SILENTIUM

Austria, 2004, 117 minutes, Colour.
Josef Hader, Simon Schwarz, Joachim Krol, Maria Kostlinger, Udo Samel.
Directed by Wolfgang Murnberger

Silentium is an Austrian thriller based on a series of crime thrillers written by Wolf Haas.

The film also has the advantage of being filmed in Salzburg, and shows a great deal of the beauty of the town and its environment. However, the subject matter of the film is particularly grim and begins with a suicide, the son-in-law of the Salzburg Festival president. His wife, thinking that her husband was murdered, hires a rather down-and-out private eye, Brenner. Brenner is an Austrian equivalent of the seedy private eyes of so many American novels and films. He is an eccentric character, a former policeman, looked on with suspicion by members of the force but involving himself in all kinds of detection work, even doing a touch of vigilante clean up of hoodlums around the city.

The film also has a complicated subplot because the man who committed suicide has given information to the press about sexual abuse at the school in which he was educated. The film focuses on a genial priest at the seminary, Father Fritz. However, he emerges as one of the most evil characters in the film, a sinister presence. Not only has he been personally abusive of the boys, he has also acted as a pimp for Filipina maids to be used as prostitutes by visiting celebrities. This includes one of the opera singers for the Salzburg Festival.

Brenner goes to the school, infiltrates and uncovers a web of evil and secrecy. There are various complications, of course, in this kind of private eye thriller and there is a sinister handyman at the college.

Needless to say, the complications are unravelled to the audience’s satisfaction. The film, though very well done, leaves a nasty feeling in its aftermath.

Josef Heder is excellent as Brenner. Joachim Krol is expertly sinister as Father Fritz.

1. A crime thriller? Political overtones? Ecclesiastical overtones? The combination?

2. The beauty of Salzburg and its environment, the opera and the festival, the streets, homes, the countryside? The institutions? The musical score and the opera?

3. The title, its inscription in the bathroom area of the institution? Silence about the crime, the note to the handyman? Cover-ups and silence?

4. The background of sexual abuse in the church in Austria, the accusation against the Cardinal of Vienna? The accusations in the film against the Cardinal of Salzburg? Accusations, reputation, the cover-ups?

5. The critique of the church, its institutions, in the 1970s? Later? Schools, boarders, shower areas? Sexual prurience, abuse? Authentic cases or not? The authorities and their responses? Suicides, murders?

6. Father Fritz, an embodiment of evil, smiling evil? His clerical dress? With the old men in the showers, helping them? Interviewing Brenner, offering him counselling and help? His relationship with the staff, the children in the school, building the sports fields? The revelation of the brothel, the women? The Filipino girls working and disappearing? The smuggling? The cook and the handyman? Their deaths? His being instrumental in the arrest of Brenner for his friend’s murder? His disappearance, in the house in Petting? The taking of Brenner, his staying and watching the opera, the confrontation in the bath area, turning on the hot shower, the confrontation with the handyman, his shooting him, his having the plastic bag over his head, his painful death?

7. Brenner, his past, contacts with the police? The private eye? Stopping the woman shoplifting, her attack on him, his losing his job because of her reputation and her father? In the underground, watching the kids dealing drugs, threatening the boy? Going to his large friend’s house, drinking, the drugs, the raid? His going to the suicide site, his views on suicide? Meeting the widow, her giving him the job? His infiltrating the institute as a derelict man, observing, meeting Father Fritz, working on the sports field, the attack of the model plane – and the old priest who couldn't speak?

8. Life in the institution, the old men and the showers, the meals? The children? The Asian staff, their arrival, the nuns, their being welcomed? The mass, the cardinal and his talk? The interruption after the finding of the body in the game?

9. The festival, the widow and her work for the festival, the rehearsals? The president, her father? The opera star, the rehearsals and performance? The star, his sexual appetite? The interruptions to the opera and Brenner and Bertie causing chaos?

10. Brenner, his friendship with Bertie, enlisting his help, the working together, gathering information, the old priest and his anxiety wandering the corridors, giving them the map for Petting? Their going to Petting?

11. Brenner, his friend’s death, his being arrested, bashed by the police, the police chief and their discussions, his being let go?

12. Going to Petting, finding the house, the opera star, the young girl, the older woman? The sexual behaviour, the confrontation?

13. The two killers, their continued appearance, their killing the victim of sex abuse? Their pursuit of Brenner, the parking lot and the chase, the trick to elude them? In the house, their wanting to kill Brenner and Bertie at the suicide site – but their jumping?

14. The president of the festival, his ownership of the house, his wanting to get rid of Brenner? His hired thugs? His relationship with his daughter, social standing? The final party after the opera, the production of the suicide note and the daughter thinking the case was closed? The picture of Salzburg society, at the opera, their not knowing how to respond to the disruption, the final chorus? The party afterwards?

15. Brenner and Bertie, the case being closed? Brenner and his migraines – and continually going to the pharmacist to get relief? His explanation about travelling back and forth? The irony of the lift from the pharmacist?

16. The final comment about numbers, seventy and the number of times for forgiveness? Sixty-nine and its sexual connotations? The irony that the murder of the abuse victim led to the unmasking of the Filipino racket?