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Film offers glimpse into the lives of
Carthusian Monks
New York, 7th February 2007 (CNA) - A
feature-length documentary on monastic life, which has had unexpected
success on the big screen in Europe and Canada, will be released in theatres
across the United States this month.
“Into Great Silence” is a nearly three-hour
film, by German director Philip Groning, on life inside the Grande
Chartreuse — the great, historic Carthusian monastery in the French Alps.
The film was released in France on Dec. 20,
and had 18,500 viewers in its first week. According to La Croix, more than
120,000 moviegoers saw the film in a very limited number of French theatres.
“Into Great Silence” is described as a “very
strict, next-to-silent meditation on monastic life in a very pure form.” The
documentary does not include any interviews, commentaries or music, except
for the monks’ chanting. The narrative relies on rhythm, on sound and
movement.
This is the first film ever made about life
inside the Grande Chartreuse and is the result of a longstanding and trusted
relationship between Groning and the General Prior. The last photos of the
place were taken in 1960, when two journalists were allowed inside the
monastery, provided no monks were depicted.
Groning first had the idea for the film 21
years ago. He met the Carthusians for the first time 19 years ago. When the
director first pitched his film idea to the monks one year later, they said
it would be too early to make the film. They had told the director to hold
off for about 10 or 13 years. The monks finally called Groning five years
ago, asking if he was still interested in making the film.
Groning spent a total of six months living
with the monks, between 2002 and 2003, during which he filmed, recorded
sound, and edited the feature length film. He took part in daily life there,
and lived like a monk in a cell. “[I] took part in this incredible balance
between seclusion and community,” he said.
The director admitted that it was not easy at
all to write about a film with nearly no words. “At some point, this film
took on form, became a monastery – space and not a narrative,” he said.
“Basically, a ‘normal’ film always works with
language – and language overlays time,” the director said. “I think that the
most profound experience a viewer can make when watching a film is to get a
feel for time.”
“Usually this experience is masked by the
story. In a film about silence – a ‘silent’ film – this experience of time
is swept up to the surface. Nothing detracts from it,” he continued.
“And this, in turn, is directly connected to
the way the monks live: in an absolutely rigid temporal structure that lays
down when something has to be done and the rules according to which it has
to be done.”
A shorter version of the film has also been
cut for international TV sales; a book of photographs and a CD release of
chanted masses and services will be created. The film was made with a budget
of over 700,000 Euro.
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