Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville • 1949 • France
Starring Howard Vernon, Nicole Stéphane, Jean-Marie Robain
Jean-Pierre Melville began his superb feature filmmaking career with this powerful adaptation of an influential underground novel written during the Nazi occupation of France. A cultured, naively idealistic German officer is billeted in the home of a middle-aged man and his grown niece; their response to his presence—their only form of resistance—is complete silence. Constructed with elegant minimalism and shot, by the legendary Henri Decaë, with hushed eloquence, LE SILENCE DE LA MER points the way toward Melville’s later films about resistance and the occupation (LEON MORIN, PRIEST; ARMY OF SHADOWS) yet remains a singularly eerie masterwork in its own right.
Up Next in Voices of Protest
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Ikiru
Directed by Akira Kurosawa • 1952 • Japan
Starring Takashi Shimura, Nobuo Kaneko, Kyoko SekiOne of the greatest achievements by Akira Kurosawa, IKIRU shows the director at his most compassionate—affirming life through an exploration of death. Takashi Shimura beautifully portrays Kanji Watanabe,...
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Ashes and Diamonds
Directed by Andrzej Wajda • 1958 • Poland
On the last day of World War II in a small town somewhere in Poland, Polish exiles of war and the occupying Soviet forces confront the beginning of a new day and a new Poland. In this incendiary environment we find Home Army soldier Maciek Chelmicki, who...
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Youth in Fury
Directed by Masahiro Shinoda • 1960 • Japan
An alienated young man flirts with extremism during a major student protest. Directed by Masahiro Shinoda.
