Movie Review: Into Great Silence (2005)

Into Great Silence (2005) written and directed by Philip Groning

This documentary follows the lives of Carthusian monks in their Alpine monastery Grande Chartreuse. Filmmaker Philip Groning had asked for permission to film there in 1984 and the monks said they needed time to prepare, maybe in ten or twelve years. Sixteen years later, they invited him to come and film their lives. Groning spent two years filming and then two and a half years editing to make the film. 

The result is surprising. Most every film documentary features talking heads describing and often commenting on the subject. Maybe some info-graphics are thrown in, cute animations too. External information and broader context are shown to give a further understanding of the situation and to guide the viewers along the path the filmmakers desire. This documentary eschews all of that. The monks are focused on their work and their worship, laboring and praying with almost no words spoken and no attention paid to the camera. The film has one interview with a blind monk who talks about God and happiness (so there is one talking head) towards the end of the film.  The movie is a quintessential example of the "show, don't tell" style.

The greater part of the film follows the monks' lives. They eat simply, bread and some fruit and vegetables. They work at cooking, planting, chopping firewood, studying. Most of all, they pray. Individual prayers happen in their rooms; community prayer happens in the monastery's main chapel, with a bell ringing to draw the monks from their other activities to their main activity. The movie returns again and again to the chapel, sometimes with just one monk, sometimes with a handful of monks, sometimes during daylight, sometimes at night.

Visually, the movie uses a lot of close ups, some very close to the faces of the monks (or quite often, the backs of their heads), as they do their daily activities. This gives a sense of immediacy and intimacy, drawing the viewer into the inner part of the monks' lives. They live in simplicity and peace. The monastery and the men are unaffected by the outer world. Their peace has a joy to it, the sort that Paul writes about in Philippians 4:7, "that surpasses all understanding." Such peace can't be put into words as effectively as it is shown in this film. This intimacy is relieved by shots that are much further away, giving a sense of scale to the monastery and showing it tucked into its little valley in the French Alps. 

Any sounds in the movie are natural, either of the monks at work or in prayer (only the communal prayer is audible). The peaceful environment has the sounds of rainfall, birds chattering, tools like saws or pages turning. Again, this simplicity draws the viewer into the world of the monastery.

The style of the film is challenging to modern viewers who expect a lot of narrative or explanation. The movie moves languidly through the monks lives with no musical cues or voice-over to guide the viewers. With a 162-minute run time, a lot of patience is required. I think a viewer will know in the first ten minutes or so if they are in sync with the film and won't lose patience.

Highly recommended. I wouldn't watch this every day, but the feeling of peace it gives is mesmerizing and satisfying.