The Silence of the Sea

In an occupied French town during the Second World War, a German officer is housed in the home of an older man and his niece. The two civilians will not speak to him, and their silence becomes their way of resisting the occupation. Each evening the officer, a composer in civilian life who admires French culture, talks to them about his homeland, his music and his hopes for the relationship between the two countries, without ever receiving an answer.

The film is Jean-Pierre Melville's feature debut, which he also wrote, and the first entry in a directing career that later included Le Doulos, Le Samouraï, Army of Shadows, Le Cercle Rouge and Un Flic. It is adapted from the novel by Vercors, a text associated with the French Resistance. Howard Vernon plays the officer Werner von Ebrennac, with Nicole Stéphane as the niece, Jean-Marie Robain as her uncle, and Amy Aaröe, Georges Patrix and Denis Sadier in supporting roles.

Released in 1949 and running 87 minutes, the film holds a rating of 7.6 on IMDb from around 6,200 votes and 7.5 on TMDB from a much smaller number of votes, while a critics' rating stands at 8.6 from ten reviews.