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Into Great Silence
Zeitgeist Films


9.1

based on 20 reviews
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How did we calculate this?

based on 10 votes
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MPAA RATING: Not Rated

This documentary about an ascetic monastery is one of the most mesmerizing and poetic chronicles of spirituality ever created. More meditation than documentary, it's a rare, transformative theatrical experience for all. (Zeitgeist Films)

GENRE(S):	Documentary \| Foreign
WRITTEN BY:	Philip Gröning
DIRECTED BY:	Philip Gröning
RELEASE DATE:	Theatrical: February 28, 2007
RUNNING TIME:	169 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	France / Switzerland / Germany
LANGUAGE(S):	French / Latin (with English subtitles)

Original title "Die Große Stille"; Special Jury Prize (World Cinema - Documentary), 2006 Sundance Film Festival

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Boston Globe Ty Burr

One of the transporting film experiences of this or any other year.

100

San Francisco Chronicle Walter Addiego

The silence captured in this documentary -- a meditative look at life in the Carthusian monastery of the Grande Chartreuse in the French Alps -- may be the most eloquent you'll ever hear.

Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan

You might not be able to picture yourself in such a life, but you'll be glad that it persists.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

I hesitate, given the early date and the project's modesty, to call Into Great Silence one of the best films of the year. I prefer to think of it as the antidote to all of the others.

TV Guide Ken Fox

Groning's approach gives the viewer a rare chance to really listen to what water sounds like when it drips from a tin bowl, or the watch what patterns raindrops make when they fall on a shallow puddle -- purely sensual, cinematic experiences. In such moments we sense the point of view of a patient, sensitive filmmaker.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

This beautiful, unfolding film is an antidote to the high-velocity, maximum-volume world most of us find ourselves immersed in, offering a glimpse into a rigorously spiritual alternative. Its calmness, its reflection, is full of allure.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

A film of great spiritual intensity and haunting minimalism that enlarges your concepts of movies and of life. Like the monks of the Carthusian order, it distills something intoxicating through a style that's pure and rigorous.

Miami Herald Marta Barber

Groening doesn't judge the monks' actions, nor does he tell us much about their reasons for choosing such a life. Yet the film brings us into their lives not as an observer but almost as a fellow hermit, making you realize how hard -- or easy -- it would be to commit yourself to such a life.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

As we vicariously participate in their daily rituals, we find ourselves at the ground level of spiritual worship. It's hard to recall a similar documentary that brings viewers so palpably close to that sacred experience.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

This 2005 feature is demanding to say the least, but its pulse-slowing rhythms leave a real sense of peace.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

This is a remarkable work of pure documentary cinema, and a mystical accomplishment on the order of Wagner's "Parsifal" or Tarkovsky's "The Sacrifice." That's hardly anybody's thing these days -- it's not often mine. But the effort, in this case, is worth it.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

A transcendent, transporting experience, a trance movie that casts a major league spell by going deeply into a monastic world that lives largely without words.

New York Post V.A. Musetto

The overwhelming silence is broken mainly by chanting and the ringing of the monastery bells. Call it life in the slow, slow, slow lane.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray

As a place to enter and meditate, Into Great Silence is imminently worthy, but as a documentary, it doesn't do enough to probe the meaning of the quotation Gröning returns to repeatedly: "Oh Lord, you have seduced me, and I was seduced."

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

Gröning makes us fully feel the rhythms of their lives, but for the same reasons that most of us couldn't or wouldn't last in such a stripped-down environment, the movie, at just shy of three hours, starts to feel oppressive after two.

Variety Jay Weissberg

With a painterly eye and a deep appreciation for the hermetic world set apart from, rather than at odds with, modern life, helmer Philip Groening takes the viewer into their cloistered world.

Village Voice Michelle Orange

Natural light is used to euphoric effect, inevitably summoning the old masters, and Gröning's frames are balanced and symmetrical, in Renaissance-ready emulation of God's perfection.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

The movie has a hushed sensual resonance, but it turns faith into an endurance test.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

At once eerie, picaresque, evocative, and utterly alien to the reality most viewers inhabit, Into Great Silence is a daring and breathtakingly constructed documentary dream. So much so that the more restless among us may find themselves nodding off.

Baltimore Sun Susan Dunne

Try as I might, I could not love it, because as a piece of cinema, Into Great Silence would try the patience of a saint.

The average user rating for this movie is 9.1 (out of 10) based on 10 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Patrick F. gave it a9:
Anyone who thinks that life is simply not worth considering without their TiVo/PDA/BMW/whatever needs to be dragged by their ear and tied down in front of the entirety of this meditation on simplicity, humanity, and connectedness to both well-aged tradition and ageless contemplation of the Absolute. Yes, the pacing can be euphemistically described as "contemplative," and it is quite lengthy (be in a good seat lest your neck and hindquarters protest mightily), but it practically forces the viewer to consider, often deeply, what is going on and why these people feel so compelled to live with such an intention. Touche, Michael Bay.

David LC gave it an8:
For those who have been and are curious about monastic life in its most severe application, this documentary is a MUST SEE! The films absolute clarity and maintaing the every-day routine of the Cicerstian Order of Monks is awesome and so true to the reality of the monk's life in the cloistered monastary. An ongoing thread in the film sums up quite precisely the "m.o." of what each individual man must "buy into" to be commited to the severity of the monastic life: "The Lord seduced me; and I was seduced!" One flaw of the documentary: way too long in duration...a fault of the director/producer. This film could have easily gotten its powerful message across in less than two hours.

Leiris gave it a10:
One of the great film-going experiences of my life. Seeing this in a large audience was remarkable…2.5 hours of complete immersion (and silence). Describing it as a meditation is a excellent description; and I cannot think of a more appropriate title.

Pat G. gave it a9:
I loved it. Fascinating. The beauty of the stone, the wood, the ancient architecture, the monks--and the silence--is stunning. Yes, nothing really happens, but it all feels very meaningful and potent. And I did not tire of it after two hours as some reviewers did. I went to a Saturday matinee, and the theater was packed! Apparently people do appreciate such things. I certainly do.

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Into Great Silence Zeitgeist Films

Into Great Silence
Zeitgeist Films