by Sophie Terakes

Year:  2023

Director:  Joachim Lafosse

Rated:  MA

Release:  27 June 2024

Distributor: Palace

Running time: 101 minutes

Worth: $14.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth

Cast:
Daniel Auteuil, Emmanuelle Devos, Matthieu Galoux

Intro:
Though lacking in mystery, Lafosse’s film is bolstered by solid dramatic performances and punctuated by well-timed flashes of violence.

A Silence begins with a telling shot. A close-up captures a woman’s eyes reflected in her car’s rear-view mirror, her gaze darting across the street as she furrows her brow in angst. The camera silently lingers on the woman’s eyes for several minutes, deftly highlighting a thematic thread that will run throughout the whole of the film: looking.

The woman, viewers soon learn, is Astrid Schaar (Emmanuelle Devos) and she is vainly searching for her teenage son, Raphaël (Matthieu Galoux), who is wanted for attempted murder. Astrid is married to François Schaar (Daniel Auteuil), a prominent lawyer acting for the parents of children murdered in a high-profile child-abuse case. As the strands of the film unravel, the stylish, comfortable lives of the Schaar family are destroyed by the revelation of wicked secrets from François’ past.

As the opening shot suggests, A Silence is permeated by people who look but cannot, or will not, see. Certainly, director Joachim Lafosse does a clever job of conveying his characters’ metaphorical blindness through mise-en-scène: the camera-laden media peer at the Schaars through the bars of their grand front gate but cannot see the pernicious horrors hidden within the estate’s walls. Meanwhile, Astrid coolly returns François’ gaze at the breakfast table but pretends not to know what he watches on his laptop in the dead of night.

Ironically, while the film’s characters often do not see what is in front of them, audiences are provided with a clear view of events. The film fails to properly shroud its sinister core and, thanks to a rather heavy-handed script and poorly paced plot, attentive viewers will suspect François’ secret early on. Thematically and tonally, A Silence recalls the work of director Michael Haneke. Its emphasis on secrecy, voyeurism and domesticity distinctly evoke Haneke’s Hidden (also starring Auteuil), while its interest in (sexual) taboo brings to mind The Piano Teacher. However, Lafosse lacks Haneke’s penchant for the unexpected and thus, unlike Hidden or The Piano Teacher, A Silence ultimately follows a rather predictable course.

Though lacking in mystery, Lafosse’s film is bolstered by solid dramatic performances and punctuated by well-timed flashes of violence. François’ awful secret may be obvious, but there is grim, sickening satisfaction to be had in watching him and his family reluctantly confront it.

7Good
Score
7
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