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Concept
Le Silence de la mer (1949 film)
Summary
Le silence de la mer (literal English translation: The Silence of the Sea) is a 1949 film by Jean-Pierre Melville. It was his first feature film and was based on the 1942 book of the same name written by "Vercors" (the pen name of Jean Bruller). Set during WWII in occupied France, the story concerns the relationship of a Frenchman (Jean-Marie Robain) and his niece (Nicole Stéphane) with a German lieutenant, Werner von Ebrennac (Howard Vernon), who is billetted in their house. Most of the film was actually shot inside Bruller's own home outside of Paris.
In occupied France early in 1941, when Werner von Ebrennac, a German lieutenant with a limp, is billetted in a house in a small village that a retired man shares with his adult niece, the pair, without having to discuss it, agree never to speak to or acknowledge the unwanted intruder. Most nights as the uncle smokes his pipe and the niece does some sewing by the fire, the officer, at first dressed in his uniform and later in civilian clothes, comes to warm himself and politely engages them in a brief one-sided conversation. Speaking good French, he reveals that he is an unmarried composer and this is the first time he has been to France, though he has long studied and admired French literature and culture, which he seems to prefer to his own (except regarding music). Loyal to Hitler, he hopes the Nazi invasion will bring about a lasting "marriage" between France and Germany that will benefit everyone, a point he comes back to day after day and illustrates by referencing Beauty and the Beast (Germany being the beast, who only needs France accept it to turn into a prince). Werner often looks warmly at the niece as he extols the virtues of France; she remains obdurately silent, but occasionally betrays her growing feelings by a faint quiver of her fingers.
Werner gets some leave in the spring and spends two weeks in Paris. When he returns to the village, the uncle and niece do not see him for over a week. Finally, one night he knocks at the door and does not enter until the uncle, breaking his silence, invites the man in.
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