Ingmar Bergman’s, The Silence, is the third installment in the artist’s so-called “spiritual trilogy” which investigates the artist’s relationship, or lack thereof, with god or his spirituality. It was interesting to finally see this film so as to close the case on the collective effect of the trilogy, having studied all of its parts respectively. Having read up on the film a bit before watching it, I must say it was certainly liberating to see the camera move after coming from Winter Light and Through a Glass Darkly in which the camera barely moves at all. As Peter Cowie explains in his interview on the greater significance and overall critical interpretation of the film, some shots are even taken from the point of view of the boy; thus, giving the cinematography a subjective dimension apparently quite novel to Bergman films. The idea for this film that Bergman wrote about in his autobiography, Images: My Life in Film, was this notion that the entire screenplay was based on a dream; moreover, it was based on an alternate world, similar to our own, but a world without social rules or guidelines where anything can happen.
I found it most compelling the way the character of Ester had this profound inability to engage in social interaction, thus, leading her into alcoholism and social withdrawal. To that end, I also found it disturbing the way Anna is such a maliciously spiteful character to Ester as she tries to reach out to her. I think the entire film speaks to an inability of humans to interact socially, morally and virtually; and therefore, if the closest thing to spirituality lies in human interaction (in the mind of Bergman), what do we do if we can no longer communicate? Anna’s son, Johan, is representative of the purity of individuals before they are corrupted by society; still fresh and naïve to the world he is able to interact with all of the grotesque individuals he encounters throughout the hotel. It seems that both Anna and Ester are perpetually trying to escape as a result of their inherent inability to socially interact. Ester is constantly using alcohol and her work to escape the reality of her life and her inability to engage in social interaction and it seems Anna’s over-sexualized character seems to escape into sexual interaction as best exemplified in the scene where she makes love and ends up crying with the man she has met in the café. The notion of the dwarves is also quite interesting, Peter Cowie mentions this as well; Johan is able to interact with them, yet, Esther is unable to interact with them not due to their infirmity or grotesqueness but due to her own. Ester is obviously a figure suffering from an internal crisis, as is Anna, as they are both shown to be relatively beautiful women; yet, both seem rather grotesque psychologically.
The cast is quite small; yet, the two leading women are both Bergman favorites, quite competent and believable in their performances. We are familiar with Gunnel Lindblom from The Virgin Spring and The Seveneth Seal and with Ingrid Thulin from Wild Strawberries and Winter Light. Bergman says something in his autobiography about this film possibly being responsible for sabotaging both of these highly talented actresses careers due to some of the risqué more obscene portions of the film. For example, Gunnel Lindblom’s breasts are shown in clear view for a few second as she washes them off in the sink and then afterwards, she barges in on a couple having sex in the movie theatre; this moment too, is quite vividly portrayed. Furthermore, there are scenes of violent sex between Gunnel Lindblom and a waiter she picks up in a café, who doesn’t speak her language; a perfect candidate for Anna, emphasizing the theme of the inability of the characters in the film to communicate and truly engage in human interaction. I found it interesting to see, as Peter Cowie points out, the reflection of the ending of Through a Glass Darkly and Minus’ “Papa spoke to me” moment in Johan’s reading of Ester’s letter. Also, as Anna opens the window and gets covered with rain and water I see it as representative of the other water imagery we have seen in Bergman suggesting a sort of resurrection or rebirth; thus, maybe there is hope after all.