The Thinking Machine 28

Jean-Pierre Melville’s first film, Le silence de la mer (1949), is an adaptation of a novel by Vercors, published clandestinely and dealing with the complexities of human relations during the years of Germany’s occupation of France. This chamber piece is almost entirely set in the house where an old man and his niece are forced to host a German soldier. Melville follows the book very closely, except for one dramatised flashback. What’s the function of this addition? What was gained by its inclusion? How did Melville’s staging of this passage contribute to the overall film?