Into Great Silence.

"Much of the discussion surrounding Into Great Silence, detailing the daily rituals of the monks inhabiting the Grand Chartreuse monastery in the French Alps, is sure to focus on how Philip Gröning's nearly three-hour documentary provides a window into a rarely seen spiritual world," writes Jeff Reichert at indieWIRE. "It does perform this function, and admirably, but not for the purposes of providing clarity - the end result leaves a sense of monastic existence more exotic and otherworldly than one could imagine."

Referencing the Bible and Beckett, Annie Frisbie has a marvelous consideration at the House Next Door: "Gröning composes his shots to achieve maximum stillness. Even so, Into Great Silence roils to life - despite its simplicity (and its length) it's an immensely engaging, riveting, even entertaining film."

Updated through 3/2.

"The psychology and philosophy of asceticism are not Mr Gröning's concern," writes AO Scott in the New York Times. "He is after something more elusive and, from an aesthetic as well as an intellectual point of view, more valuable: a point of contact with the spiritual content of intense religious commitment."

Michelle Orange in the Voice: "Though [Gröning] has made an even more pious tract than fellow Catholic director Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, the experience is more edifying as an act of cinematic resistance. There is solidarity (and satisfaction) in its aesthetic rigor."

"This film is asking a lot of its viewers," sighs Jason Bogdaneris in the L Magazine. "Classically painterly in its visual style, as well as its intent at elevating its subject matter, Gröning employs a sort of video pointillism, not without success. Still, it's asking an awful lot."

For Vadim Rizov, writing at the Reeler, the film rouses "an increasingly frustrating feeling of being tested for no apparent reason."

Angela Zito has a good long talk with Gröning in the Revealer.

Online listening tip. Gröning's a guest on the Leonard Lopate Show.

Earlier: DK Holm, right here.

Update, 3/1: Jürgen Fauth: "No matter how long he holds his shots, Gröning can only ever show us the surface, never the insides, of what the monks are living for. The film aims to find some sort of vague spirituality in moments of mindfulness, but the Carthusian's very specific religiosity eludes it."

Update, 3/2: Leo Goldsmith, writing at Reverse Shot, finds the film "asks an important question of documentary in general: To what extent can or should a documentary function as a means of disseminating information or knowledge about a particular subject, of telling us something? What can a documentary tell us about a subject when it chooses to remain (mostly) silent?" Further in: "As John Cage found in his anechoic chamber, pure silence is a myth, and the film's 'great silence' is, like much of monastic life, an ascetic ideal to be pursued, but never attained."

Posted by dwhudson at February 28, 2007 3:33 PM