The Torture of Silence

1917 Drama 80 minutes Directed by Abel Gance

About The Torture of Silence

Emile Berliac, a pediatrician, has no time for his wife Manon. She turns to his brother. She cannot keep the lie and tries to shoot herself. The shot kills her lover.

Cast & crew

More about The Torture of Silence

Abel Gance wrote and directed it. Louis Nalpas produced it. Léonce-Henri Burel photographed it. Le Film d'art released it on March 7, 1917. Wikipedia gives 80 minutes. The French title is Mater dolorosa. Emmy Lynn plays Manon Berliac. Firmin Gémier plays Emile. Armand Tallier plays François Rolland. Antonin Artaud and Gaston Modot are billed. The Chicago Board of Censors gave it an Adults Only permit and ordered a cut in reel 2 of the last scene, a nude boy.

Themes

  • a doctor with no time for his wife
  • an affair with his brother
  • a suicide shot that kills the lover
  • Manon Berliac
  • Emile
  • Abel Gance
  • Mater dolorosa
  • Emmy Lynn
  • Burel

Making

Gance shot the marriage and the shooting for Nalpas at Le Film d'art, with Burel on the camera.

Look

Léonce-Henri Burel photographed the doctor's house and the shooting.

Notes

  • The French title is Mater dolorosa, not a translation of the English one.
  • Chicago cut the last scene of reel 2.
  • Artaud is in the cast, not in the central triangle.
  • Burel is the cameraman.

Scenes

  • Manon tries to shoot herself.
  • The bullet kills the lover instead.

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