La maison du silence

Late career Pabst movie which takes place in a house where you can hear the voice of silence.Some men gave up their social life for Lent and spend some time in a house where they are in retreat ,pray ,meditate and repent.The problem with this screenplay is that there are too many characters and most of them are clichés (the resistant fighter who is responsible for the death of three innocent human beings;the pulp writer whose books "inspire" a mad youth and cause death too ;the man whose wife made a new life with another one,thinking her first love had been killed in action in WW2; a pickpocket conjurer;a priest who has his moments of doubt and more ).These mini-stories (with flashbacks galore) are too diffuse to be convincing and the movie fails to reveal a spiritual dimension ,in spite of the talents of seasoned actors such as Jean Marais (who's seeing things :ants on his Bible page) and Daniel Gélin.