Le Silence de la Mer (1949)

The German occupation of France, WWII: A German officer called von Ebrennac is lodged with a French family consisting of an elderly man and his young niece. The man and the niece defiantly refuse to talk to the German. But the German talks. First, hesitatingly, and then freer; it turns out he is no raving Nazi, but a lover of culture, a composer whose feelings about the war are ambiguous. It seems as if he does not understand his hosts and their contempt for him. He cannot stop talking about how much he loves France, and French culture (but not the modern part of it). Germany, to him, is Bach’s turf, not Hitler’s. Vivaciously, he imagines the alliance of two cultures. During a visit in Paris, he goes through some sort of spiritual conversion, in that he sees the reality of occupation: raving Nazis against the backdrop of Famous Monuments.

Le Silence de la Mer (dir. Jean-Pierre Melville) suffers from a few flaws, yet it is still a good film. The problem is that it overstates its case. The German is made too one-dimensional; a romantic whose perspective is destined to be shattered by reality. Of course, this is a good description, but the question is how it is made honest, so that rough edges are not glossed over. The silent Frenchmen are also overly simplified, but their silence is expressive enough to keep up tension.  But another problem is a very problematic depiction of secret love. We hear a man’s voice, the elderly Frenchman’s. He talks about the burgeoning feelings for the German shown by the niece. But she is silent throughout the film. A pretty face, a white neck, twitching, busy hands, whose movements are interpreted by another. Melville evokes the different ways in which we are silent, how silence changes from hostility to intimacy.

With Dutch angles, extreme close-ups and over-lighted sets, Melville transcends conventional film-making. Melville works with the medium, and tries to capture an atmosphere. The minimalism of the film could be the work of Bresson. Most events take place in one single room, where a clock is always ticking. Some scenes are really striking. For a film with so much talk in it, it is interesting to note that it is not the German’s monologues that keep this film going. The monologues are heavy with words, and they do not always work.

Of course, the political surrounding of the film should not be forgotten. The manuscript is based on a book written as a part of the French resistance movement during the war. The book, at the time, was very famous. Still, it is interesting to learn that the film was a commercial success. I think this has still to be one of the best films by Jean-Pierre Melville I’ve seen so far. To be honest, I’m not crazy about his crime films. To me, this film was much more interesting than his tongue-in-cheek crime flicks.