A dark and brilliantly atmospheric work about repression, sexuality and trauma in the post-war period, brought to life by two of Ingmar Bergman’s most compelling “company” members. Actress Ingrid Thulin was one of Bergman’s great discoveries. Born into a working-class family, Thulin moved to Stockholm and entered the world of drama and theater. Early in her film career, her beauty often translated into her being typecast, but this all changed when she began her relationship with Bergman, who offered her intensely psychological roles. In THE SILENCE, her role as Ester, a repressed intellectual and the frigid counterpart to the embodied, sensual Anna (Gunnel Lindblom), reveals qualities of her best work with the director. Part of a loose trilogy of films (along with WINTER LIGHT and THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY) in which Bergman’s critiques of theology and strict Lutheran culture begin to bleed into psychological studies (which would make up the latter half of his career), THE SILENCE is the most clear indicator of what was next for the director. The elements that would make PERSONA possible are visible here: the dueling female leads, and the uncanny concept of a single person embodied by two.