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| Into Great Silence (Two-Disc Set) | 
 enlarge | Director: Philip Graning
Actor: The Carthusian Order
Studio: Zeitgeist Films
Category: DVD
List Price: $29.99
Buy New: $20.44
You Save: $9.55 (32%)
New (16) Used (3) from $20.44
Avg. Customer Rating:  93 reviews
Sales Rank: 2580
Format: Anamorphic, Color, Dolby, Dvd-video, Ntsc, Subtitled, Widescreen
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Original Language), Latin (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Running Time: 162 minutes
Number Of Items: 2
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: 1094
UPC: 795975109437
EAN: 0795975109437
ASIN: B000OYNVOY
Theatrical Release Date: 2005
Release Date: October 23, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: BRAND NEW AND FACTORY SEALED
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Product Description
Nestled deep in the postcard-perfect French Alps, the Grande Chartreuse is considered one of the world s most ascetic monasteries. In 1984, German filmmaker Philip Gröning wrote to the Carthusian order for permission to make a documentary about them. They said they would get back to him. Sixteen years later, they were ready. Gröning, sans crew or artificial lighting, lived in the monks quarters for six months filming their daily prayers, tasks, rituals and rare outdoor excursions. This transcendent, closely observed film seeks to embody a monastery, rather than simply depict one it has no score, no voiceover and no archival footage. What remains is stunningly elemental: time, space and light. One of the most mesmerizing and poetic chronicles of spirituality ever created, INTO GREAT SILENCE dissolves the border between screen and audience with a total immersion into the hush of monastic life. More meditation than documentary, it s a rare, transformative experience for all.
DISC ONE, THE FILM:
Breathtaking 16:9 anamorphic transfer, created from Hi-Def elements
U.S. theatrical trailer
Optional English subtitles
DISC TWO, THE EXTRAS:
The Making of Into Great Silence : With behind-the-scenes footage,
location photos and handwritten notes from the monks
Additional scenes, including a segment on the preparation of the
Carthusian s world-famous Chartreuse liqueur
Night Mass
The Carthusian Order : An informative guide to the rules, architecture, and
daily schedules of the monks and the monasteries
Extensive photo, poster, and press kit galleries
And more!
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| Customer Reviews: Read 88 more reviews...
 Entering Natural Time December 28, 2008
The beauty of this film, documenting the rudimentary life of remote French Carthusian monks, is that it actually - for its duration -- stops time. At first, be warned, this can be at least a little irritating. The film makers dial their modern audience down to heartbeat level, to help them "enter the great silence" that these hardy ascetics live. No matter one's affinity for either the simple life or one's familiarity with monasticism, the pace of the modern world and the clock still lives in all of us. Confronting the world depicted here can be jarring, even deeply unsettling -- and quite apart from one's religious faith or sympathy with monasticism.
Fact is, I have had virtually yearly contact with monasteries since age 14, and am now 57. And I have on occasion lived with desert monks and in silent Trappist houses, for weeks. Yet I freely admit -- indeed I think it needs emphasis -- that the first hour of the film was difficult for me, as it doubtless is for many others. For I have a busy career in the modern world, you see . . . in a practical sense, I have the same impatient surface we all have. I was from the first transfixed by the lovely photography and the locale, of course, including the ambiance of the monks and this heartbreakingly lovely world of theirs, but I did not like the film's pace and rebelled against what I thought was cinematic trickery, forcing the issue on the audience by long takes, absolute silence, the most rudimentary of human tasks and activites. Ingmar Bergman did a couple films about his home island, and I suppose it reminded me of that -- but Bergman had a sense of humor and always winked at you from his city world at his country world -- frankly making his films delightful in a way that this film, decidedly, is not. One will read a lot of sincere ecstasy about this film here, and -- in short -- you may just not get it. But the point is, don't be disappointed -- as against the grain as it is, let the film makers use force, if that is what it is, to take you further down the road.
By the end, I confess I now see that the film makers had no other way. As I should have known from my own long experience with monks, the hard edge of our modern shell simply needs be broken, like an egg; there is no other way about it. But my experience with monks goes back so far this breakage is apparently second nature. And then too, I first experienced it as a youth, when you are more open. So the film revealed to me that the utter radicalness of monastic life had never really hit me as an adult, until walking into this movie after a busy day at the office. When going into monasteries for years, I suppose, I had conditioned myself beforehand and decompressed first. This movie was more like a hard, straight dive into the cold. For that extraordinary shock and for teaching a 57 year old dog new tricks, I am very grateful to these film makers. They did the virtually impossible -- restoring the experience of natural time, without clocks, with a work of art, making it palbable and fully real.
A Cinematic Meditation on the Contemplative Life December 26, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
In creating "Into Great Silence" German documentary filmmaker Philip Groning has succeeded in introducing 21st century audiences to the obscure and mysterious life of Carthusian monks of the motherhouse of the Grande Chartreuse high in the Swiss Alps.
After first establishing contact with the monks over 19 years ago, Groning was finally permitted to enter the walls of the monastery with his camera to record the lifestyle of this obscure penitential order that traces its foundations back to St. Bruno and six companions in 1084. With a year of on-location shooting, "Into Great Silence" brings the silence, repetition and rhythm of the monastery to a world that is increasingly loosing the ability to appreciate and comprehend this kind of radical religious devotion.
What makes this documentary unique is the fact that it visually describes the life of the monks, inside the monastery, through simple observations of their day-to-day activities. There are no voice-overs, no interviews and no background music beyond the occasional Gregorian plainsong chant. It is entirely shot from a `fly on the wall' perspective, following the monks, both old and young, as they go about their daily rituals of rising for late night prayers at 1am, spiritual reading, liturgical worship, manual labor and communal gatherings.
Through this novel approach the viewer himself is induced to participate in a kind of cinematic meditation on the contemplative life. The series of visual impressions enhance an understanding based not on a rational analysis of the merits of religious life, but on one's own emotional responses in conjunction with one's already existing intuitions about Christianity.
"Into Great Silence" opens with a young monk at prayer, alone and in his cell. We hear nothing but the sound of wood crackling in his small heater-stove. Here he spends the majority of his 12 hours of daily prayer, alone and in silence. He is interrupted only occasionally by either a visit to the church for community prayer, fraternal exercises, or by a brother delivering vegetarian meals through a small food-hatch, or "guichet," in the wall.
Within the first five minutes of the film, Groning has managed to expose the stark truth of the Carthusian religious life - as it is in reality - creating a sever contrast with the sweet sentimentality and devotional glamour often resorted to by filmmakers exploring the religious genre. "Into Great Silence" is definitely not a promotional film for monastic vocations. Rather, it seems to delight in demystifying the life through a depiction of the monotonous drudgery of daily monastic minutiae.
The most fascinating part of the documentary seems to be the montage of head-shots or `portraits' of the monastery inmates. Groning is the first filmmaker to actually be able to capture, on camera, the monks individually and up-close. He took advantage of this special dispensation to record their faces as they stare blankly into the camera. What we see are the faces of old men, time-worn and wrinkled. We see young men, with bookish demeanors and awkward expressions. Yet through this we gain a glimpse into the religious mind and the desire for a share in the promised "peace that the world cannot give."
The thought of watching a documentary over 160 minutes in length, may seem somewhat intimidating. But remarkably, the film is able to keep the viewer engaged in a way that may surprise even the most secular of movie buffs. Perhaps this film simply satisfies the same morbid kind of curiosity that fuels the recent `reality show' craze that has transformed television drama. But, in Groning's defense, it is not the satisfaction gained by observing show participants engaged in mundane life activities that interests us. It is the fascination of attempting to comprehend why individuals, who appear altogether average and normal, would give up all that life has to offer to live a severe life alone and apart. And all for a distant and some would say "illusory," goal of intimacy with God - a God that the European media, and the general movie-going public, is becoming increasingly estranged from. But then again, perhaps a spiritual ignorance that breeds curiosity is what has fueled interest in this documentary in our post-Christian age.
As the Western world continues to move further and further away from its historical roots in Christianity, "Into Great Silence" is destined to become a rare visual record of the lingering vestiges of the lived ideals of poverty, chastity, and simplicity that had, in previous times, laid the foundations of European society.
In a world where people fear stllnes, this is great movie December 17, 2008
If you want to see how a filmaker attempted to capture monastic stillness, this is your movie. Being familiar with monastic life, daily spiritual and work routines, I am amazed how similar the life is among all monastics - no matter what their faiths. I enjoyed the movie greatly, and at the same time said to myself, "Nobody is going to line up for this one." But maybe you are a traveler on the narrow path.
 Just like the title says. December 8, 2008
This is a very difficult movie to review. It's difficult, because it is what it is, an untainted window into the lives of monks in a monastery. However, it is not something that you watch because you want to be entertained in the Hollywood sense of the word. Granted, Hollywood does very little entertaining these days, but I think you get my drift. We took this DVD out of the library, and it wasn't till we were 10 minutes in when it hit us, this film is 2+ hours of monks going about their lives in a monastery in Switzerland, and there is no narrator. You will be a fly on the wall watching monks do what monks do, and let me tell you, that isn't much. They don't even talk very much. So be forewarned, there are no car chases in this one.
The lack of action doesn't surprise me. I didn't expect that, but I was curious to learn a bit more about these guys and what made them join the brotherhood, etc. With that in mind, I was a little let down.
The film is beautifully shot. I will give it that. I will also say that it is very peaceful. You get sucked into the silence and the rapture of the place. Perhaps that was the filmmaker's intention. In a way, words aren't needed, because the silence says it all.
I give this film 3 stars, because I do feel that it did what it was supposed to do, and it is beautiful to watch, but I was hoping it would be more of a documentary. Maybe that is simply my expectations getting in the way. Whatever the case, just be warned about what you are getting yourself into before you buy or rent this.
Thanksgiving Into Great Silence November 28, 2008
I caught the world television premiere of this film on EWTN not long ago. I'm glad I did. It is the most peaceful film I've ever seen.
"Into Great Silence" is an entrance into the simple life of Carthusian Monks of the Grande Chartreuse Monastery, located in the French Alps. We get a glimpse of what it could be like to spend each day serving God without major distractions. Silent and contemplative with few well-chosen words throughout the film turn everything into a prayerful learning experience of how to do the ordinary with purpose. The filming is aesthetic, reflective, making it easy to ponder dust specks in a sunbeam through a window, time-lapse of the sky above the Monastery, shadow patterns on the floor, water drops and candle light flickering with no artificial light and many more seemingly little things that can allow for a moment to transcend the pressures of our fast-paced lives. And as others have mentioned, the fellowship between the Monks is interesting, I especially liked when they went for a walk in the snow, conversing, laughing and sliding down the slopes, was great fun to see and made me laugh. If you enjoy Gregorian chant, you may appreciate hearing their mystical plainsong.
The serenity within this film is palpable. After watching, I feel gratitude for those called to be Monks and all who give up what the world considers important, to spend their lives continually lifting everyone in prayer to God.
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