La Silence De La Mer review
and perplexing.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
A German lieutenant, Werner Von Ebrennac (Vernon), is stationed in
France during the time of the occupation and moves into the rural village
cottage of an elderly, scholarly gentleman (Robain) and his niece (Nicole).
They take a vow of silence toward the German intruder, sitting by their
fireplace night after night when the officer returns from his duty, never
saying a word to him during his entire stay. The officer never shows his
animosity as he uses their silence to fill in details in his diary about
what he is thinking: his love of music, his life story, the girl he almost
married, his love of French culture, and his belief that this occupation
will be good for both countries. He says it will be like a marriage. His
political naivety (in civilian life he is a musical composer) and his underestimation
of the evil government he represents, comes to light when he meets with
close friends who are in Paris to negotiate the political arrangement between
the two countries. It is then that he is shocked into realizing the barbaric
designs his government has to reduce the world to be submissive to a dominant
Germany, the aim to rip the soul out of each country it conquers. His more
benevolent ideas, for the mutual countries to co-exist, are sneered at
by his cultured German friends. Fed up with this, but resigned to the fact
that there is nothing he could do about it, he volunteers for duty in the
war zone.
The old man has left a copy of one Anatole France’s books out for
him to see just as he leaves for the front, the quote reads: “That it is
a soldier’s duty to disobey a criminal order given by his superiors.” The
niece also yields a muffled “adieux”, that he might have heard, but does
not respond to. That he leaves just at a time when they are questioning
if their silence was the right thing to do, adds an argument that Melville
might have been particularly interested in by showing that all parties
have to get rid of their hatreds before they can communicate with each
other to extract any positive results.
This film was made so close to the end of the war, that it seems
to be trying desperately and as intelligently as it can to understand what
went through the minds of those who participated in those infamous days
of occupation and show how it is possible to begin a healing process between
such sworn enemies. It captured the climate in France during the war and
the humiliations the French went through in the hands of their captors.
The Nazi Holocaust and its diabolical war machine, were subjects
not broached in any of the officer’s soliloquys with the couple held hostage
in their own home. How would he have treated them if they were Jews, remains
unanswered.
But it is through this officer that Melville symbolized the best
of Germany’s intentions, offering some hope for the world to have a saner
future.
What happened in that occupied house was a one-way dialogue, with
silence winning and losing. Winning because there was no other way to conduct
oneself with dignity when your enemy takes over your homeland, as the dignity
of those who formed the Resistance Movement is undoubtedly honored by Melville
for the rightful stand they took. Melville was in real-life a member of
that Movement. But the silence also signals a losing, because silence means
you can’t voice what is in your heart and mind and by remaining silent
it can be interpreted as a tacit acceptance of defeat and an unwillingness
to call out for what is right.
In the end, the German officer understood how hopeless it was to
believe that his Nazi government could help mankind and by volunteering
to fight for such a lost cause was committing suicide.
Melville’s film is stimulating and perplexing, open to wide speculation,
yet it is simple in tone and in human spirit. It gave me chills to watch
how natural it all seemed; firstly, because the protagonists were so real
and the situation was so menacing; and, secondly, everything happens in
such a matter of fact way, enhanced by being shot in the harsh and convincing
tones of black-and-white, giving the serene cottage setting a certain disquiet
with the dark sea in the background.
