The Silence (1963 film)

The Silence (link=no) is a 1963 Swedish drama film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman and starring Ingrid Thulin and Gunnel Lindblom. The plot focuses on two sisters, the younger a sensuous woman with a young son, the elder more intellectually oriented and seriously ill, and their tense relationship as they travel toward home through a fictional Central European country on the brink of war. The film is the third in a series of thematically related films, following Through a Glass Darkly (1961) and Winter Light (1963), which is sometimes considered a trilogy. In addition to interpretations of spiritual issues, The Silence is sometimes interpreted as presenting its two sister characters as two sides of a single woman, one representing the physical and the other language. Bergman was inspired by his travels around Europe after World War II. Against expectations of the filmmakers, it was a box office hit. The film was also noted for its frank depiction of sexuality and won the award for Best Film at the 1st Guldbagge Awards. It is regarded favorably by modern critics.

Two emotionally estranged sisters, Ester and Anna, and Anna's son, Johan, a boy of 10, are on a night train journey back home. Ester, the older sister and a literary translator, is seriously ill. Anna coldly assists her, seemingly resenting the burden. They decide to interrupt the journey in the next town called "Timoka", located in a Central European country on the brink of war. Although Ester is a professional translator, neither she nor her relatives speak the language of this country. The sisters rent a two room apartment in a once grandiose hotel. Ester suffers in her room, self medicating with vodka and cigarettes while trying to work. Johan soon begins wandering around the hotel's hallways, encountering the elderly hotel porter and a group of Spanish dwarfs who are part of a traveling show. Meanwhile, Anna ventures into the city and is openly advanced upon by a waiter in a cafe. Later, she watches a show in an uncrowded theatre, and is both repelled and fascinated when a young couple begin to have sex in a seat nearby. Anna returns to the cafe, brushes past the waiter, and returns to the hotel in time. Left with Johan while his mother is out, Ester attempts to form a more intimate bond with him, but Johan avoids her attempts to stroke his hair and face. On Anna's return, Ester is eager for an account of what her sister has done after seeing her soiled dress. Provoked, Anna spitefully fabricates a sexual encounter with the waiter to her sister. Anna also reveals her intention to meet him again that evening, which Ester, not wanting to be left alone, begs her not to do. Anna meets the man in their hotel, and Johan witnesses them kissing and entering a room down an adjacent hall. Upon returning to the room, he asks Ester, why his mother dislikes being with them, as she always departs as soon as she gets the chance. Ester tells him that she has learned a few words of the local language, and she promises to write them down for him. Johan, instinctively knowing Ester is seriously ill, embraces her in a show of concern and compassion. After Johan has fallen asleep, Ester sobs at the door of Anna and her lover, asking to come in. Anna lets her in and turns on the lights so that Ester can fully see the two of them in bed together. Anna tells Ester that she once aspired to be like her, morally elevated, but realized that her apparent goodness was actually a reflection of Ester's hatred of Anna and all that belonged to her. Ester insists that she loves her and that Anna is wrong. Anna gets furious and asks her to leave the room. On leaving, Ester says "poor Anna", enraging her even more. Anna's lover advances upon her again. Anna is laughing hysterically, but it turns into sobs. The next morning, Anna announces that she and Johan are going to leave the hotel after breakfast. Ester deteriorates while they are gone, having painful spasms of suffocation. She is helped by the elderly porter, who attempts to comfort her. She reveals her fear of death and loneliness but also her loathing for sexual contact. When Johan returns to say good bye, Ester gives him a note. After he and Anna have boarded the train, Johan reads the title: "To Johan – words in a foreign language". Uninterested, Anna opens the window and cools herself with the outside rain while Johan continues to read the letter.

The Silence is sometimes considered the third film in a trilogy that includes Through a Glass Darkly and Winter Light and focuses 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". He later retracted his claim the films form a trilogy. After Bergman's death, filmmaker Woody Allen theorized in The New York Times that Ester and Anna represent two conflicting sides of a single woman. English Professor Leo Braudy had earlier made the same argument, identifying Anna with the physical, as she is seen bathing and having sex. He saw Ester as representing language, as she translates and writes, is repulsed by sex, has a poor body and only masturbates. Braudy also referenced the possibility that Anna and Ester have an incestuous relationship. The character of Johan represents the one who perceives. While Bergman referred to the "Silence" of the title as "God's silence," it can also refer to the lack of communication between the protagonists and the people of Timoka. The sole understanding between the characters is in shared appreciation for the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. In a scene, Johan stares out of the window as a lone tank rolls down the street at night. In Against Interpretation, Susan Sontag comments, "Again, Ingmar Bergman may have meant the tank rumbling down the street in The Silence as a phallic symbol. But if he did, it was a foolish thought". She then continues to say, "Those who reach for a Freudian interpretation of the tank are only expressing their lack of response to what is there on the screen".

After World War II, director Ingmar Bergman had visited numerous cities in other countries in Europe. He based the design of The Silence on what he had seen in these travels, On 19 August 2003, The Criterion Collection released the film on DVD in Region 1, in a box set with Bergman's films Through a Glass Darkly and Winter Light and Vilgot Sjöman's documentary Ingmar Bergman Makes a Movie. In 2018, Criterion announced a Blu ray release in Region A for 20 November 2018, along with 38 other Bergman films, in the set Ingmar Bergman's Cinema.

During its initial release in Sweden, the film attracted 100,000 viewers per week. The financial success of the film has been described as "resounding". It was also a success in other territories. Cynthia Grenier wrote that in around 12 countries within months of the initial release, people hoping to buy tickets were "lining up around the block" outside of theatres. In the United States, it grossed $350,000.

The Monthly Film Bulletin'''s review stated the film was too personal to Bergman, excluding the audience, though the cast and a number of scenes were excellent. Bosley Crowther wrote "Whether this strange amalgam of various states of loneliness and lust articulates a message may be questionable, but it does, at least, resolve into a vaguely affecting experience that moves one like a vagrant symphony". Crowther also credited Ingrid Thulin, Gunnel Lindblom and Jörgen Lindström as "superbly tempered". Rose Pelswick of the New York Journal American concurred the message was hidden in "Obscurity" but Thulin and Lindblom were "strong". The film ranked 8th on Cahiers du Cinéma’s Top 10 Films of the Year List in 1964. The film has been classified as a "landmark of modernist cinema" with Alain Resnais' Last Year at Marienbad (1961), Michelangelo Antonioni's L'avventura (1960), and Luis Buñuel's Belle de Jour (1967). Popular film critic Vernon Young (critic) reversed his position on Bergman and admitted in 1971 that The Silence was an "extraordinary achievement in its way The Silence rewards effort " Roger Ebert added the film to his Great Movies list in 2008, writing of "a tone of foreboding" and how "there is no theology in The Silence only a world bereft of it". On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, The Silence'' has an approval rating of 84% based on 19 reviews, with an average score of 8.00/10.