Voice of Silence (1953)
"La voce del silenzio" (original title)

A group of men of differing circumstances and personalities gather at a monastery to undergo a course of spiritual reappraisal. They comprise of a candle-maker, a politician, an ex-prisoner... See full summary »

Director:

Georg Wilhelm Pabst

Writers:

Giuseppe Berto, Oreste Biancoli,

Stars:

Aldo Fabrizi, Jean Marais, Daniel Gélin

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Aldo Fabrizi	...	Pio Fabiani
Jean Marais	...	L'ancien maquisard
Daniel Gélin	...	L'ancien prisonnier
Cosetta Greco	...	Femme du prisonnier
Franck Villard	...	L'écrivain
Antonio Crast
Eduardo Ciannelli
Paolo Panelli
Fernando Fernán Gómez
Maria Grazia Francia
Checco Durante
Paolo Stoppa
Rossana Podestà
Enrico Luzi
Franco Scandurra

Storyline

A group of men of differing circumstances and personalities gather at a monastery to undergo a course of spiritual reappraisal. They comprise of a candle-maker, a politician, an ex-prisoner, a novelist and a petty thief trying to elude the police. All have their own spiritual problems to solve, except the thief. The politician, a former partisan leader, suffers the remorse of causing the deaths of three innocent men on a sabotage mission; he is set for the priesthood. The prisoner, a sick and possibly dying man, lacks the courage to visit his wife who is now happily remarried; his padre has advised him to leave her alone. The novelist bears the moral responsibility for offences committed by young people led astray by his writings; he earns a lot for his work, but is too demoralized to continue. Then the candle-maker - miserly, smooth-talking and bigoted - is unlikely to receive any benefit from his retreat to the monastery. Interwoven with the stories of these men is the drama of a ...

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

Italy France

Language:

Italian

Release Date:

1953 (USA)

Also Known As:

Voice of Silence

Filming Locations:

Cinecittà Studios, Cinecittà, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company Credits

Production Co:

Franco London Films, Società Italiana Cines

Technical Specs

Runtime:

110 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

User Reviews

The sounds of silence

Late career Pabst movie which takes place in a house where you can hear the voice of silence.Some men gave up their social life for Lent and spend some time in a house where they are in retreat ,pray ,meditate and repent.The problem with this screenplay is that there are too many characters and most of them are clichés (the resistant fighter who is responsible for the death of three innocent human beings;the pulp writer whose books "inspire" a mad youth and cause death too ;the man whose wife made a new life with another one,thinking her first love had been killed in action in WW2; a pickpocket conjurer;a priest who has his moments of doubt and more ).These mini-stories (with flashbacks galore) are too diffuse to be convincing and the movie fails to reveal a spiritual dimension ,in spite of the talents of seasoned actors such as Jean Marais (who's seeing things :ants on his Bible page) and Daniel Gélin.