Tystnaden aka The Silence (1963) A Dreamlike Nordic Psychological Drama Noir

"Tragically 

   Beautiful"

Written and Directed by Ingmar Bergman (The Seventh Seal, Cries & Whispers, From The Life of the Marionettes). 

Cinematography by Sven Nykvist (The Unbearable Lightness of Being). Music by Ivan Renliden. 

The film stars Ingrid Thulin as Ester, Gunnel Lindblom as Anna, Birger Malmsten as The Bartender, Håkan Jahnberg as The Hotel Waiter, Jörgen Lindström as Johan, Eduardo Gutiérrez and The Eduardinis as The little People.

Story

Night train to Nowheresville. 

The melancholy tale of a trio. A boy Johan, Anna his mother, and her sister and his aunt Ester. It's a Woman's Noir but, it's mostly through the boys eyes that we experience the film. In this respect its a Kids Noir too.

Gunnel Lindblom as Anna

Ingrid Thulin as Ester

Jörgen Lindström as Johan

It takes place in some European Noirsville, on the verge of an unnamed war. That's a chronological skip in Europe's "tune" since forever. How many times has that scenario occurred down through the ages. 

Our tale starts on rails. A train is traveling through open, high plains, type of landscapes. It's a bit surreal since from the lack of a pronounced clickety clack, clickety clack, it seems as if the train is floating through space and not on rails. It adds to this dreamlike quality.

It's obviously humid. We first see Johan sleeping in a compartment, the back of his head rests on Anna's arm. Anna is staring off into space we see her skin above her breasts glistening with sweat. 

She has a natural striking beauty. I get the impression "redhead." Seated next to against the interior glass partition is blonde Ester. Ester visibly displays a tightness comparatively to Anna's visual openness. She has her hair pulled back in a bun, in the humidity she is still wearing her jacket. These are all first impressions. 

Its first light - early morning and Ingrid awakens and starts coughing. 

Her handkerchief shows blood.  Is she tubercular? She doubles over then gets up and runs out into the corridor. Anna follows. When they return, a concerned Anna tells Johan to go outside into the corridor while she slides the compartment door shut helps Ester to lay down on the bench seat. 

Johan wanders down the corridor alongside the compartments. He's peeping through the glass into them to amuse himself.

He finally pulls down a window seat and sits, watching the the plains stretching towards the mountain ridge, where the sun is beginning to rise.

He is surprised by a passing munitions train pulling a long freight drag of flat cars full of tanks. 

We start seeing buildings we are slowing down. A conductor enters the car and announces into each compartment the next stop Timoka though at this point we have no idea what he is saying.

(There are no subtitles for this foreign country's language.)

None of our characters speak the language the conductor is speaking in, so we never know exactly where we are geographically.  

We cut to an elevated view of what must be the equivalent of Times Square, Piccadilly Palace, or Pigalle, for this Nowheresville. A neon hustle and bustle of bars, sidewalk cafes, traffic. 

A reverse angle shows us Johan looking down at the scene through the open window of a old hotel. Anna wearing a robe comes up behind Johan, closes the window and lets down the venetian blinds.

They apparently had to get off the train in a country, where they don't know the language, because Ester needs to rest up for a few days before she can travel again. 

Anna turns away from the window, checks on Ester, and then takes the opportunity to relax get comfortable and take a bath. 

After a while she calls Johan into the bathroom to scrum her back. Johan puts his head down on her shoulder when he's done. Anna tells him to go out and shut the door. 

When she emerges from the bath she is wearing her robe. She gets some skin lotion and applies ii to herself, then tells Johan to take off his outer clothes and she rubs what lotion she has remaining on her hands on his chest and back. 

She tells him to lay down on the bed and she takes off her robe and soon joins him.

The next sequence is all Ester. Besides being sick we also see that she is a boozer and a chain smoker. She plays the radio then shuts it off when bored, and leaves her room. She pauses to gaze over the brass bed head at the sleeping Anna and Johan, before heading back to her room. 

She polishes off the dregs of her bottle of vodka, and then rings for the hotel room porter. The tall lanky attendant is friendly and Ingrid communicates with him by pantomime. 

Håkan Jahnberg as The Hotel Porter

She needs another bottle of booze. The porter smiles nods and pantomimes back at Ingrid.. 

This whole segment is somewhat reminiscent of a similar room porter played by a goofy Hank Worden in the original Twin Peaks. I'd almost say Lynch saw this and remembered.  

The room porter returns with a tray with a filled snifter glass and some type of local brandy. and we get more pantomime. Once he splits, Ingrid puts down the snifter and grabbing the bottle takes a belt. She then carries the bottle to the bed and stretches out. 

She unbuttons her top and begins to fondle her breasts then reaches under the waistband of her pajamas and masturbates till climax. 

She ends up messing the bed either by getting sick, spilling the booze, or both. she has to ring for the room attendant and embarrassed she pantomimes, that she should have eaten something. He understands and pantomimes back that he will bring food. He brings her over to the adjoining bed, and then gathers up the soiled linen and departs. 

Meanwhile while all this is going on with Ester, Anna is still fast asleep, but Johan is awakened by the sounds of passing formations of airplanes overhead.  

Johan gets out of bed leaving Anna still asleep..

Johan dresses and sticks a cap gun in his shorts and goes out to explore the rest of the hotel. During which he meets an electrician, the lanky hotel porter, and a comedy troupe of dwarves. 

Johan's Adventures in Hotelland 

 

Anna awakens, heads naked to the bathroom bends over the sink an splashes herself with water and then gets dressed. 

Anna puts on a dress, does up her hair, and touches up her make up. She is going out to entertain herself. Ester, becomes aware of Anna getting ready to leave, and she obviously does not approve. Anna heads out anyway.

Soon after Anna leaves, the room porter brings Ester some food and while she is eating Johan comes back to the suite from his adventures, and Ester invites him to join her. They eat and talk.

Meanwhile, Anna heads to a bar and orders a drink where she catches the eye of a barman /waiter. 

She then goes to a theater and is seated up in a balcony. The show she watches is the same troupe of dwarves that Johan met at the hotel, but her attention is distracted, and her libido is aroused by the young couple on the opposite side of the aisle. They are making passionate love right before her, using the theater seat.  Anna can only watch so much, and then she bolts from the theater. 

Anna visits a live performance...

Anna watching the lovers and getting aroused

Anna can only watch so much, and then she bolts from the theater. We watch as Anna walks through the crowded streets, apparently searching for something....  

We cut back to Johan again on another adventure in the hotel. He comes down a corridor and comes upon the porter at his station. Johan stops and watches the porter eat. He waves Johan over and offers him some food, and shows him photos from his wife's funeral. 

Anna arrives back at the hotel and Johan goes out into the hall to greet her. 

It finally starts to go domestically Noirsville when Anna after she greets Johan in the hall, tells him to continue playing, and then heads to their rooms.  

Inside the suite Anna, seeing Ester typing in her room, stops and slowly closes the door to Ester's room. Ester now somewhat suspicious of little sister reopens the door, spying on Anna.

The back of Anna's dress is dirty and smudged

As Anna walks towards the bathroom we can see that the back of her dress is obviously soiled and so does Ester. 

Anna swings the bathroom door to shut it, but it doesn't quite make it, and Ester can peep right on her  through the open door. Ester watches as Anna pulls off her panties from beneath her dress and puts them in the sink to wash. 

Anna removing her soiled panties

Suspicious Ester

Ester then walks through the door with a superior smirk on her face. She stands there and watches Anna washing her panties. Anna spins around when she notices Ester. 

Anna asks if she is feeling better. Ester says nothing just reaches down towards Anna's soiled dress, which she then picks up and examines. Ester drops it back down in the tub, turns and walks back towards her room.

Anna is now a bit pissed off. She lets her hair down beginning to brush it while she paces back an forth. Finally she walks into Ester's room.

Anna: What are you doing?

Ester: Working as you can see.

Anna: Then mind your own business and don't spy on me. [stopping at the doorway] To think I've been afraid of you. 

Later that evening Anna is all dolled up again tells Johan to be good, and then announces that it's hot in here and that she wants to cool off. Hu huh....

Just as Anna Is about to go out the door Ester remarks "hurry while your conscience let's you." That stops Anna in her tracks, and she tells Johan to wait in hall but don't go far.

Just as Anna Is about to go out the door Ester remarks "hurry while your conscience let's you." That stops Anna in her tracks, and she tells Johan to wait in hall but don't go far.

Anna reminds Ester about the time ten years ago in Lyon when she went out with Claude, and about how when she got back she intimidated her, making her tell Ester every detail or she'd tell their father about it. 

Anna: I went to the cinema and sat in a box at the back. A man and a woman made love right in front of me. When they were finished, they left. A man came in, someone I'd met at the bar. He sat down next to me and started stroking my thighs. Then we had intercourse on the floor. That's how my dress got dirty.

Ester: Is that true?

Anna: Why would I lie?

Ester: Right. Why would you?

Anna: It so happens that I was lying.

Ester: It doesn't matter.

Anna: I sat and watched that couple make love. Then I went to the bar and this man left with me. I didn't know where to go, so we went into a church. We had intercourse in a dark corner behind some pillars. It was cooler there.

Ester:  I see.

Anna:  This time I'll make sure I get my clothes off first.

Anna walks off towards the door telling Ester she should lay down. Ester lays on her bed and asks her to stay and sit by her but she refuses.

Out in the corridor we watch Anna as she walks away down it. At one point she hears something and  turns around and her face shows recognition. She holds up a hotel key triumphantly, a man joins her. Its barman from the cafe. 

She breaks it off and leads him to the right room he takes the key and sticks it in the lock. While he is fiddling with the lock Anna is looking down the hallway towards the suite. She doesn't however see Johan standing not far off just behind her. He is watching her and her lover. 

Noirsville

I've never really delved much into Ingmar Bergman's films. The image that always immediately popped up in mind is Max von Sydow and Bengt Ekerot playing chess in a bleak and dreary landscape. 

An AI overview gives us this: His films are "characterized by profound, personal meditations on the human soul, mortality, and the "silence of God." heady stuff. You' have to find a personal key to get you into it enough to watch. Noir Visual Style is the key and the one film of his that struck me first, as quite Visually Noir was From the Life of The Marionettes, I figured it was maybe a one off but, The Silence has proved me wrong. There my be others.

There's lots of of beautiful Noir Visual Style cinematography in this tale of a dysfunctional family unit story.  

Gunnel Lindblom is very believable as Anna, she smolders, very effectively, and gives the impression that she is about to ignite at any second. Ingrid Thulin is the complete opposite. The adult, the intellectual, composed and proper. But she is also a controller however she can't control her tubercular deterioration. Jörgen Lindström as Johan is spot on and he reminds me of Bobby Henrey in Carol Reeds Kid Noir The Fallen Idol.

Now some reviews I've read mention that Ester and Anna may have had an incestuous relationship, but I don't get that reading at all. They may have been rivals for their fathers affection. There's one sequence where Anna mentions that ten years prior in Lyons that Ester questioned Anna about having sex with a guy named Claude, specifically wanting "all the details." It sounds more like Ester is repressed sexually and is more a voyeur, living out her fantasies through Anna, and the scene where she mastrubates enforces that notion. 

Definitely worth your time especially if you are visually perceptive. 10/10

One of the greatest films ever made

A landmark film - pure breakthrough cinema from Bergman - not just depicting, but living inside the existential dread-abyss of Modernity and its loss of mythic meaning. Two sisters' polarized answers to that dread - one deadens herself - the other seeks escape in mindless sensuality - while the son is abandoned to wander in an empty hotel with only absurd characters to play with, all in a stifling, gray, nameless, tank-ridden, Soviet-Kafkaesque-Eastern block industrial- waste, oppressive city. (I'd be very surprised if this film wasn't a seminal influence on David Lynch.) Brilliant performance by Ingrid Thulin as the cerebral, repressed sister. Startling and beautiful imagery and montage (visual and aural), brilliantly depicting the alienated inner and outer worlds. 10/10

mlumiere -  IMDb

Watch Bergman's life's work and save yourself a bundle on film school

An Ingmar Bergman film always takes me to film school. `Silence' offers the PhD. Metaphors and character arcs: No one does it better than Bergman.

It's a study in contrasts. It's about the strife sewn into the lining of family intimacy, contrasted with the perfection of strangers engaged in the base behaviors. Complexity vs. Simplicity. The common ground shared by youthful innocence and ignorance vs. the confusion imposed by years of living. Short people seeking acceptance vs. normal folk who are so completely unacceptable to each other. It's about a dying woman whose life's work is translating one language to another so others can understand it vs. two people who speak the same language who cannot understand each other (further) vs. two other people who speak different languages who have a better understanding than those sharing a common lexicon. And on and on.

Watching this film, it occurred to me how deeply Bergman's work influenced the likes of Kubrick and Hitchcock and Aldrich and Leigh … so many more. 2001 Space Odyssey, Psycho, so many of the great films have seeds here. The screen was Bergman's canvas; the camera his brush. Neither the script nor the imagery alone created the work. His work has a soul from the combination of all of it.

Watch Bergman's life's work and save yourself a bundle on film school. You'll be in the master's care.

WCS02 - IMDb