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Into Great Silence (2007)
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Reviews Counted:62
Fresh:55
Rotten:7
Average Rating:7.7/10
Consensus: A meditative, deliberately paced doc capable of absorbing patient viewers into a whole different world.
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... [More]
Director: Philip Groning
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Reviews for Into Great Silence
| Tomatometer | Critic | Review | Category |
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 3/5 |
Despite his restrictions, Groning finds light and shade, contrasting the natural - more chaotic world - with the regimented life within the cloister. Full Review |
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B+ |
Something to behold. Full Review |
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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. Full Review |
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4/4 |
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. Full Review |
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I have never before experienced a greater example of utterly transcendent filmmaking. Full Review |
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2.5/4 |
[Director] Gröning creates a trance-like rhythm of visual and aural patterns, ranging from the repetition of duties and behaviors to biblical quotations. Full Review |
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3.5/4 |
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. Full Review |
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3.5/4 |
This Silence is truly golden. Full Review |
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Click to read the article Full Review |
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3/4 |
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. Full Review |
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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. Full Review |
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A |
More visual meditation than documentary Full Review |
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This 2005 feature is demanding to say the least, but its pulse-slowing rhythms leave a real sense of peace. Full Review |
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3.5/4 |
A transcendental piece of filmmaking. Full Review |
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 2/4 |
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. Full Review |
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3/4 |
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. Full Review |
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2.5/4 |
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. Full Review |
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A |
A wonderfully quiet, serene portrait of Carthusian life edited to reflect the rhythm of the monastic regimen. Full Review |
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If you can slow your personal pace down sufficiently to spend 162 minutes with these monks, your life might be changed. Full Review |
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B |
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." Full Review |
CommentLatest News for Into Great Silence
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October 21, 2007:
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March 01, 2007:
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