Silenzio e grido

The story takes place just after WW1. A right wing government has taken over after a short lived communist government. A young left wing leader is hiding at a farm where women behave like victims (which they are) but at the same time they are plotting against the arrogant and stupid men in power. Men who are proud of the fact that they would kill their own father if they were ordered to do so. In this right wing culture the capacity to obey is a bigger virtue than the capacity to love.

Miklós Jancsó is dealing with the same themes in this film as in The Red and the White (1967) and The Round-Up (1966). It is shot in the same style and is just as pessimistic. Silence and Cry is however far from as hard hitting as the other two. It is only 73 minutes long but I got restless while watching it. I felt Miklós Jancsó was just repeating himself here with nothing new or clever to say about misuse of power. It is only at the end of the film that something of interest starts to happen.

It is a little strange that this does not work as well as the other ones since this has more of a plot. Maybe the problem is that the plot is revealed too late. For most of the time we don't know what is happening and we don't get these wonderful atmosphere scenes as in The Round-Up and The Red and the White. We know there is a story here but we are never really a part of it (or at least I was not).