Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Silence de la Mer
Jean-Pierre Melville (director of masterpieces such as Le Samouraï and Le Cercle Rouge) made his first feature, Le Silence de la Mer, in 1949. A small story set during the German occupation of France, there are three main characters, two of whom barely speak, although the old man (Jean-Marie Robain) narrates the film, an account of a German officer, Werner von Ebrennac (Howard Vernon), taking a room upstairs in the elder's house. An interloper, von Ebrennac seems conscious of his intrusion. He seeks every night around nine o'clock to make his hosts feel comfortable with his presence. The uncle lives with his niece (Nicole Stéphane) who concentrates mostly on her knitting and sewing. The uncle and niece have long established the routine of spending their evenings in a study lined with books and maps, a fireplace warming the room in the colder months. The officer at first spends just a few minutes with them, speaking of this and that, but later on relates stories of his life in Germany.
All but two or three lines in the film are spoken by the officer. He never sits in the study except once when he plays a piece by J.S. Bach on the harmonium. He's a composer, he's cultured, knows French literature. It becomes increasingly difficult, even painful, for the niece and uncle to not interact with him. On the level of the arts and humankind's high achievements, the trio are the same in their appreciations.
The officer emerges as a decent man who, in his homeland, went along to get along as the political situation altered in the 1930s. By the end, it's obvious that the old man and his niece care about him. By then, Werner von Ebrennac gets transferred to an unnamed front, though it's probably the Russian.
The uncle writes a book about von Ebrennac, Le Silence de la Mer, subtitled The Assassination of a Poet. Distributed clandestinely, the book is based on the novel of the same name by Jean Bruller using the pseudonym Vercors. Melville shot the interiors of the uncle's house in Bruller's actual home. Since so much of the movie takes place inside the fire lit study, it's remarkable how Melville manages to show so many different angles and reveals on the room's details.
Howard Vernon's performance as the one talking throughout never flags for the viewer since everything he says is interesting. He speaks of France, his love for the country, tells of the first time he saw Chartres Cathedral. A low angle shot of a wheat field on a sunny day follows, the camera panning right to show the cathedral in the distance. A whip pan rightwards settles on the end of a German tank's gun barrel, travels onward to show Werner von Ebrennac standing in the position of a tank commander giving the order to fire.
It's the chaos and destruction of war, an assault against life and culture, depicted in a single creative shot, operating within the film's very low budget.
Suspense comes in many scenes, simply because the viewer keeps expecting the uncle or niece to say something, to engage in conversation with the German, to offer him a chair.
Jean-Pierre Melville was in the French Resistance. That he made such a film as his first feature indicates he had complex views about the war.
Vic Neptune
Jean-Pierre Melville (director of masterpieces such as Le Samouraï and Le Cercle Rouge) made his first feature, Le Silence de la Mer, in 1949. A small story set during the German occupation of France, there are three main characters, two of whom barely speak, although the old man (Jean-Marie Robain) narrates the film, an account of a German officer, Werner von Ebrennac (Howard Vernon), taking a room upstairs in the elder's house. An interloper, von Ebrennac seems conscious of his intrusion. He seeks every night around nine o'clock to make his hosts feel comfortable with his presence. The uncle lives with his niece (Nicole Stéphane) who concentrates mostly on her knitting and sewing. The uncle and niece have long established the routine of spending their evenings in a study lined with books and maps, a fireplace warming the room in the colder months. The officer at first spends just a few minutes with them, speaking of this and that, but later on relates stories of his life in Germany.
All but two or three lines in the film are spoken by the officer. He never sits in the study except once when he plays a piece by J.S. Bach on the harmonium. He's a composer, he's cultured, knows French literature. It becomes increasingly difficult, even painful, for the niece and uncle to not interact with him. On the level of the arts and humankind's high achievements, the trio are the same in their appreciations.
The officer emerges as a decent man who, in his homeland, went along to get along as the political situation altered in the 1930s. By the end, it's obvious that the old man and his niece care about him. By then, Werner von Ebrennac gets transferred to an unnamed front, though it's probably the Russian.
The uncle writes a book about von Ebrennac, Le Silence de la Mer, subtitled The Assassination of a Poet. Distributed clandestinely, the book is based on the novel of the same name by Jean Bruller using the pseudonym Vercors. Melville shot the interiors of the uncle's house in Bruller's actual home. Since so much of the movie takes place inside the fire lit study, it's remarkable how Melville manages to show so many different angles and reveals on the room's details.
Howard Vernon's performance as the one talking throughout never flags for the viewer since everything he says is interesting. He speaks of France, his love for the country, tells of the first time he saw Chartres Cathedral. A low angle shot of a wheat field on a sunny day follows, the camera panning right to show the cathedral in the distance. A whip pan rightwards settles on the end of a German tank's gun barrel, travels onward to show Werner von Ebrennac standing in the position of a tank commander giving the order to fire.
It's the chaos and destruction of war, an assault against life and culture, depicted in a single creative shot, operating within the film's very low budget.
Suspense comes in many scenes, simply because the viewer keeps expecting the uncle or niece to say something, to engage in conversation with the German, to offer him a chair.
Jean-Pierre Melville was in the French Resistance. That he made such a film as his first feature indicates he had complex views about the war.
Vic Neptune
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