The Silence

"Shhhh!" ▼

[editor's note: I'm supposed to be blazing through the films I have watched, writing savvy and intellectual responses filled with interesting tidbits and divine links, but after about sixty of them, I'm flagging. People, I have at least 200 films left to go here and I'm tired. I'm sitting down by the proverbial information superhighway for a bit of a breather. Hope you don't mind. I was trying to keep the posts here abreast with my other blog, but let's face it I'm a little tired of maintaining that one as well and unless I can manage a couple reviews a day chances are this site isn't going to ever be completed. I mean this weekend alone I watched six films in rapid fire succession. I probably can't even remember the films I watched eight months ago much less offer a valid critical response. What's a girl to do? I take comfort in the fact that most of you probably haven't read all of my film reviews thus far and so can possibly delve into the directory for a closer look. Now onto the film review...]

Ingmar Bergman's third in his "religious" trilogy doesn't really broach religion, but does with masterly affect broach a lot of taboos and the theme of isolation. I hear people say, "Nothing happens in this film. It was boring." and for some people it certainly is boring and you could argue that indeed very little does happen. I can't really recommend it unless you are a fan of the slow developing arty style that is Bergman. I am convinced that for him film is a form of introspection. After watching it I got the impression that it was indeed a silent film. The voices, the sounds are all isolated from each other, never built up, even the characters are not in the same frame together most of the time. B/W 95 minutes. Released in '63.

Favorite moments: The scrawny mare, little boy in hallway, train ride.