The Silence

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The Silence

R

1963

1h 35m

Drama

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Popcornmeter

85%

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20 Reviews

88%

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5,000+ Ratings

Traveling through an unnamed European country on the brink of war, sickly, intellectual Ester (Ingrid Thulin), her sister Anna (Gunnel Lindblom) and Anna's young son, Johan (Jorgen Lindstrom), check into a near-empty hotel. A basic inability to communicate among the three seems only to worsen during their stay. Anna provokes her sister by enjoying a dalliance with a local man, while the boy, left to himself, has a series of enigmatic encounters that heighten the growing air of isolation.

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Richard Brody

New Yorker

Bergman unfolds grand themes-childhood and its mute sensibility, adulthood and its unhealed emotional wounds-in highly inflected images, which have an anguished intensity unseen since the age of silent films.

Feb 19, 2018

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Don Druker

Chicago Reader

One of his most perfectly realized efforts.

Aug 1, 2007

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Variety Staff

Variety

There is not much dialogue, almost no music, but the sex scenes have vigor and primitive power, to say the least.

Aug 1, 2007

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Marshall Shaffer

Vague Visages

The Silence presages a turn in Bergman’s style towards the more experimental and formalistic techniques...

Dec 6, 2023

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Keith Garlington

Keith & the Movies

It plays out like a series of snapshots, linked together by the thinnest of plot threads.

Rated: 2.5/5

Aug 25, 2022

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Judith Crist

New York Herald Tribune

The Silence is a symphony of despair, a harrowing harmony of the unspoken anguish and the unheard lament of the loveless. And it is, perhaps, the most psychologically complex and symbol-laden of Ingmar Bergman's movies and one of his most demanding.

Aug 8, 2022

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Dave S

Traveling home by train, sisters Anna (Gunnel Lindblom) and Ester (Ingrid Thulin) stop in an unnamed country to take a break from their journey. Ester, unable to leave their room due to an alleged illness, comforts herself with alcohol and nicotine. Anna, the more carnal of the two, searches the city for comfort in the arms of a stranger. What is most striking about Ingmar Bergman's The Silence is, not surprisingly, the silence, unsettling throughout. The interior shots are particularly disturbing as they are seemingly devoid of sound, even white noise, other than dialogue and percussive sounds. Like most of Bergman's movies, The Silence feels rich in themes, allowing the viewer to draw from it what they want. Sven Nykvist's (a Bergman regular) cinematography is striking, as are the performances from Lindblom and Thulin, also Bergman mainstays. Fans of Bergman will lap this up, while casual viewers may find it a little dry and obtuse.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

10/16/23

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scott s

For a film that has very little dialogue, it seems to capture your attention. Two sisters are trying to live there lives in a world that is emotionally void. Each shot by Bergman drives the harrowing narrative makes this a unique film from his catalog.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

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james g

This is a Bergman film, 100%. It's the acting and the camera angles and the cinematography that count for the most. For Bergman fans, certainly.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

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Audience Member

Absolutely one of the best of Bergman! So cruel, loveable and hopeful.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/05/23

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Audience Member

Crisply shot in stark black-and-white by the brilliant Sven Nykvist, this is a characteristically obtuse psychodrama from Ingmar Bergman - poetic, dreamlike, illusory. Two sisters travel by train and we're led to believe there's been a major war. The younger sister has a son, but he is left to himself in the strange shadowy corridors of the hotel they end up in, while she searches for sex and escape. The older sister (regular Ingrid Thulin - fantastic) is dying and is tended to by an old retainer. There are dwarves too. Short, strange, hypnotic.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/27/23

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Audience Member

Each new scene redefined hell on earth, I thought I was having a stroke at one point but it was just me reaching new heights of cringing.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

02/22/23

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Ingmar Bergman

Director

Ingrid Thulin

Ester

Gunnel Lindblom

Anna

Jörgen Lindström

Johan

Birger Malmsten

The Bartender

Håkan Jahnberg

The Waiter

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Synopsis

Traveling through an unnamed European country on the brink of war, sickly, intellectual Ester (Ingrid Thulin), her sister Anna (Gunnel Lindblom) and Anna's young son, Johan (Jorgen Lindstrom), check into a near-empty hotel. A basic inability to communicate among the three seems only to worsen during their stay. Anna provokes her sister by enjoying a dalliance with a local man, while the boy, left to himself, has a series of enigmatic encounters that heighten the growing air of isolation.

Director: Ingmar Bergman
Producer: Allan Ekelund
Screenwriter: Ingmar Bergman
Production Co: Svensk Filmindustri
Rating: R
Genre: Drama
Original Language: Swedish
Release Date (Streaming): Nov 20, 2018
Runtime: 1h 35m

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