Which Filmmakers Make Best Use Of Silence?

The past master of silence was Hitchcock. There's a scene in "Frenzy" where the serial killer is taking his next victim to her fate. The camera stops outside the door and pulls back then for a full 30 seconds there is no noise until the sounds of the street start to be heard in the distance.

Then there's that moment at the farm in "Birds". The mother walks in calling out the farmer's name, she stops, notices the broken cups and there is silence as she walks up the corridor and into the bedroom to discover the body and then the only sound is the door slamming. For almost a minute, there is utter silence

Nowadays, both scenes would have scary music to make it "scarier" but I think that would be counter-productive. The silence is a void that becomes unbearable because you're denied vital information and the mind fills it in with its own horrors.

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