Le Silence de la Mer. A film. A Meditative Exploration of Noble Silence. Set in Nazi occupied France.

A French cinema masterpiece

On a cold winter's night in March (2025), I placed myself in the armchair in front of the warmth of the wood-burning stove at home in the kitchen-diner. In my lap, I had my tablet searching in YouTube for a film to watch. I came across Le Silence de la Mer (The Silence of the Sea - with subtitles), a 90-minute French film made for television in 2004.

Within a few minutes, I found myself fully engaged without the blinking of an eye or so it seemed. Based on a novel, the film tells the story of three people - a Nazi army officer, a French grandfather and his granddaughter. Her father died in World War 1 and her mother died in 1932.

The film revolves around a German officer, Captain Werner von Ebrenach, who is billeted with the two French citizens in their rural home in 1941. Le Silence de la Mer explores the theme of noble silence as a form of resistance, highlighting their dignified refusal to engage in conversation with the officer.

Application of noble silence has deep significance in the Buddha’s teachings. This silence abides free from fear revealing integrity and clarity of mind.

I experienced immense appreciation for the film’s meditative exploration of ethical principles and its portrayal of silent resistance, as a powerful statement against occupation and collaboration,

The two members of the family listen to the few words of the German officer and start to realise he is a cultured man with a deep love of music, literature, and French culture. They maintain a dignified silence, week after week, in the presence of a Nazi in their home. Their silence confirms an anti-war, anti-occupation stance to the captain.

Depth of Communication

The Communist underground in Paris regarded the novel as the “most moving, the most deeply human book” of the occupation. The book and later the original 1949 film by Jean Pierre Melville gained immense respect in the French resistance.

The entire film becomes charged in an electric atmosphere, bound up with tension, as the German says a few polite words each morning upon departure and arrival back at the house in the evening.

I cannot recall seeing a film with such depth of non-verbal communication, with no wasted scenes and memorable moments of sublime resonance.

I found myself fascinated with this nuanced portrayal of an elderly man in his mid-70s and his granddaughter, aged around 24. Both reveal the quiet dignity of resistance, resisting taking any notice of the thoughtful reflections and appreciations of the army officer.

Available to view on YouTube, the film has 17k of likes, not a single dislike with the Comments rich in glowing testaments to the intelligence and beauty portrayed. The film confirms the power of kindness despite the chasm of difference leading onwards to a depth revealed in the eyes and body language of the actors.

A Pivotal Moment in the Film

Le Silence de la Mer generated widespread interest in Paris during the war and gave inspiration to its citizens, who got access to the book. The film continues to inspire.

Author Jean Bruller used the pseudonym Vercors (named after an area he knew with soaring mountains in south-east France) to avoid arrest from the gestapo for writing the 80-page novel. Bruller’s mother was a Catholic and his father Jewish. He chose the title for the novel to convey the power and turbulence beneath the waves as a metaphor for the human condition.

Nazis treated such a novel as subversive material. Women in a flat In Paris assembled the printed pages and collated into 250-350 books. Then they secretly arranged for distribution of the books among Parisians at great risk.

I recall Israeli and Palestinian friends telling me of the politics of noble silence of many Palestinians in Gaza and the rest of Palestine, who face arrest, torture and disappearance if they engage in protest against the occupation and systematic annihilation of Gaza.

The German officer held to the naïve hope the Nazi occupation would lead to a fulfilled union and harmony between France and Germany. His romantic idealism of everything French contributed to a projection out of touch with reality. Sent on an assignment to Paris, Captain Werner von Ebrenach realised the plans of the Nazis for France were tied to Hitler, the expansion of the territory of the Third Reich and French servitude, not peace and harmony between two cultures.

Upon his return to the house in rural France, the officer briefly shared his conclusion and the outcome for himself. A pivotal moment in the film, the scene marked a major change in the household while both French citizens maintained their silent dignity and moral duty to resist any exchange of views.

Artistic Power of Cinema

I came to a fresh recognition of the artistic power of cinema and the depth of communication of emotion without words. The film takes viewers on a journey not knowing where it might lead while devoid of control, demands and arrogance. The kindly grandfather says to his granddaughter when they were alone, “It pains me to offend anyone, even if he is an enemy.”

Le Silence de la Mar conveys the integrity and a deepening of interest in the man in a Nazi uniform. Despite the dark shadow of authoritarianism, visible in his appearance, the cultured man of music and the young woman playing the piano, knitting, or sitting still in the armchair sense the vulnerability of the gap between them.

Days after watching the film, I purchased an online a copy of the novel, with a preface, historical introduction, literary introduction, English translation and the original French. The film mirrors the novel, which I read in a single sitting. I explored online reviews and the history around the novel.

French film director, Jean Paul Melville, made the first film of the novel in 1949 to critical acclaim.

Without hesitation, I recommend watching this film. See it twice. Your eyes and ears will reveal more of the nuances of human inter-action in the silence.

Le Silence de la Mer confirms the capacity of the human spirit to go deeper, via noble silence while gradually diminishing any blind spot of exploitive authority and reaction to it.

I watched cinema of the highest order. You may have the same response.

BOOK DETAILS

The Silence of the Sea. Le Silence de la Mer

Author. Vercors

Edited by James Brown, a Professor of French at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Lawrene D. Stokes, a Professor of Modern European and Germany history, also at Dalhousie University.

Published by Bloomsbury,

London, UK. 102 pages

ISBN: PB –978 –1–3501-0623-9.

May all beings live in peace

May all beings live in harmony

May all beings live in peace and harmony