts to befriend Johan, who has been exploring the empty halls of the stately building alone. It soon becomes apparent that the sisters are engaged in a strange, oppressive love-hate relationship, and the younger, livelier Anna attempts to escape her terminally ill sister by pursuing an affair with a stranger. The silence of the title refers to the impossibility of communication between the sisters but also between the three travelers and everyone they encounter in the foreign city, whose language they don't speak--as well as the devastating silence of God in the face of human despair. The third chapter of Ingmar Bergman's faith trilogy, THE SILENCE was considered extremely controversial at the time of its release because of its frank depiction of sexuality and hints at incest and lesbianism; at the same time Bergman was praised for his level of cinematic sophistication, and the media attention helped make the film a box-office success in Sweden.
Synopsis
A woman, her young son, and her sister book rooms in a strangely vacant hotel in a military-controlled town. Under the weight of the oppressive situation, one sister discovers passionate, casual sex and the other turns her feelings inward. The boy is left to his own devices, so he meanders through the hotel alone. The repressed sister crawls into the bottle and falls ill. Her lusty sibling takes her son and goes on without her, never looking back.
Film Notes
Theatrical release: September 23, 1963 (Sweden).
Theatrical release: February 1964 (U.S.).
The film's explicit nature caused such a stir after its Swedish release that Bergman received death threats from several viewers.
Winner of the Swedish Academy Award for Best Film of the Year.
Industry Reviews
"..This riveting psychodrama about the anguished relationship between two sisters is shot in flamboyant fashion..."
Sight and Sound - Geoffrey Macnab (03/01/2002)
Quotations
"His actors are all suberly tempered and paced in their strange, allusive roles. Mr. Bergman has ordered his images as though presenting a musical score, with separate themes projected and developed and with supplementary phrases struck." --Bosley Crowther, New York Times, 2/4/1964
"The symbolism is for each viewer to determine. The film deals with animalistic humanity--in cages, quarreling, biting, dying. There is nothing pretentious and yet it may be a masterpiece destined to be mentioned years afterwards as a milestone in cinema." --Variety, 10/2/1963
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