Die Grosse Stille (Into great silence)
 

I've just seen it tonight. It's a truly beautiful documentary by Philip Gröning about Carthusian monks' life in La grande Chartreuse on French Alps. They live almost completely in silence, but this movie shows such a fulfilling harmony. There are almost no words at all in three hours, but it's one of those movies that reconciles with cinema. It should be distributed also in US soon.

The site about the movie (English version)
http://www.diegrossestille.de/english/

The trailer:
http://www.diegrossestille.de/english/video/low.html

Romy

That sounds exceptional, Romy. Thanks for the tip, I love that shizz. :)
Edit - The trailer was mostly silent and incredibly slow. Is the whole movie like that?

I'll try to see that one, Romy. I may have to wait until I can get it through NetFlix.

Oh, that sounds like something I'd really like to see, so thank you for the tip :)

I've visited a monastery of that order once, somewhere in the Netherlands. (Achterhoek)
You can visit quite a few monasteries for weekends and follow the services etc. Did that with my student club.
I found it very dark and depressing there, compared to a couple of others I've been to. Perhaps because that one was in the middle of these dark forests, and it was autumn, rainy, cold. But also because of their choice of hymns and recitations. Very severe. Impressive, though.

Has anyone seen the series on the bbc a couple of months ago, where a group of men stayed in a monastery for several weeks? Uh well, I have to see anything on tv that's about monasteries, I love that kind of thing.

In a word yes :D . But believe me is a movie full of life, capable to move with one image and you don't even know why, it brings out deep feelings, but it's almost three hours long and the style as the monastery is austere: it's a challenge but a very rewarding one, IMO.

Romy

The monastery in the movie is incredible, it was founded around 1000 AD. Cold, huge, lonely apparently, but the monks, scene after scene with their everyday's life fill it with happiness (from the way they live their choice and religion, a pure one, that sometimes seems almost impossible to conceive) and a very different concept of time.

Romy

I think it would arrive soon in US. At the premiere there was an ABC troupe that spoke with the director for one long hour....

Romy

Sounds really interesting. I'll try to see it. The scenery alone sounds captivating.