Philip Groening waited thirteen years before the Carthusian monks at La Grande Chartreuse near Grenoble felt ready for their life to be filmed. The result is this 164-minute film that takes us, as its English title puts it, Into Great Silence. It is the first ever cinematic record of life at the Carthusian mother house. To achieve this poetic and beautiful evocation of the life of St Bruno's austere monastic order, Groening lived in the monastery and follow the monastic routine. He spent just three hours a day filming material for this documentary, accumulating in total 120 hours of film.The film was selected for the Edinburgh Festival last year and has been lauded across Europe but it can only be seen at select cinemas in the United Kingdom. Although I did not wait as long as Groening to enter the great silence I had been anticipating its UK release for some time. It is well worth the effort of finding a cinema where it is being screened.
Die Grosse Stille allows one to experience Carthusian life through the cinematic art. The viewer is immersed in the silence, rhythm, seasons and chant of monastic life in this beautiful alpine monastery and enveloped in the serenity of the contemplative life in which God's presence is sought. In the silence of the monastic life - punctuated by the steady cadence of bells - even the ordinary jobs of chopping wood, mending a shoe or cutting woolen cloth for a new habit are embued with profound care as these menial tasks and routine chores are offered to God with love. In the midst of such silence, the conversations that take place during the weekly recreation are savoured and become precious, for the lips of the monks are otherwise opened only in praise of God through the chants and prayers of the liturgy. The monastic liturgy is sensitively filmed and we are allowed to glimpse also the hidden life of the monks in their cells, at work, in the cloister and even playing in the snow.
It was a special thrill to hear the monks sing the ancient Carthusian chant and discern certain tones that it shares with Dominican chant. Other aspects, such as the white habit (which included a black hooded cloak for the novices), the adoption of various bodily postures in prayer, and a scene of the monks eating together (as they do on Sundays and great feasts) in their austere refectory, reminded me of the influence of Carthusian life on St Dominic and the first Dominicans. It seemed to me that I was viewing the life of our spiritual ancestors.
I was also touched at seeing a novice, Dom Benjamin, being received into the community, taken to his cell by the other monks who prayed with him in his cell for that first time. We see him later learning to chop wood, sing plainsong and chant the readings during the night office. In many ways I felt a sense of connection with him, as I too am still so new to the adventure of religious life.
Scriptural texts repeatedly puntuated the film, in particular Jeremiah 20:7, You have seduced me, O Lord, and I have let myself be seduced, words that seem to explain why La Grande Chartreuse exists.
Religious life is a mystery and a gift, a divine call that no film can ever adequately reveal, but Die Grosse Stille does help us to see how God's grace - like the gently-falling snow that surrounded the monastery - is powerfully and silently at work in the lives of those who fall in love with the God of love. This is a cause for wonder and thanks, and as one views Groening's documentary, one cannot help but enter the silence and begin to contemplate this grace at work in one's own life, calling us to surrender all for love of Him.
To discover more about the Carthusian vocation, click on the links above, or visit the Parkminster website
I'm sure that this "film" would bring out much good to modern viewers who are so little accustomed to silence, to prayers, to a disciplined life style. I also pray that this cinematic record would somehow bring the truth of the Carthusian life into public awareness.
ReplyDeleteBut isn't there some sort of "voyeurism" making such a film? The brother of a good friend of mine entered La Grande Chartreuse a few years ago. He is allowed to receive his close family (parents and siblings: no cousins, no friends) for 48 hours a year, i.e. after he accomplishes all his monastic obligations. We are all "curious" of course, of what happens inside but we learn to respect their desire to be known only to God.
Filming their life three hours a day probably doesn't sound much to us but please remember their family is allowed even less at each visit. But the most important of all, and I am still struggling to find it out: is this really an act of charity to film and watch this?
Msgr Guy Gaucher, a French specialist of Ste Therese de Lisieux once wrote that the young girl who enterd the Carmelite and wished to cover her face and be seen only by God, would have been horrified to know that her image will be seen by millions of people across the world.
Her photos were taken by her sister for the chronics of the convent. Would this great saint consent to the filming of her life in the priory? I don't know. Out of obedience, yes, she will. But will we do her favour, I don't know. And do we do the monks an act of charity by watching this film?
If I were filmed in a church praying the rosary, even for three seconds, I would have been uncomfortable. But I speak only for myself. I still have difficulties watching this film.
Incisive review, Fra Lawrence. I too was enthralled merely to watch the trailer and eagerly anticipate consuming the whole adventure. If only I had the courage to leave the world so inexorably!
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