The Silence (Criterion Collection)
by Ingmar Bergman
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DVD Cover Information
Director: Ingmar BergmanBrand: Criterion Collection
Primary Contributor: Ingrid Thulin
Primary Contributor: Gunnel Lindblom
Primary Contributor: Jorgen Lindstrom
Primary Contributor: Hakan Jahnberg
Primary Contributor: Birger Malmstem
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: Swedish (Unknown); English (Subtitled)
Format: Black & White, Criterion Collection, Dubbed, Subtitled
Running Time: 95 unknown-units
Published: 2003
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Svensk Filmindusti / The Criterion Collection
Movie Reviews of The Silence (Criterion Collection)
Movie Review: Great
Summary: 4 Stars
The last film of Ingmar Bergman's Spider Trilogy, The Silence (Tystnaden), is not as good as the film which directly preceded it, Winter Light, but is closer to it, in quality, than the trilogy's comparatively weak first film, Through A Glass Darkly. This is because the weak link in Bergman's filmic repertoire is his ability to handle sexuality. Through A Glass Darkly has the most of it, Winter Light is nearly void of it, and The Silence has a bit of it, although not nearly as much as the lurid American trailer for the film would suggest. That trailer, available on the DVD, would have one believe that the two thirtysomething sisters in the film, Ester (Ingrid Thulin) and Anna (Gunnel Lindblom) were engaging in explicit lesbian sex, of the variety one might see in a 1990s porno film.
This is not so, and this film, in essence, is substantially different- both in tone and in substance- from the two other films, which lends credence to Bergman's claims that these films never formed a formal trilogy because not only is the spider God imagery almost absent from this film, but almost all references to religion are gone, as well. It seems that there has been a fatuous critical shoehorning of this film to make it part of a de facto trilogy, but one simply cannot support that claim if all three films are viewed in a row. In reality, this film can be seen as the first half of a duplex of films that ends with Persona, and the Spider Trilogy is really a Spider Duplex, too. It's not really about `the absence of God', as some critics claim, but rather an almost The Twilight Zone-like film dealing with the absurdities and cruelties of life, regardless of a God or not.
Ingrid Thulin, as Ester, is very good as the repressed sister, and Gunnel Lindblom radiates an almost sleazy sex appeal as the horny Anna- which is perhaps the most oft-used name for a Bergman female character, who wishes her sister dead. Seeing the film now, however, it seems laughable to think that this film was Bergman's most controversial to that point, since the sexuality is so tame, even the scene of ester masturbating is really nothing to get excited over (pun intended), even though we see- in an upside down shot of Thulin's magnificently structured facial cheekbones, that Ester is enjoying herself. This eroticism, and the censorship battles over the film upon its release in country after country, made it Bergman's biggest grossing film in his career.
The cinematography in this film is more daring than in the two other film's of the trilogy- both in camera movements, the usage of light and shade- especially in the scene where Anna is forced to watch a man and a woman have sex at the dwarves' cabaret, and in his use of subjective shots from the points of view of the lead characters, mostly Johan. The musical interludes consist mostly of Bach's music, especially The Goldberg Variations, and are deployed well. Musical taste seems to be the only thing the two sisters can agree on, re-emphasizing the old adage of it being the universal language.
The Silence is the longest of the three Spider Trilogy films, at 95 minutes, but it seems the shortest, for it is the most quickly paced, with the shortest scenes, and is largely shorn of the long monologues its two predecessors have. It does, however, have the most symbolism of the three films, which again undercuts the mistaken critical consensus that Bergman had abandoned such techniques when he started this sequence of films. And the schismatic sisters in this film prefigure the more melodramatic personality sharing of the actress and nurse in Persona, only in a more dramatically believable and realistic way. Anna is free, sexually wild, and her body's none too subtle motions bespeak this while Ester's hair is pulled back, and she looks a typically Bergmanian severe and sexually repressed, as almost all of Thulin's Bergman characters are. This character goes to the extreme of even declaring she hates the fish-like smell of semen, although to compensate for the character's misanthropy, she looks far more sexually appealing in this film than in Winter Light.
Yet, through it all, I could not get the idea that this film was in some way influenced by Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone television series, which was in its heyday when this film was made. It has all the psychological and sociological hallmarks- weirdness in the nonsense language of the foreigners (reminiscent of such Twilight Zone episodes as the one where beautiful people are considered ugly), a child's point of view, tension, deeper issues masquing under the obvious- save for the sexuality and paranormal, that Serling specialized in, and seems far more akin to it than the two other films in the Spider Trilogy. Regardless, it is an excellent film that touches on some quintessential Bergmanian obsessions, and, for doing so, it grabs hard at the human.
Summary of The Silence (Criterion Collection)
Screen Formats:B&W Sound:Dolby Digital Mono Aspect Ratio:1.33:1 Features: New high-definition digital transfer of the original, uncensored Swedish version, with restored image and sound Exploring the Film: video discussion with Ingmar Bergman biographer Peter Cowie Poster gallery for the trilogy films Essay by film scholar Leo Braudy Original U.S. theatrical trailer Optional English-dubbed soundtrack New and improved English subtitle translation Optional image quality: RSDL dual-layer edition. ----------- Synopsis: The third entry in Ingmar Bergman's trilogy about faith and redemption (with Through A Glass Darkly and Winter Light) is a stark and enigmatic allegory fueled by subtle performances from Ingrid Thulin and Gunnel Lindblom. Thulin plays Ester, a translator and intellectual, who is traveling back to Sweden on a train with her younger sister Anna (Linblom) and Anna's son Johan (Jorgen Lindstrom). They stop in the town of Timuku and check into an old hotel in a foreign land where the language cannot be understood by the three travelers. Ester, who suffers from a terminal lung disease, is very protective towards Anna; but Anna resents being tied down by her sickly sister, and she leaves the hotel room, picking up a waiter (Birger Malmsten in a nearby caf?. Returning to the hotel room, Anna tells Ester about her sexual encounter with the waiter, and Ester becomes sexually aroused. Anna leaves for another room in the hotel to continue making love with the waiter. Johan helps Ester track Anna down Anna, and Anna and the waiter proceed to make love a third time. This provokes a violent and biter argument between the two sisters. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie GuideDrama DVD Video
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