REVIEWED - INTO GREAT SILENCE/DIE GROßE STILLE: Donald Clarkesuggest viewers adopt an attitude of pious devotion in order to fully appreciate the movie.
VIEWERS seeking a full appreciation of Philip Gröning's painstaking, beautifully shot study of life in a remote Alpine monastery will themselves have to adopt an attitude of pious devotion before entering the cinema.
Lasting over two and a half hours, featuring almost no dialogue and prone to lengthy contemplations of inanimate objects, Into Great Silence offers scant pleasures for the impatient or easily bored. Indeed, even the most devout disciples of cinematic inertia may find their attention wandering during the stygian nocturnal sequences shot - all too obviously - without the use of artificial light in the monks' gloomy chapel.
However, the protracted episodes of ritual and domestic banality are complemented by more than a few stunning explosions of natural beauty. Gröning's study of a rainstorm and its aftermath suggests the leisurely assurance of a budding Andrei Tarkovsky or Bela Tarr. At such moments the film gives a real sense of the spiritual rush religious people sometimes seek from nature.
Gröning dedicated decades of his life to persuading the Carthusian Order into allowing his camera among their prayers and daily ablutions. Nearly 20 years after the idea was first mooted, having received an assurance that Gröning would work alone and would not impose commentary or incidental music, the Grand Prior granted the German film-maker access.
As it happens, the order's trust was well placed. Some scenes, such as the sudden appearance of a laptop computer or the strange vista of the monks shaving their heads, may generate unfortunate sniggers. But, for the most part, the film treats its subjects with admirable dignity.
Still, when Gröning cuts to a brief shot of an aeroplane flying above the monastery, one could forgive the monks, who speak socially only once a week, for maybe wishing they could be on it.
