Brehm Center

            Millie Lundgren serves the Evangelical Covenant family by ably directing the Covenant Resource Center. In so doing, Millie is aware of all kinds of resources: articles, books, curriculum, and even some movies. She has been a wonderful friend and resource to us, as she periodically sends us news about the latest release of a film, or a film review she has enjoyed. She’s alerted us to such films as: To End All Wars (2001), Bonhoeffer (2003), Luther (2003), The End of the Spear (2005), and most recently, Amazing Grace (2006).

            While these films represent some of the best examples of explicitly “Christian” filmmaking, and we saw them all, you didn’t read about them in our Companion column. For we have mostly chosen to reflect on more implicitly spiritual films that church-goers might miss, and leave the explicitly Christian films to other reviewers, including the growing numbers of pastors and church members who are “film buffs.” Most church-goers don’t need much encouragement to see films explicitly dealing with Christian themes, stories or persons.

            However, we occasionally break our pattern. We wrote on The Passion of the Christ. Perhaps the controversy, or noise, it created, compelled us to engage the film. It is not controversy that compels us to write this month however, and it is certainly not noise.  Rather, it is the sound of silence which drew us in--two hours and forty-two minutes of silence--to be precise. 

            Into Great Silence is a documentary about the Carthusian monks of the Grand Chartreuse (the head charterhouse or monastery of the order) set in the mountains near Grenoble, France. However it is like no other documentary you have ever seen or heard. No history or theology of the order is given; no voice-overs or captions explain what the viewer is watching or give back-stories of the community members. And yes, it is a near-silent film--e.g., for the first twenty minutes of the film not a human voice is heard. The usual Hollywood musical score and sound track has been replaced with the sounds of the changing weather, footsteps, animals, manuscript pages being turned, and human voices chanting. There is no plot line other than to observe and listen to life in the monastery as the seasons change, daily chores continue as they have for centuries, and potential new members are received into the community. (Yes, even in our cyber-wired world there are young men seeking admission.) The viewer is invited into an out-of time experience, a transcendent meditation on the presence of God.

            The Carthusians were founded in 1084 by Saint Bruno of Cologne (1030-1181). The Grand Chartreuse monastery was actually built in 1688. The order is considered to be the Roman Catholic Church’s most ascetic order. Visitors are not allowed and the monks dedicate their lives to God, prayer, study, physical work, silence and community. Yes, their silent prayers, as well as their daily chores uphold the community. In addition, they gather twice daily for mass singing together Gregorian chants, as well as on Sundays when they gather for a noon meal and a four-hour walk (one of which becomes a humorous snow adventure as they “ski” down hills in their robes, using only their boots).

            In 1984, Philip Groning, asked this community for permission to make a documentary about their common life. At the time they communicated an unready-ness for such an intrusion into their community. But sixteen years later, they told him they were now ready. So in 2002 he was allowed to enter the community for six months to record, without crew or artificial lighting, the life of this monastic community.

            In his filming however, Mr. Groning did not set out to tell us about, or even show us the community. Rather, he hoped to immerse the viewer in the experience of monastic life. Thus, the film is not filled with facts about the monastery nor interviews with the monks. Rather, we simply enter into this life of silence.

            At first the viewer is in awe of this world, but as the film and its silence continue, the viewer can begin to feel as if not enough is happening to justify our interest. But gradually this cinematographer’s respectful and transcendent camera work (think of such filmmakers as Bresson, Tarkovsky or Malik) draws the viewer into the spaces, moments, chores, routines and rhythms of this monastic life. The quiet has the effect of making any and all sounds that much more audible, and making us much more aware of God’s gift of life to us. The length and silence of the film becomes essential, as do the biblical quotations which mark time also in the film. One in particular seems to give language to the viewer’s experience. “O Lord, you have seduced me, and I was seduced” (Jeremiah 20:7).

            Into Great Silence won the award for best documentary in 2006 from the European Film Academy. In addition, some of the most critical secular reviewers have been fascinated by the film. A. O. Scott of The New York Times finished his review of the film by saying, “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.” But beyond awards and critical acclaim, this film is a remarkable experience for anyone interested in the contemplative life or the spiritual poetics of film, as well as for seekers of all stripes. As Virginia Prickett, one of Cathy’s centering prayer partners, said, “I came away having entered these monks’ lives even if only for a short time with an experience of how deeply and richly they live.”