Audience Member
La Grande Chartreuse. A life is happening here. A life whose rhythm is determined by the pendulum of the monastery bell and the harmony of intrinsic intervals of nature. Thanks to Philip Gröning's lens, we can observe this extraordinary cycle from close range for over two and a half hours. "Into Great Silence" is a film of incredible power. And this sentence can be understood in many ways.
The power with which the work affects the viewer; the depth of the eponymous silence, accompanying us for a large part of the screening, can be clearly felt on our own skin. Every sound of the inverted page of the prayer book or the sight of drops of water quietly sliding down the drying vessel gains full weight and the beauty of simple presence here. Every common activity, every seemingly insignificant sound in this film delineates individual figure of transcendental wholeness, drawing an elusive but clearly perceptible outline. Kapuściński wrote: "When you are in a hurry, you can't see anything, you don't feel anything, you don't experience anything." Gröning is well aware of this. Therefore, he is in no rush. He allows himself long, static shots, which by their very nature faithfully reflect everyday life of a Carthusian monks.
The resilience and fortitude of specific, tangible human individuals, whose faces, closed in portrait frames, look us in the eye during the film is another impression that we stay with after watching it. These are the people who, at the foothills of the French Alps, have found something that Jep Gambardella - the main character of Paolo Sorrentino's opus magnum - was searching vainly among the noisy streets of the Eternal City. Undoubtedly, the decision to reach for the fulfillment of such a great desire requires extraordinary courage. It requires even more to persevere in it once it is taken. The director shows us the pictures of dried out, hunched bodies of ascetics, in which, despite everything, there is still strength to choose this great beauty every day, which is certainly an attribute of a simple, not to say austere life, when it is consciously and mindfully lived.
Finally, one should write about the power that attracted these people in some way. This inexpressible magnetism voicelessly underlines the entire movie. The people presented in it become an archetypal collective hero, like from a fictional film, that responded to a special call and set out on a heroic journey, guided by the teachings of their master, leaving behind the current world and a tight attachment to it. Several times we read from the screen the words: "You seduced me, Lord, and I let myself be seduced." Like the breviary mantra, the Gospel passage is also repeated: "Whoever does not leave everything and follow me, cannot be my disciple." The world they decided to leave behind - distant, but still present at its distance - is reminded of several times with the frames of a hazy silhouette of a passenger plane gliding high above the ground. They also resemble the shots from the chronologically later "Roma" by Alfonso Cuarón. However, while the work of the Mexican, densely packed with symbolic polarizations, uses the plane as a symbol of transcendence, in this film it will mean something completely opposite - the fading murmur of the south in an expedition on which the Pole Star is marking the way.
"Into Great Silence" is a film of incredible power. And this sentence can be understood in many ways. Therefore, it is best to immerse yourself in it and try to understand it yourself.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
02/24/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Pulling back the curtain on monastic life, this film presents the stunning portrait of a monastery and its inhabitants as they follow the rule of St. Bruno nearly a thousand years after its inception.
- Christopher Bonine
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
01/31/23
Full Review
Audience Member
I am a little surprised this is rated as highly as it is but l guess it's because the reviews are written by people drawn to this type of movie. I really like slow, meditative films like this which allow the pictures to speak. My companion fled the movie after two hours but this works for me. Star Wars it ain't.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/16/23
Full Review
Audience Member
If you can manage the almost-three hour running time, you may find this pensive documentary to your liking.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
02/27/23
Full Review
Audience Member
What Gröning did is quite an accomplishment. It's so interesting to watch what the monks do on an everyday basis. I found it fascinating, although not very easy to watch. The (as I recall, maybe I'm wrong) last scene, where the monks are in the mountain, ABSOLUTELY CAPTIVATED me, since it reminds you, after all you have seen at that point, what they are, and the enormous gap between "use" and "them" suddenly becomes a lot shorter.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
01/27/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Pedazo de documental. Rotundo. No se puede hacer algo de menos de 2 horas que valga la pena. Gracias Señor.
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
01/24/23
Full Review
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