LE SILENCE DE LA MER (France/1949)

Jean-Pierre Melville's first feature was independently produced, mostly self-financed. He had been denied a union card, and had neither a production permit nor the rights to the source material, a short story by Vencours. But nothing could keep the former Resistance fighter from making his film.

Werner, a German lieutenant, is stationed in France in 1941 and moves into the rural village cottage of an elderly, scholarly gentleman and his niece. They take a vow of silence toward the German intruder, sitting by the fireplace night after night when the officer returns from his duty. The well-mannered officer uses their silence to share his thoughts: his life story, the girl he almost married, his love of German music and French literature, and his belief that this occupation will benefit both countries. Werner admires the French couple's discipline and sense of dignity. His political naivete (in civilian life he is a musical composer) and underestimation of the evil government he represents, comes to light when he meets with 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, namely to reduce the world to be submissive to a dominant Germany, to "rip the soul" out of each country it conquers. His more benevolent ideas are sneered at by his 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.

Most of the action occurs in the living room of the country cottage. There are two potent flashbacks to Werner commanding a tank in front of Chartres Cathedral and a pre-war rendezvous in the Bavarian woods with his girlfriend. There are two outdoor scenes in which the French man and his niece separately run into Werner, but manage to maintain their vow. Le Silence de la Mer is unique in that it contains no dialogue; Werner's monologues alternate with the Frenchman's voice-over narration while the characterization of the niece is built out of the precise observation of her body movements and gestures. The brilliant choreography of medium shots and perfectly timed close-ups evidence a first-time director who acquired a hand-cranked camera and a projector at the age of six.

Le Silence de la Mer is rich in meaning but austere in presentation, not unlike the films of Robert Bresson. Later in his career, Melville would say: "I sometimes read Melville is Bressonian...I'm sorry, but it's Bresson who has always been Melvillian". Jean Cocteau was among the few who watched Melville's debut upon release. He immediately proceeded to ask him to direct the screen adaptation of his play "Les Enfants Terribles". By the time he died in 1973, Melville had created an admirable body of work and had been recognized by many as "the father of the French New Wave".