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Ah, La Silence... my heart throbs just thinking of it. So many massively important and moving moments in that film, treated so fleetingly, go by in a flash, all that's important in life going by in a single heartbeat, it makes the stomach sink. It's just so incredible.

How does this generally rank among critics and moviegoers in the Melville oeuvre? I don't know much about him, but seeing as though a few posters here seem to like it a lot, I wonder where it ranks with the rest of his work. I've only seen Le samouraï myself, which was pretty good. The DVD looks awesome of course, and I'll probably buy it eventually even if you all tell me it's his worst movie, but I'm just curious otherwise. I know a few people here highly regard it, but I'm more curious as to the "general consensus".

How does this generally rank among critics and moviegoers in the Melville oeuvre?

I would guess close to the top, but not quite: I think DVD Times gave it a 7 or 8, and generally elsewhere, it got four stars. Great, but not considered masterpiece status.

l'armee des ombres is widely regarded as Melville's masterpiece; Les enfants terrible, le deuxieme souffle and le samourai are also well liked. But the important point to remember about Le samourai is that it got more public exposure than any other Melville film because of its influence on Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs. Had other Melville films recieved equal exposure, it may not be within the top three or four.

It's hard to work out Le Silence's position to the rest because there simply are not enough reviews of Melville's works on dvd (certainly in Britain, at least). I remember when the BFI released Le doulos, Le cercle rouge and Leon Morin, Pretre on dvd around 2002/2003 and I was trying to decide which ones to buy - I could only find Empire reviews which gaves 4 stars each to Le doulos and Le cercle rouge; it did not review Leon. I think it might have given 4 stars to Bob le flambeur when Warner/Studio Canal released it on vhs.

Forget all that fluffo and join the ranks. It's a heart frying masterpiece.

DVDTimes could give this movie a -1 for all I care.

david hare wrote:I agree, I first saw a scratchy 16mm print of Silence in London at the Alliance Fr. in 1978 and was unable to see it in any other form until three or four years ago.

Hah! I also saw it in London at the Alliance Francaise, but it was more like 1998 (in fact, it must have been 1998 - an unwitting anniversary screening, perhaps!)

Gaumont's French Blu-Ray has been confirmed as NOT English-friendly. Would MoC consider to port this over for UK/US customers?

Pics of the French Blu are here:

http://www.ecranlarge.com/movie_image-list-8971-dvd.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

We have been looking into this.

peerpee wrote:We have been looking into this.

That's the best news I have heard today. Please do check into more of Gaumont's blu-rays, such as Danton, General della Rovere, etc.

Danton has English subs.

I've got the MoC DVD, but I'd certainly upgrade.

RossyG wrote:I've got the MoC DVD, but I'd certainly upgrade.

Same. As much as I love Melville's later films this is definitely my favourite. The composition and, how should I say, candour of the image, would be all the more engrossing in HD. I don't think I could refuse a double dip. Actually, watching Truffaut's Le dernier métro last week I was reminded of my affections for this film. Not that the two seem to overlap much, aside from the obvious historical elements.

Getting a dual format upgrade in January 2012.

Note that the Blu-ray will include two new special features:

• Melville Out of the Shadows – a new French-made documentary about Melville’s film [41:00]
• Original theatrical trailer

manicsounds wrote:BD review by BDdefinition

It looks great! Look at the fluff on the edge of the woman's white jumper. Hopefully thehut will keep their price down until release.

The Digital Fix on the new dual-format edition.

So is the DVD included in the dual format release exactly the same individual DVD released before? PAL encoded and all?

The film is notably quiet and unusually lyrical. There are long noirish sequences in it that remind about Melville's chic gangster films where the camera moves slowly and carefully observes the main protagonists from afar. The atmosphere, however, is far more relaxed.

Is he using 'relaxed' in some new and undiscovered way? For a movie that was mostly soliloquies and narration, I thought it was unbelievably tense.

I suggest that he meant to write "far from relaxed". That's how I read it initally when skimming through and seems to make sense with the previous sentence and the use of however.

TMDaines wrote:I suggest that he meant to write "far from relaxed". That's how I read it initally when skimming through and seems to make sense with the previous sentence and the use of however.

But that interpretation implies that the atmosphere of the gangster pictures *is* relaxed. That doesn't make sense either.

For those who have the blu-ray, how is the documentary? I only have the DVD, but found it a very fascinating film.

I own the blu-ray (which seems to be OOP, phew, got lucky there!) but do not have a BD drive for my laptop/PC. I can watch the Blu-ray of course, but I would like to rip the trailer for my trailer archive. Unfortunately, the subtitled trailer is not available anywhere on the internet. If any owner of the disc would be so kind as to rip the trailer for me that would be very much appreciated.