Into Great Silence

Name: Into Great Silence
Genre: Documentary
Released: February 28, 2007
Duration: 169 min
Rating: 78

2007

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 20 Critic Reviews

See All

USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 21 Ratings

See All

6.3

VOTE NOW

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

6.3	Your Score
6.3	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 21 Ratings

Would you like to write a review?

There is a 75 character minimum for reviews. If your review contains spoilers, please check the Spoiler box. Please do not use ALL CAPS. There is no linking or other HTML allowed. Your review may be edited for content. 0/5000

Check box if your review contains spoilers

Play Sound

Please enter your birth date to watch this video:

You are not allowed to view this material at this time.

Into Great Silence

Now Playing: Into Great Silence

Movie Details & Credits

Zeitgeist Films | Release Date: February 28, 2007

Summary: This documentary about an ascetic monastery is one of the most mesmerizing and poetic chronicles of spirituality ever created. More meditation than documentary, it's a rare, transformative theatrical experience for all. (Zeitgeist Films)

Director: Philip Gröning

Genre(s): Documentary

Runtime: 169 min

See All Details and Credits

Metascore

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

Critic Reviews

100

Ty Burr

One of the transporting film experiences of this or any other year. Read full review

Marc Mohan

You might not be able to picture yourself in such a life, but you'll be glad that it persists. Read full review

TV Guide Magazine Ken Fox

Groning's approach gives the viewer a rare chance to really listen to what water sounds like when it drips from a tin bowl, or the watch what patterns raindrops make when they fall on a shallow puddle -- purely sensual, cinematic experiences. In such moments we sense the point of view of a patient, sensitive filmmaker. Read full review

Desson Thomson

As we vicariously participate in their daily rituals, we find ourselves at the ground level of spiritual worship. It's hard to recall a similar documentary that brings viewers so palpably close to that sacred experience. Read full review

V.A. Musetto

The overwhelming silence is broken mainly by chanting and the ringing of the monastery bells. Call it life in the slow, slow, slow lane. Read full review

Jay Weissberg

With a painterly eye and a deep appreciation for the hermetic world set apart from, rather than at odds with, modern life, helmer Philip Groening takes the viewer into their cloistered world. Read full review

Susan Dunne

Try as I might, I could not love it, because as a piece of cinema, Into Great Silence would try the patience of a saint. Read full review

SEE ALL 20 REVIEWS

Write a Review

Mixed:

User Reviews

Leiris

Mar 14, 2007

One of the great film-going experiences of my life. Seeing this in a large audience was remarkable

0 of 0 users found this helpful

PatG.

Mar 10, 2007

I loved it. Fascinating. The beauty of the stone, the wood, the ancient architecture, the monks--and the silence--is stunning. Yes, nothing really happens, but it all feels very meaningful and potent. And I did not tire of it after two hours as some reviewers did. I went to a Saturday I loved it. Fascinating. The beauty of the stone, the wood, the ancient architecture, the monks--and the silence--is stunning. Yes, nothing really happens, but it all feels very meaningful and potent. And I did not tire of it after two hours as some reviewers did. I went to a Saturday matinee, and the theater was packed! Apparently people do appreciate such things. I certainly do.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful

PatrickF.

Jul 21, 2007

Anyone who thinks that life is simply not worth considering without their TiVo/PDA/BMW/whatever needs to be dragged by their ear and tied down in front of the entirety of this meditation on simplicity, humanity, and connectedness to both well-aged tradition and ageless contemplation of the Anyone who thinks that life is simply not worth considering without their TiVo/PDA/BMW/whatever needs to be dragged by their ear and tied down in front of the entirety of this meditation on simplicity, humanity, and connectedness to both well-aged tradition and ageless contemplation of the Absolute. Yes, the pacing can be euphemistically described as "contemplative," and it is quite lengthy (be in a good seat lest your neck and hindquarters protest mightily), but it practically forces the viewer to consider, often deeply, what is going on and why these people feel so compelled to live with such an intention. Touche, Michael Bay.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful

Michal_Owsiak

Dec 7, 2021

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.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.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

DavidLC

May 1, 2007

For those who have been and are curious about monastic life in its most severe application, this documentary is a MUST SEE! The films absolute clarity and maintaing the every-day routine of the Cicerstian Order of Monks is awesome and so true to the reality of the monk's life in the For those who have been and are curious about monastic life in its most severe application, this documentary is a MUST SEE! The films absolute clarity and maintaing the every-day routine of the Cicerstian Order of Monks is awesome and so true to the reality of the monk's life in the cloistered monastary. An ongoing thread in the film sums up quite precisely the "m.o." of what each individual man must "buy into" to be commited to the severity of the monastic life: "The Lord seduced me; and I was seduced!" One flaw of the documentary: way too long in duration...a fault of the director/producer. This film could have easily gotten its powerful message across in less than two hours.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful

SEE ALL 5 REVIEWS