In this episode, I talk about Jean-Pierre Melville's 1949 film "Le silence de la mer." It's set in France in 1941 at the time of the Second World War. The Germans are occupying France, and a German soldier stays with a niece and her uncle who use their silence as a form of resistance against him. Every night, he comes to them and talks about his life, his interests, his love of France, and many other subjects, but they refuse to acknowledge him or speak to him. Over the course of the film, their feelings for him start to get more complicated. He is an occupier in their country and in their house but the intimacy of their meetings also humanizes him. This is not Melville's most famous film but it's one that I think is profoundly important because of the way it asks us to expand our ideas about what constitutes resistance and how we interact with those who we're supposed to see as monstrous or as the enemy. I talk about Melville's life, the making of the film, and much more. There are spoilers in this episode.
Consider making this podcast sustainable by supporting it on Patreon.
Subscribe to the Her Head in Films Newsletter.
Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram.
Original logo by Dhiyanah Hassan
Full Show Notes
All My Sources
Abbas Kiarostami's 'Taste of Cherry' (1997)
Claude Chabrol's 'La Cérémonie' (1995)
Christian Petzold's 'Phoenix' (2014)
Alan J. Pakula's 'Sophie's Choice' (1982)
Satyajit Ray's Apu Trilogy
Satyajit Ray's 'Pather Panchali' (1955)
Jean-Jacques Beineix's 'Locked-In Syndrome' (1997) and Julian Schnabel's 'The Diving Bell and the Butterfly' (2007)
David Lean's 'Summertime' (1955)
Krzysztof Kieślowski's 'The Double Life of Veronique' (1991)
Satyajit Ray's 'The Big City' (1963)
João Dumans and Affonso Uchoa's 'Arábia' (2017)
Barry Jenkins's 'Moonlight' (2016)
Jennie Livingston's 'Paris is Burning' (1990)
Stanley Tucci and Campbell Scott's 'Big Night' (1996)
How I Discovered Cinema and Why It's So Important to Me
Krzysztof Kieślowski's 'Dekalog'
An Introduction
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The Multiverse Fancast
Cinema: A to B
I Finally Watched...
Pod Meets World
Kill James Bond!