In this Czech New Wave film, the medieval warrior-monks who break the oath to their crusading order are thrown to the dogs: literally, down a deep well, to starving hounds who rip them to shreds. And yet, Ondrej wants to leave–after all, he joined only because his father threw him against the wall after he [...]
Posts Tagged ‘monks’
Syndromes and a Century
The films of Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul occupy a fertile space between narrative and art object, where simple interactions accumulate and gain weight in a web of meaning that is held together as much by space and mood as it is by character and story. Like Tropical Malady, his new film consists of two parts, [...]
The Name of the Rose
Monk 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 solitude, the other an overstuffed megaproduction that bursts at the seams with narrative twists and gleeful cliches. One movie is about the absence of language, the [...]
Into Great Silence
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 [...]
