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Film Archive

The Silence of the Sea

Tribute to Jean-Pierre Melville 2012 / Le silence de la mer / France 1947

A pioneering work of French independent film based upon the renowned, illegally-written novella of the same name. During the Second World War, a German officer named Werner von Ebrennac is lodged with an old man and his niece. The pair endure his presence in silent self-denial, while he tries to convince them of his good intentions to unite the French and German nations.

The Silence of the Sea

Synopsis

The illegal Midnight Press (Les Éditions de Minuit) published The Silence of the Sea by Vercors in 1942. The story itself is simple. After France is occupied, an old man and his niece must quarter a German officer named Werner von Ebrennac. He is the picture of courtesy: he asks for permission, he offers conversation, he explains – and to everything they respond with silence. Silence dominates the rest of the plot as well. It is a symbolic expression of resistance in which all of France is keeping silent. The movie was a direct protest against the claims of the occupiers about the "loyalty” of the French nation. In this seemingly small-scale story, the German officer, a character with many positive traits, loves France and believes that the sense of the war lies in the spiritual coming together of everything that is best about the two nations. Jean-Pierre Melville spoke about his debut as an anti-film. He created an onscreen world based on image and sound, while movement and action are suppressed. Even though the director quite literally held to the film’s literary progenitor, he allowed himself some parenthetical flourishes to complement the German officer’s internal monologue, or to round out the plot (for example, the girl’s encounter with Ebrennac in the snowy landscape). The extremely short shoot began on September 11, 1947 and lasted 27 days. In the context of French film, it was one of the first motion pictures produced independently of the state system – the director didn’t have any of the necessary permits, not even the rights to the literary work.

About the film

88 min / Black & white, 35 mm

Director Jean-Pierre Melville / Screenplay Jean-Pierre Melville podle povídky / based on the short story by Vercors / Dir. of Photography Henri Decaë / Music Edgar Bischoff / Editor Henri Decaë, Jean-Pierre Melville / Producer Jean-Pierre Melville / Production Melville Productions / Cast Howard Vernon, Nicole Stéphane, Jean-Marie Robain / Contact Institut français

Contacts

Institut français
8-14 Rue de Capitaine Scott, 750 15, Paris
France
Phone: +33 153 698 300
Fax: +33 153 698 300
E-mail: [email protected]

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