THE SILENCE / TYSTNADEN

Sweden, 1963, 96 minutes, Black and white.
Ingrid Thulin, Gunnel Lindblom, Birger Malmsten, Hakan Jahnberg, Jorgen Lindstrom.
Directed by Ingmar Bergman.

By 1960 Ingmar Bergman had achieved a considerable reputation in the film world, for his craft as well as for his exploration of deeply human themes. In the late 1950s he had made The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries and The Virgin Spring. He then began his so-called trilogy of faith: Through a Glass Darkly, Winter Light, The Silence. He was to go on making films for another quarter of a century.

The Silence is about the silence of God in the world. Bergman was brought up in a Lutheran family (as seen in the film Fanny and Alexander). However, he began to doubt the existence of God and a divine providence for the world. The Silence, referring also to the sparse dialogue in the film, is the absence of the divine in the world.

The film focuses on two sisters who have a love-hate relationship. They travel to a foreign city, don't speak the language, notice the tanks rolling into the city. The tanks are a possible symbol of their own enmity. The younger sister, played by Gunnel Lindblom, is sensual and wanting to break free from the influence of her other icy and austere older sister, Ingrid Thulin. The older sister remains in the hotel, ill, drinking and smoking, having bouts of health, interacting with the waiter who brings her drink and food. She also relates very well to her sister’s son, a little boy who is devoted to her.

Most of the action takes place in the hotel. The younger sister, however, goes out into the crowds into the city, to a theatre, witnesses some sexual behaviour, comes back to the hotel and indulges with a man she picks up. In the meantime, the little boy explores the hotel and discovers a troupe of dwarfs who are performing on stage in the town.

Ultimately, the boy and his mother leave the town, the older sister dies. The last image is that of the boy looking out from the screen – questions about his future in such a world.

There have been many theses and books written about Bergman’s faith trilogy, exploring the absence of God, the loneliness of life in a Godless world.

1. The film’s place in Ingmar Bergman’s trilogy? Faith, God, absence of God, loneliness, aloneness?

2. Bergman’s work in the 1960s, his career? The deeper explorations of philosophical and theological themes?

3. The title, the absence of words? The silence of God? The foreign language? The letters and messages in the foreign language, not understood?

4. Silence and the focus on body language, communication, alienation, loneliness?

5. The black and white photography, the introduction to the two sisters, on the train, the heat? Arriving in the city, their room in the hotel? The bedrooms, the bathroom? The hotel itself, the corridors? The theatre? The exteriors, the roads, the squares and crowds? The tanks? The musical score – sparse, the use of Bach’s music?

6. The alien setting, no reason given for the trip, not understanding the language, the return journey? The nature of the sojourn – why? And the war symbols?

7. The war, the tanks, mirroring the clash between the two sisters? The war situation in which people find themselves without explanation?

8. Johan, his age, his relationship with his mother, his devotion to his aunt? Travelling, the train, wandering the corridors? In the hotel? With his mother, the bath, the siesta? With Ester, talking, his love for her? Watching the waiter? Fear? The waiter beckoning him with chocolate? The small men, going to visit them? At home with them, the dress? Leaving, the letter from his aunt, words in a foreign language? The final image of his face?

9. The sisters and their love-hate, the contrast in appearance, manner, clothes? Ester as ascetic and hard, Anna as sensual and soft? Talking, not talking? The clashes? Anna and her attack on Ester, wanting to be free? The mutual dependence?

10. Ester and her illness, in the train, in bed, in the room? The phases of being ill and well? Her drinking, smoking? The waiter, bringing her drink, the food, caring for her? Putting her to bed, the laundry? Ester with Johan? The clash with Anna, the harshness? Her decision to stay, seemingly to die – but alive? Finally dead, the close-up of her dead face? Dying alone?

11. Anna, sensual, her dress, the bath, going out, the sex and the theatre, the pick-up, the corridor, the sexual encounter, her talk, her anger with Ester, wanting to be free, leaving with Johan?

12. The film as realistic? Symbolic? The philosophy of existence? No exit? No God – despite Ester and her formulation of prayers? The silence of God?