Many filmgoers will avoid Into Great Silence once they find out what it’s about.

 There can’t be much of a market for an almost three hour film about silent monks. Nonetheless, despite some truly tedious moments, Into Great Silence is a rewarding experience, and it will manage to transport viewers to another world for a few hours. 

The film has been a hit with critics and award voters around the world. It won a Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival as well as a best documentary prize at the European Film Awards. 

The day to day life in the Great Charterhouse monastery, located in the French Alps, is the subject of the film. The Carthusian Order of monks that dwells at the monastery is among the most rigorous orders in the world.  The only time the monks are allowed to talk is when they go on walks outside the monastery once a week. 

German filmmaker, Philip Groning tried for 15 years to get inside the Grand Charterhouse monastery to make a film, and the monks finally agreed. 

Groning actually lived the life of a monk for six months, and he served as the film’s sole director, producer, and cinematographer. He only used natural light to make the film. 

He fills the screen with shots of monks praying and performing daily tasks like cutting wood, and he also has many montages of the monks’ faces, which are surprisingly photogenic. 

But the monks are not sad and they revel in the companionship of their brothers. The depiction of the monks’ friendships recalls Roberto Rossellini’s The Flowers of Saint Francis, an even better film about the ascetic lifestyle. 

Except for biblical quotations that are read aloud and shown on screen the film has almost no dialogue. Since the film is so quiet every little sound takes on added significance, and viewers may find themselves listening more attentively than they ever have in a film. 

Into Great Silence feels a bit overlong (I’m sure the message could’ve been conveyed in under three hours), but it’s intriguing, nonetheless. It’s completely unique, and like a good Philip Glass score, it will put viewers in a trance-like state.