Into Great Silence

Into Great Silence (2005)

Die große Stille

A meditation on life. A contemplation of time. Silence. Repetition. Rhythm.

An intimate portrayal of the everyday lives of Carthusian monks of the Grande Chartreuse, high in the French Alps (Chartreuse Mountains). The idea for the film was proposed to the monks in 1984, but the Carthusians said they wanted time to think about it. The Carthusians finally contacted Gröning 16 years later to say they were now willing to permit Gröning to shoot the movie, if he was still interested.

Date of release
2005-09-04
TMDB
7.0 / 10 (41)
Runtime
2h 42m
Genres
Documentary
Director
Philip Gröning

Interesting facts

  • Awards: 1 · Nominations: 1. Including: European Film Award for Best Documentary

Into Great Silence is a 2005 documentary film directed by Philip Gröning. An international co-production between France, Switzerland, and Germany, it is an intimate portrayal of the everyday lives of Carthusian monks of the Grande Chartreuse, a monastery high in the French Alps.

Production

Gröning proposed the idea for the film to the monks in 1984, but the Carthusians said they wanted time to think about it. They responded to him 16 years later to say they were willing to permit him to shoot the movie if he was still interested. Gröning then came alone to live at the monastery, and to stay in the enclosure, where except for the order's aspirants no visitors are allowed, for a total of six months in 2002 and 2003.

Afterwards, he spent two-and-a-half years editing the film. The final cut contains neither spoken commentary nor added sound effects. It consists of images and sounds that depict the rhythm of monastic life, with occasional intertitles displaying selections from Holy Scripture.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

Recommended