Le Silence de la mer (1949 film)

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This article is about the 1949 film. For the novel, see Le Silence de la mer. For other adaptations, see Le Silence de la mer § Adaptations.

Le Silence de la mer
Silencedelamer.jpg
Directed byJean-Pierre Melville
Screenplay byJean-Pierre Melville
Based onA novel
by Vercors[1]
Starring
CinematographyHenri Decaë[1]
Edited by
  • Jean-Pierre Melville
  • Henri Decaë[1]
Music byEdgar Bischoff[1]
Production
company
Melville-Productions[1]
Distributed byPierre Braunberger[1]
Release date
  • April 22, 1949 (1949-04-22) (Paris)
Running time
86 minutes[1]
CountryFrance

Le Silence de la mer (English: The Silence of the Sea) is a 1949 film by Jean-Pierre Melville. It was Melville's first feature film and was based on the 1942 book of the same name by Jean Bruller (published clandestinely under the pen name "Vercors"). Set in 1941 during the German occupation of France, it concerns the relationship of a Frenchman (Jean-Marie Robain) and his niece (Nicole Stéphane) with a German lieutenant, Werner von Ebrennac (Howard Vernon), who is billetted in their house. Most of the film was actually shot inside Bruller's own home outside Paris.

Plot[]

In occupied France at the beginning of 1941, a wounded German officer is billetted in the house of a retired man and his niece. They resolve never to speak to the unwanted intruder. Each night as they are sitting, he smoking his pipe and she knitting, the officer comes to warm himself by the fire and politely engages them in a one-sided conversation. Speaking good French, he reveals that he is an unmarried composer and that this is the first time he has been in a country whose literature and culture he has long studied and admired. Though loyal to Hitler, and proud of the good things about Germany, he has no time for the Nazis and scorns the puppet dictatorship of Pétain. His dream is that the two countries should grow close and he personally would like to get close to the niece, who remains obdurately silent but betrays her feelings by the faintest quivers.

In the summer, he gets leave and spends a fortnight in Paris. All the sights enthrall him but the friends he meets appal him: they tell him about the developing Holocaust and say that policy towards France is to plunder and humiliate it. On his return he confesses all this to his hosts and adds that he has volunteered for a combat role. When he says “adieu”, the niece breaks silence to whisper ”adieu” in return. In the morning the old man leaves him a quotation from Anatole France: “Il est beau qu'un soldat désobéisse à des ordres criminels (It is a fine thing when a soldier disobeys a criminal order)”.

Release[]

Le Silence de la mer was released in Paris on 22 April 1949.[1] In Paris, the film took in 464,032 admissions and 1,371,687 admissions in France as a whole.[2]

Reception[]

The film has been described as an "anti-cinematographic" film due to the unique method of narration used to give voice to the (mostly) silent Frenchman and his niece.[3] It was made shortly after Melville was demobilized from the French Resistance and is one of several films made by Melville on the Resistance, along with Léon Morin, prêtre and L'armée des ombres.[4]

The film is coloured by Melville's own experience of the sacrifices and the painful moral intransigence that resistance demands. An unnamed Frenchman and his niece are obliged to provide lodgings for a German officer and register their resistance by refusing to speak to him. Maintaining their silence becomes harder as the officer, von Ebrennac, talks to them, and reveals a decency and his own doubts about the war. "He's clearly related to von Stroheim's sympathetic commandant in Renoir's La Grande Illusion, a figure whose loyalty is to something greater than nationalism. His unwilling hosts [and] the echo chamber [of] their mute opposition makes him question both himself and his mission."[5]

"Melville made the film on a very small budget. It's a remarkably assured apprentice work. Melville and his cameraman Henri Decae show considerable cinematic technique: despite much of the film taking place in a single room, they avoid any sort of claustrophobia."[6] Von Ebrennac's monologues and the extensive voiceover mean that, the title notwithstanding, there is a significant amount of talk.

References[]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Vincendeau 2003, p. 223.
  2. ^ Vincendeau 2003, p. 260.
  3. ^ Batty, Adam (20 January 2011). "Culture Générale; Melville's Le Silence De La Mer". The Hope Lies. Archived from the original on 15 August 2011. Retrieved 3 June 2014.
  4. ^ The Criterion Collection (2013). "Jean-Pierre Melville". Retrieved 3 June 2014.
  5. ^ Moviemail, July 2007 catalogue
  6. ^ James Oliver, Moviemail, July 2007

Sources[]

External links[]

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