You asked for it, so we answered.
After last week's look at dialogue you wanted us to look at silence.
So we are, and yes, this does mean we read the comments.
So you can take right back all those nasty things you've ever said about our mothers.
These are the top ten uses of silence of all time.
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(Sound) We start our journey at number 10,
exploring specific moments that use a complete lack of sound to profound effect.
It's probably most familiar to you in in it's post explosion shell shock form,
as in 'Saving Private Ryan,' in 'Jarhead' and 'The Book of Eli,' but
you find it in the void of space too, as in 'Gravity' or 'Contact' or '2001'.
It's the lack of the voice of God in 'Silence', an unbearable moment in
'Leaving Las Vegas', the moment before snapping in 'Serenity'.
However, for our pick, we've gotta give it to the minute of silence from 'Bande
a Part.' - (Foreign)
- (Foreign)
- Okay
(Foreign) - We
think what's most special about this moment is how unique it really is.
Silence, true silence in cinema is incredibly rare,
like once in a decade rare.
Most silences, aren't even silent at all.
They're ambiences, and sound effects and sub base and a subtle score, but
not 'Bande a Part', "Godard" silence is the real deal and it is so jarring for it.
Comparing the discomfort of a conversational silence in
a bar to the utter silence of a muted soundtrack.
It's playful and formalist, and
it interrogates itself in true Godardian fashion.
- (Foreign) (Sound)
- One step up from the silent moment
is the silent sequence.
Entire spans of film that build quiet into their essence.
It's the beginning of 'There Will Be Blood', the ending of 'Upstream Color'.
Developing photos in 'Blow Up,' searching for
a bug in 'The Conversation,' the phone call in 'The Departed,' and
almost anything suspenseful in any number of "Hitchcock" flicks.
And while we love the heist in 'Le Cercle Rouge,' we still don't think you can beat
the one in 'Rififi.'
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It's 30 straight minutes of non-stop quiet.
And it's silence for such a good reason.
Dassin sets up an alarm system that's set off by the slightest sound.
So there's not just quiet out of convenience, but out of need.
And the effect is brilliant.
We become hypersensitive to noise, white knuckling on the edge of our seats.
(Sound) We couldn't make a list about movie silences without
at least acknowledging the entire era of films that had no choice in the matter.
And while it would be crazy reductive to relegate all of silent films
to a single slot on this list, that's never stopped us before.
So, what are the best of the best?
There's 'The Passion of Joan of Arc,' 'Sherlock Jr.,' 'Metropolis,' 'Battleship
Potemkin,' 'City Lights,' 'Sunrise,' and 'Intolerance'.
Hell, there's even a few modern examples, like 'The Artist,' 'Silent Movie,' and
'Pushpak'.
However, if we had to pick just one, we'd pick "F W Murnau's" 'The Last Laugh'.
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The 'Last Laugh' is as silent a film as a silent film can be.
Without a single inner title to stand in for dialogue,
every piece of information is told visually.
And it's a uniquely fitting challenge for
an expressionistic film ny such a visually talented director.
As a result it is the ultimate incarnation of what the silent film can be,
talking with pictures.
(Sound) So what about films that might have sound, but not dialogue?
And there's actually not that many, if we're really strict about it.
There's 'The Thief,' a speechless 50s spy thriller, and
'Moebius,' a Korean film about obsession and castration,
who's characters communicate only in nonverbal utterances.
'Themroc,' a French story told with only gibberish, and
'Le Bal,' a 50 year history of France through ballroom dance.
However, for our number 7 pick, we're going with 2014's 'The Tribe'.
'The Tribe' is an entire feature with no words, no subtitles, just signing.
But it's not non-verbal.
There is language underlying it.
It's just that your average viewer has no access to understanding it.
So they're forced to rely on all the other cues available that we might
normally ignore.
It's a silent film for the sound era.
Fascinated by the expressiveness and personality embedded in
the incomprehensible and utterly captivating for it.
(Sound) There's another sub genre of dialogue-less film
that we feel is worth mentioning, the tone poem.
Think 'Samsara,' 'Baraka,' and 'Chronos', Think 'Koyaani',
'Powrwa' slash 'Naqoyqatsi'.
Think 'Scorpio Rising" or bits of "Tree of Life".
And while we love all our honorable mentions, for our number 6 pick we think
we have to take it back to the original 'Man With A Movie Camera'.
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Okay, so this one's a silent era film too, but
it would still be just as dialogue free if it were made today.
'Man With A Movie Camera's' style of expression is so
far from the verbal, it's on a whole other planet.
It's an attempt to create a whole new form of communication for
the new medium of cinema.
It's one of the purest incarnations of Soviet montage working free associatively
in the audience's mind.
Creating the gestalt of a city with images and cuts and not a single word.
(Sound) Just like the tone poem,
animated films also have a long history of telling stories sans words.
There's something special about the hand rendered medium that gives animators
the control and
the challenge enough to try to get everything across without words.
'Shaun the Sheep' is probably the most recent example of this, but
there's also 'The Triplets of Belleville', 'L'Illusioniste', 'Blood Tea and
Red String', '9', 'The Red Turtle' and the beginnings of 'Up' and 'Wall-E'.
And maybe this one's a give me, but we think our favorite's gotta be 'Fantasia'.
(Music)
You may have noticed that we've gotten pretty far afield from actual
silence here.
'Fantasia' is, of course, an incredibly loud film.
And even true silence isn't true silence,
it's more of a lack that reveals what else you've been ignoring.
So, sometimes silence just means music and in 'Fantasia',
that music becomes image and plot and story.
While wisely avoiding words or diegetic sound and with everything else stripped
away, we're allowed to see how much they can really do.
(Sound) Of course there are also films that maybe missed some of the no dialogue
at all slot, but still don't make language an important part of their narrative.
These are films like 'The Color of Pomegranates', 'Eraserhead',
'The Match Factory Girl', 'Solaris', of course we're going to sneak in a mention
of 'The Mirror', 'Mad Max', 'Drive', 'Le Samourai', 'Badlands', 'The Fits',
'Elephant', 'The Silence' is obvious Bergman pick.
And our number four pick, 'Playtime'.
Please sir.
- Thanks.
- "Tati's" masterpiece, 'Playtime', is notable for so many reasons, and
it's near lack of dialogue is only one.
Words are more sound effects than vehicles of language, footsteps often convey as
much as words, a non-Francophile would be just as well watching without subtitles,
perhaps better.
The effect of its quiet is, again, refocusing,
this time to different relationships between people and
the space they inhabit, humans and their society, us and our world.
It reveals absurdism, and silliness, and
humor in a beautiful updating of the silent film tradition.
(Sound) And some films take on subjects that either won't talk, can't talk, or
can't understand each other.
Whether it be in 'Walkabout', 'Son of Saul' or
even the prehistoric 'Quest For Fire'.
'The Bear's' main obstacle to communication is that its main characters
are, well, bears.
But our number 3 pick uses a post-apocalyptic affliction
to render all of his characters mute in 'The Last Battle'.
(Noise)
'The Last Battle' is a film about a world gone silent.
It's two total words of dialog across
its entire run time take on an immense significance.
Not so much for their meaning, which is inconsequential, but for
the fact that they exist at all in that vacuum.
It's built in obstruction provides "Luc Besson" on a wonderful opportunity to
explore conflict visually in his first ever directorial outing,
which he does with aplomb.
(Sound) Of course you don't have to worry about reasons to keep your characters from
talking if there's no one to talk to.
There's a whole genre of nearly silent films whose quiet comes primarily from
isolation.
These are films like 'The Naked Island', 'The Black Stallion', 'Castaway',
'Castaway' in space, 'Gerry'.
And our number 2 pick, 'All is Lost'.
(Noise) Solo survivor tales
like 'All is Lost' tend
to fall squarely into
the man versus nature
conflict category.
And don't have much room or use for mincing words.
And while some films employ various conceits to keep their characters talking,
we have the utmost respect for those like 'All is Lost' that don't.
"Chandor" trusts his toolkit as a filmmaker, and
"Robert Redford's" expressiveness to say everything he might need.
Taking it all the way basics, survival.
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(Sound) On the flip side at number 1, one of our favorite reasons to hear silence in
film is for the relationship study without words.
Things become clearer, simpler, more universal.
We see how the words don't matter and it just comes down to emotional connection.
Dialogue is just a clever mad lib.
Strip it out and it's all the more understandable.
'Shame's' first scene is a brilliant bit of this,
as are whole swaths of 'Nothing Personal'.
But the real master of the unspoken duo is "Kim Ki Duk",
who's brilliant silences are top notch in 'The Bow', nearly total in '3 Iron', but
never better than 'Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring'.
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'Spring' silence isn't just quiet.
It's a meditation.
The silence is powerful, aspiratiol, soothing, calming, peace.
It uses words as Gandhi suggested, only when they would improve upon silence.
And this is a rare occasion indeed that exposes the beauty in silence,
as Buddhist a film as we could imagine, which is why it's our pick for
the best use of silence of all time.
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So, what do you think?
Disagree with any of our picks?
Did we leave out any of your silent faves?
Let us know in the comments below and be sure to subscribe for
more Cinefix movie lists.
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