Into Great Silence
February 24th, 2007
Philip Gröning lived in a monk’s cell in the French Alps for six months to make this — you guessed it — very quiet documentary about the hermits’ lives. According to the press notes, the Carthusians are among the world’s most ascetic orders. (They also make the sticky herb liqueur Chartreuse). But you wouldn’t know this from the movie, which barely contains a spoken word at all. There is chanting, there is praying, there are the monks’ daily chores, the chopping of wood, the mending of shoes, the preparation of food. The seasons pass: snow falls, ice melts, spring comes, and the fog lifts off the monastery that lies nestled between stunning peaks. The patient observation lasts for nearly three hours; Gröning’s aim is not to explain and analyze the monks, but to approximate their heightened awareness through contemplative filmmaking.
I’m of two minds about this. Into Great Silence is an exquisitely boring, poetic film that uses the carefully observed day-to-day textures of the monk’s austere existence to lull its audience into a meditative state. But there is something of the imitative fallacy to Gröning’s approach. The outward signs of the monk’s lives are just that — they don’t just wander the hallways and kneel: they read, write, think, and pray. Even if they never open their mouths, their heads are filled with words, words we are not privy to. No matter how long he holds his shots, Gröning can only ever show us the surface, never the insides, of what the monks are living for. The film aims to find some sort of vague “spirituality” in moments of mindfulness, but the Carthusian’s very specific religiosity eludes it.
More soon in a full-length review for About.com. Into Great Silence opens next week at Film Forum. Here’s the trailer and the official site.
Die Große Stille. Philip Gröning, 2005. ***
February 25th, 2007 at 1:45 pm
It may not surprise you that I am eagerly awaiting this movie.
Ann & I were going to go to FF today & see the Bosnian movie with no vowels in the title. . .but I am riddled with flu-like symptoms. I had planned a whole day & night around NOT watching the Oscars — the movie, a gal I know is singing Cabaret in the West Village, and a “comfort food” restaurant given thumbs up by NY Mag. Instead, I am rolling around on the bed moaning (not in the good way) and occasionally working up the energy to either a) go to the rest room or b) come to the computer.
I plan to hit the NYQUIL hard so I can sleep through the awards.
February 25th, 2007 at 2:15 pm
[…] double feature! At first glance, The Name of the Rose and Into Great Silence couldn’t be any more different — one is a plotless meditation on stillness and […]
February 25th, 2007 at 2:26 pm
I have no intention of watching the awards either, but I usually get sucked in at the last moment, only to emerge hours later, angry and just a little bit more stupid for having watched them. I’ll try and avoid that tonight.
Hope you feel better.