In fact you don't need to be religious to appreciate this good documentary movie about daily life of the monks in the Grande Chartreuse, a monastery near Grenoble in France. Their persons, activities and attitudes are shown and described through simple but meaningful and beautiful images with total realism and not intending to pass any religious or mystic message except those which result indirectly from the images themselves. The scenes of monastic life appear intermingled with wonderful views of landscape around the monastery in a counterpoint which underlines the communion between Nature and the monks' deep belief in God with whom they believe to be in permanent contact, in an atmosphere of full austerity and complete renunciation to corporeal and material goods. The movie's director had to wait for 17 years the grant of permission to make it but it was worth waiting. It's a splendid and true documentary indeed, filmed with great honesty and based almost exclusively upon meaningful images carefully chosen.
Review of Into Great Silence
