The Silence (1963)

Two estranged sisters, Ester and Anna, and Anna's 10-year-old son travel to the Central European country on the verge of war. Ester becomes seriously ill and the three of them move into a hotel in a small town called Timoka.

Director:

Ingmar Bergman

Writer:

Ingmar Bergman

Stars:

Ingrid Thulin, Gunnel Lindblom, Birger Malmsten

3 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Ingrid Thulin	...	Ester
Gunnel Lindblom	...	Anna
Jörgen Lindström	...	Johan
Håkan Jahnberg	...	The Hotel Steward
Birger Malmsten	...	The Waiter

Storyline

"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. The older one -- even though she is very ill -- would like to make a human connection also but cannot leave the hotel room. Traveling with the sisters is a small boy who escapes into the hotel, meets a troupe of dwarfs. Which sister is this little boy's mother?

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Plot Keywords:

female masturbation | female rear nudity | room | illness | translator | 

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Taglines:

Winner Swedish Film Academy Award Best Film of the Year 1963

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

Sweden

Language:

Swedish English German French Spanish

Release Date:

3 February 1964 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Silence

Filming Locations:

Svensk Filmindustri, Filmstaden, Råsunda, Stockholms län, Sweden

Company Credits

Production Co:

Svensk Filmindustri (SF)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

96 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (AGA Sound System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The language in the movie is Gun Grut Bergman's creation. She was a translator and linguist in Slavic languages. The name of the city, which is indicated first in the train's speaker, and then by Anna, as Timoka, is a real word however. Bergman found it in a book in Estonian on the bookshelf of his wife Käbi Laretei. When he asked what it meant, she replied "belonging to the hangman".

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Quotes

[first lines]
Johan: [points to a sign] What does that mean?
Ester: I don't know.

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Alternate Versions

According to a "Playboy" magazine interview with Ingmar Bergman conducted in 1964, "almost two minutes" were removed from the film's "erotic scenes" for its US release.

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Connections

Referenced in 13 posterunek: Kalambury filmowe (1998)

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Soundtracks

Sing, Baby, Sing
(uncredited)
Written by Lew Pollack and Jack Yellen

User Reviews

One of the greatest films ever made

A landmark film - pure breakthrough cinema from Bergman - not just depicting, but living inside the existential dread-abyss of Modernity and its loss of mythic meaning. Two sisters' polarized answers to that dread - one deadens herself - the other seeks escape in mindless sensuality - while the son is abandoned to wander in an empty hotel with only absurd characters to play with, all in a stifling, gray, nameless, tank-ridden, Soviet-Kafkaesque-Eastern block industrial- waste, oppressive city. (I'd be very surprised if this film wasn't a seminal influence on David Lynch.) Brilliant performance by Ingrid Thulin as the cerebral, repressed sister. Startling and beautiful imagery and montage (visual and aural), brilliantly depicting the alienated inner and outer worlds.