The plot of The Silence follows sisters Ester played by Ingrid Thulin and Anna played by Gunnel Lindblom and a child Johan played by Jorgen Lindstrom, the film is played in the majority from Johan’s perspective as they travel to an unknown city in an unknown country. The locals speak a language which is part made-up and part Estonian, although the country is most definitely not Estonia (swelteringly hot nights are not too common in the Baltic) there is a sense that this is an Eastern block nation, a bizarre place where men and women have sex in theatres and men make their sexual desires overt, we never see any soldiers yet tanks are everywhere, the city bustles in the day but is deserted at night, fighter jets are heard flying above but are never seen and do not bomb the city. In one stand-out scene, a tank rolls into the street below the sister’s hotel room, its appearance is pre-empted by a low rumbling heard in the distance. The tank parks at the top of the street and all is silent before it slowly moves on like a lion who’s missed his prey. The location feels like it is on the edge of an abyss, staring possible destruction in the face, there is no God here, because in this world God does not exist. The world is barren and the people find solace in acts of extreme physical intimacy, this is possibly Bergman’s most moody location, and for Bergman Location is key. Within all three films the locations act as codes for the themes of the films, meta communication is as important as verbal communication, J.Kalin discusses this point in the book The Films of Ingmar Bergman: “The settings themselves often encode its isolation and sense of inner barrenness. Through a Glass Darkly takes place on an island surrounded by a sea that blends into the sky, and Winter Light occurs at the beginning of winter when everything is grey and about to be surrounded by the snow, which will form a white void. In The Silence, the setting is no longer an actual island or one created by the weather, yet it comes to the same thing, for the film takes place for the most part in a train coach or hotel in a foreign country with unknown customs, ominous military activities in the streets, a curfew that enforces inactivity for large parts of the day, and an undeciphered language.” (P6) They are not safe here in this bleak and horrendous place, but they are also not safe in each others company – so much so that the outside danger is rendered redundant to the sisters. Ester is very ill - possibly gravely ill, although she was once very close to Anna they’ve grown apart, Ester has always been more conservative, but now in this Godless world she needs to connect to someone. Anna by contrast becomes recklessly sexual, although initially repulsed by the idea she seduces a local waiter and uses her sexual conquest to irritate Ester (and possibly make her jealous), although the reality is that sex with this Waiter is cold and meaningless, they both fake passion but it is nothing more than surface based lust. The Silence is easily the most erotic and sexually explicit of all of Bergman’s films, be it the aforementioned couple having sex in a theatre, Anna constantly striping because of the unbearable heat or having sex with the waiter or Ester masturbating in bed. E.Hedling comments in Film International Vol.6 No.6/2008 the Article: Breaking the Swedish Sex Barrier: Painful Lustfulness in Ingmar Bergman’s The Silence: “In the film the woman also shows her naked breasts. And we see the couple make love quite violently without any other revealing detail. I think it is clear from Bergman’s notes that he really wanted to show something entirely unpleasant and completely un-errotic.” (P21) Bergman’s un-erotic intents may not have been realised. Although tame by today’s standards it is easy to appreciate how this content caused a stir in 1963, it was one of Bergman’s most widely seen films at the time of its release because of the nudity and sexually explicit scenes, Bergman felt that this had attracted the entirely wrong sort of audience to his film which is probably why after this the sexuality in his films became far more implicit. The sex is not without its purpose, it is the last area of faith to be explored in this trilogy, sex is a form of nourishment for the characters in the same way as other exploits of previous protagonists contribute towards the escape from emotional and spiritual destitution, Kalin again comments: “Martin, in Through a Glass Darkly has his patients, allowing him to lose himself in his medical practice even though there is no personal involvement or commitment to their lives Tomas has done much the same with the members of his parish, to whom he now ministers abstractly and out of duty (or desperation) rather than from love or any personal concern… Anna in The Silence deals with the silence through a sexual hedonism in which she turns towards other men only in their capacity to provide her with sexual pleasure and diversion. All these protagonists continue to refuse to turn towards others in any fuller sense, and their lives are smothered as a result. In each of these cases, impersonalness is only a minimal affirmation of the world that shuts out any nourishment in return.” (P15) There is a sublime, dream like quality to The Silence, but unlike say Hour of the Wolf for example, here the nightmare feels real and is the only dimension the narrative operates from. The bizarre language the locals use, or the Johan’s encounter with a troop of performing dwarf’s, the empty city and indeed the near empty hotel, barren, dark and cold like the relationship between the sisters. There is a sinister otherworldly quality to The Silence, perhaps an influence on the works of directors David Lynch and Bela Tarr who employ similar techniques in creating their subtly paranormal canvas’. The Silence in a sense operates out side of the normal confines of reality (even a Bergman reality) - but only just. The relationship between the two sisters is blisteringly venomous, there is an implied incestuous past, and a question mark hangs over the head the boy – who of the two sisters is actually the mother? Ester feels physical pain from her illness but seems detached from emotional pain until the final scenes of the film, Anna by contrast feels emotional pain, in two separate scenes the sisters rive with pain, holding onto the bed posts to control themselves, their arms spread wide, their heads hanging low they take the position of Christ on the cross. There is a possible reading of this pose and this feeling of loss and helplessness is a literal extension of the Pastor’s assistant’s speech from Winter Light, "God, my God!" "Why hast thou forsaken me?" He doesn’t answer because he does not exist. Thulin is as excellent here as she is in Winter Light, Thulin is a Bergman regular and through the years has played a variety of parts in Bergman’s films, Hedling comments on this variety: “Thulin’s appearances in Bergman filmschanged gradually over the years. One could even say she degraded. In her first role for Bergman, in Wild Strawberries (1957), she was depicted as an absolutely lovely person, radiant in her physical beauty and human kindness. In a later role, as the school mistress in Winter Light (1962), she is- despite her natural good looks – made to appear slightly repulsive, at least that is what the protagonist, the parson Tomas, tells her in a famous scene. This development culminated in Crises and Whispers (1973) where she cuts her vagina with a piece of broken glass. Thulin’s part in The Silence does nothing to improve her image, which follows directly on the drab portrait in Winter Light. Of the sisters shown, it is instead Gunnel Lindblom’s Anna who is portrayed as the sexy beautiful albeit neurotic one, and Thulin’s Ester the pale, cancerous hysteric.” (P20-21)
The Faith trilogy was the finest set of films Bergman would ever made, only his 1980’s masterpiece Fanny and Alexander would bring him close to this level of cinematic excellence again. The Seventh Seal and Wild Strawberries brought him to the attention of international audiences in 1957, and he won his first Academy Award for The Virgin Spring in 1960, but the Faith trilogy pushed him to another stratosphere of film making. Surprisingly, one of this weakest films in his career would come next in the form of a wretched absurdist comedy All these Women in 1964, but perhaps after the majesty of the Faith trilogy, he simply needed a rest. If you’re a first timer to Bergman’s works you might want to watch The Seventh Seal or The Virgin Spring first before attempting these three films, as you’ve doubtlessly gleamed from these episodes, they’re not the easiest of films to watch. But if you have the patience and the desire then The Faith Trilogy is a rewarding film experience that you can not afford to miss. M.Dawson |
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The third film in the trilogy is arguably both the weakest film (although counter arguments could be made that it’s actually the strongest) and also the most loosely tied to the overall thematic exploration. It is the only one of the films which does not refers to the stone faced spider God, and in fact during its entire run makes but one direct reference to God within its dialogue. The strongest connection to the other films comes in it’s title: The Silence, is this referring to God’s silence, or the silence we experience at the moment of death, so some other form of silence which pervades our lives, or because Bergman’s intent was to create a film with as little dialogue as possible? The film is starkly silent, as with Through a Glass Darkly, it barely has any music, but unlike the previous films there is little in the way of spoken word, and much of what is spoken is not understood. 
The characters are bleak, the themes are bleak. The visuals match this tone but are simultaneously beautiful as shot by Bergman’s long time collaborator, director of photography Sven Nykvist. In Through a Glass Darkly he capitalises on this northern islands long days, a sun which never seems to set but just skirts along the bottom of the horizon. Nykvist’s love of close-ups and natural light is here taken full advantage of, his high contrast black and white suits the Faith trilogy. In Winter Light his camera work would reach an even higher point, every shot is expertly formed, every image is composed to microscopic exactness. The blacks are deep and profound, complemented by natural light and gentle shadows. Close-ups are also pushed as far as they can, one relentless close-up on Marta’s face is a stand-out shot as she speaks of her love for Tomas, we don’t cut away, we don’t move, backwards or forwards, instead we remain fixed, staring into her eyes as constantly as she stares into ours. As much as there is to praise in these two films, it is Nykvist’s work in The Silence which is the most impressive, The Silence is arguably Nykvist’s zenith, exquisitely shot in the highest of high contrast black and white, the images appear almost exactly that, black and white, no levels of grey in between. His camera glides gently through the hotel, the movements are dynamic, rotating around characters, moving from person to persons reflection through a mirror with disorientating precision. One stand out shot pulls back from a hotel door and miraculously glides underneath a bed post. Long before David Fincher’s Panic Room used CGI to achieve the same effect, Nykvist did it with good old fashioned tricks of cinematography. Nykvist’s contribution to Bergman’s later works can not be underestimated, where as his 1950’s and 40’s work had a rougher edge to it, Nykvist brought a gentle and more natural touch to Bergman’s films, his lighting is exemplary and framing is always perfect. Nykvist attributes his ability as a cinematographer to his work on The Faith Trilogy; truly this is where he learnt his craft under Bergman’s direction.
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