Into Great Silence (2007)
89 %
Reviews Counted: 61 Fresh: 54 Rotten:7 Average Rating: 7.7/10
Consensus:
A meditative, deliberately paced doc capable of absorbing patient viewers into a whole different world.
Runtime: 2 hrs 44 mins
Theatrical Release: Feb 28, 2007 Limited
Box Office: $295,559
Synopsis: INTO GREAT SILENCE fits neatly into the sub-category of films that need to be experienced rather than just watched. Over 162 minutes director Philip Groening films a group of monks who dwell in the Carthusian monastery of the Grande Chartreuse in the French Alps. The monks have taken a vow of... [More]
Genre: Foreign Films
Director: Philip Groning
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Reviews
Comment
The Silence Before Bach: Illuminates a complexity of ideas, including the passive reflection prior to creative conception and organic to musical formulation and the space between sounds, that fascinate the filmmaker, both musically and cinematically.
01/07/08
By the final third of the documentary, we evolve to a state of envy – envious at their resolute commitment and their utter faith – and even the most cynical atheist might find himself convinced that if anyone will find God, it is these men.
06/27/07
I have never before experienced a greater example of utterly transcendent filmmaking.
06/25/07
[Director] Gröning creates a trance-like rhythm of visual and aural patterns, ranging from the repetition of duties and behaviors to biblical quotations.
06/21/07
Gröning shows us, instead of telling us, what this life entails. Through this organic approach, Into Great Silence allows the audience to experience, at least for a few hours, the same enviable sense of peace these men carry with them.
05/25/07
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05/18/07
The only place the camera doesn't go is the brewery. That's where the monks bottle their world famous Chartreuse liqueur, which sustains them financially.
05/15/07
This wondrously meditative documentary is an artistic portrait depicting solitude. The fact that there is no narration, no dialogue to speak of is remarkable in itself.
05/13/07
This 2005 feature is demanding to say the least, but its pulse-slowing rhythms leave a real sense of peace.
05/04/07
Top Critic
Top Critic
Makes you wish [director Groening] would have kept the film to about 90 or 100 minutes. A little time spent in the monastery is fine, but nearly three hours is an endurance test.
04/27/07
At once eerie, picaresque, evocative, and utterly alien to the reality most viewers inhabit, Into Great Silence is a daring and breathtakingly constructed documentary dream.
04/27/07
After an hour or so, you can appreciate Gröning's meditative pacing - but by the end of the second hour, contemplation may be overwhelmed by an itch for a good car chase.
04/27/07
A wonderfully quiet, serene portrait of Carthusian life edited to reflect the rhythm of the monastic regimen.
04/26/07
If you can slow your personal pace down sufficiently to spend 162 minutes with these monks, your life might be changed.
04/07/07
As a place to enter and meditate, Into Great Silence is imminently worthy, but as a documentary, it doesn't do enough to probe the meaning of the quotation Gröning returns to repeatedly: "Oh Lord, you have seduced me, and I was seduced."
04/05/07
Related Forums
(Docu)-INTO GREAT SILENCE skedded to open in New York on February 28, 2007!!!
by: REEL_REVIEWER 10/9/07
by: REEL_REVIEWER 10/9/07
(Docu)-INTO GREAT SILENCE skedded to open in New York on February 28, 2007!!!
by: REEL_REVIEWER 10/9/07
by: REEL_REVIEWER 10/9/07
(Docu)-INTO GREAT SILENCE skedded to open in New York on February 28, 2007!!!
by: REEL_REVIEWER 10/9/07
by: REEL_REVIEWER 10/9/07
(Docu)-INTO GREAT SILENCE skedded to open in New York on February 28, 2007!!!
by: REEL_REVIEWER 10/9/07
by: REEL_REVIEWER 10/9/07
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