The Silence (1963) Tystnaden (original title)

Director:

Ingmar Bergman

Writer:

Ingmar Bergman (writer)

Release Date:

3 February 1964 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

"The Silence" is about the emotional distance between two sisters. The younger one is still attractive enough to pick up a lover in a strange city...

Plot Keywords:

Hotel | Traveling | Boy | Translator | Son

Awards:

3 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Ingrid Thulin	...	Ester
Gunnel Lindblom	...	Anna
Birger Malmsten	...	The Bartender
Håkan Jahnberg	...	The Waiter
Jörgen Lindström	...	Johan
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Lissi Alandh	...	Woman in Variety Hall (uncredited)
Karl-Arne Bergman	...	The Paperboy (uncredited)
Leif Forstenberg	...	Man in Variety Hall (uncredited)
Eduardo Gutiérrez	...	Impressario (uncredited)
Eskil Kalling	...	The Bar Owner (uncredited)
Birger Lensander	...	The Doorkeeper (uncredited)
Kristina Olausson	...	Anna (uncredited)
Nils Waldt	...	The Cashier (uncredited)
Olof Widgren	...	The Old Man (uncredited)

Directed by
Ingmar Bergman

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Ingmar Bergman		writer

Produced by
Allan Ekelund	....	producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Ivan Renliden		(uncredited)

Cinematography by
Sven Nykvist

Film Editing by
Ulla Ryghe

Production Design by
P.A. Lundgren

Costume Design by
Marik Vos-Lundh		(as Marik Vos)
Bertha Sånnell		(uncredited)

Makeup Department
Börje Lundh	....	makeup artist
Gullan Westfelt	....	assistant makeup artist

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Lenn Hjortzberg	....	assistant director
Lars-Erik Liedholm	....	assistant director

Art Department
Karl-Arne Bergman	....	property master (as Karl Arne Bergman)

Sound Department
Stig Flodin	....	sound
Olle Jacobsson	....	sound mixer (as Olle Jakobsson)
Bo Leverén	....	sound
Tage Sjöberg	....	sound

Special Effects by
Evald Andersson	....	special effects

Camera and Electrical Department
Rolf Holmquist	....	assistant camera (as Rolf Holmqvist)
Harry Kampf	....	still photographer
Peter Wester	....	assistant camera
Gerhard Carlsson	....	electrician (uncredited)

Other crew
Lars-Owe Carlberg	....	location manager
Katinka Faragó	....	script supervisor (as Katherina Faragó)

Production Companies

• Svensk Filmindustri (SF)

Distributors

• Janus Films (1964) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• atlas Film (1964) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• Embassy Home Entertainment (1987) (USA) (VHS)
• Criterion Collection, The (2003) (USA) (DVD)
• Kinowelt Home Entertainment (2005) (Germany) (DVD)
• Gutek Film (2007) (Poland) (all media)
• Arthaus Filmverleih (????) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• Constantin Film (1968) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• Impuls-Film Hans-Joachim Flebbe Co. (1975) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• Royal Films (1964) (Belgium) (theatrical)
• Criterion Collection, The (USA) (laserdisc)

Also Known As:

"Tystnaden" - Sweden (original title)

Runtime:

96 min

Country:

Sweden

Language:

Swedish | English | German | French | Spanish

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (AGA Sound System)

Certification:

Argentina:16 | Norway:16 (cut) | Norway:18 (1970) | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | UK:X (original rating) | Finland:K-16 (cut) (1963) | Finland:K-16 (cut) (1964) | Finland:K-16 (cut) (1965) | Finland:K-18 (uncut) (2004) | France:-12 | West Germany:16 (f) (re-rating) | West Germany:18 (f) (original rating) | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Svensk Filmindustri, Filmstaden, Råsunda, Stockholms län, Sweden

Company:

Svensk Filmindustri (SF)

Trivia:

The controversy the film acquired for being sexually explicit resulted in a much larger audience than most Bergman pictures. When Bergman realized this, he commented that it had attracted the most unwanted viewers of any of his pictures.

Quotes:

Ester:Erectile tissue... it's all a matter of swollen tissue and secretion; a confession before extreme unction. Semen smells nasty to me. I've a very keen sense of smell and I stank like rotten fish when I was fertilized.

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in Masculin Féminin (1966)

Soundtrack:

THE GOLDBERG VARIATIONS

This is Bergman at his most disturbing.

"Tystnaden", "The Silence", is perhaps Bergman's most disturbing film without the shocking images of, say "Cries and Whispers" and "Fanny and Alexander". It is more the atmosphere and what is not said that makes this film so uncomfortable to watch, but that is one of the things I love about the cinema- to be shocked, moved and disturbed by the images. I can understand why some people, my mother for example, do not like Bergman, but I believe he is a great artist and one of the true canonic directors we have, along with the likes of Dreyer, Mizoguchi, Fellini, Tarkovsky and Kubrick (just to mention a few!).

Bergman's women shine in this film, too, although they must have been exhausted afterwards. Ingrid Thulin and Gunnel Lindblom star as the two sisters, whose apparent incestuous relationship has destroyed them both, Esther (Thulin) physically (she is dying) and Anna (Lindblom) mentally. They arrive, with Anna's son Johan, in a foreign city at war, which creates an uncozy atmosphere around Sven Nykvist's exterior shots. The tanks roll down the city streets, becoming a metaphor of the war of emotions between Anna and Esther. Thulin makes a very physically demanding performance, like Harriet Andersson in "Cries and Whispers" she is dying (of cancer?), and her pain is showing. Anna clearly wants to hurt her sister, who is the oldest and smartest of them, by saying cruel things and playing with Esther's apparent sexual love for her.

Sigmund Freud would have loved this film, and Anna seems to want to break free from her sister by having casual sex with a man she meets at a bar. She then tells her sister about it, and Esther's reactions to this is extremely ambiguous, like most of the film is. Anna's wish to become free of her sister is deeply rooted in childhood experiences, and it leads Anna to say things like "I wish she was dead" to the man who does not understand a word she is saying. All these things make "Tystnaden" the disturbing film it is. The only release is when Johan explores the corridors of the hotel alone, meeting a bunch of short men who perform at a circus-like variete Anna visits to escape from the sight of Esther. But Johan meets a kind (or is he a paedophiliac?) old man who works at the hotel, and it is he who has to care for Esther as she draws her last breaths, Anna tearing Johan away from her sister's arm in a very cruel manner. The long periods of silence in the film perhaps makes the title, or perhaps it means that the silence about the sisters' past is never broken to us, the spectators. A lot is left up to us to interpret, typically of Bergman's cinema.

All in all, a very ambivalent, Freudian and disturbing film from one of the masters of the cinema.