INTO GREAT SILENCE

a film by Philip Gröning

Silence. Repetition. Rhythm. An austere, next to silent meditation on monastic life in the purest form. No music except the chants in the monastery, no interviews, no commentaries, no extra material.

Changing of time, seasons, and the ever repeated elements of the day, of the prayer. A film that becomes – rather than depicts – a monastery. A film about awareness, absolute presence, and the life of men who devote their hours to god.

Why here? Why now?

A film on the Carthusians has to be everything that today’s cinema and today’s life are not: slow, silent, frugal…. the dark nave and the dark auditorium merge into one combined sensation…. A good audience hall filled with a good public will become itself a [monastery] for the duration of 162 minutes. – Die Welt

At Main Street Motion Media, we believe that an exhibition space can elevate an artist’s work, that an important and substantial venue can lend importance and substance to the art on display.  In short, the medium is the message.  Here in Northampton we have an opportunity to turn a movie house into a monastery.  In the Academy of Music, our community has an exhibition hall that is more than a cinema, more than brick and velvet.  With its size and its status, the Academy captures some of the grandeur and history of La Grande Chartreuse.  In its lofty balconies, the chants of the monks echo; in its darkness, the meditations of the viewers persist; and on its screen the seasons pass as if through a window onto the French Alps.

Join us for a film experience like no other.

Background

In 1984, German director Philip Gröning approached the Carthusian Order, one of the strictest brotherhoods among the Roman-Catholic Church, intent on making a film about its spiritual way of life.  Hidden from the public eye, the monks live in frugal devotion and near silence in La Grand Chartreuse, their ancient monastery in the French Alps.

INTO GREAT SILENCE is the first film ever made about life inside the order.

After the monastery initially refused his request, Gröning spent sixteen years cultivating a relationship with the monks.  Then in 1999, the General Prior contacted the director and granted him permission to shoot a film inside the walls of the charterhouse. The monks imposed a few simple conditions: no artificial light, no additional music, no additional people, no commentaries.  And for at least 7 years no other filmmaker will be permitted inside the monastery’s walls. With nearly four months of shooting in spring and summer and another three weeks in the winter, Gröning was able to live with the monks’, to share their rituals and follow their rules. Out of this unique footage, two decades in the making, INTO GREAT SILENCE emerged.

Into Great Reflection

In the atmosphere [of the order], I tried to move as quietly and slowly as possible….In the silence that reigns there, any rattling or scraping of material seemed outrageous. I already found it unbearably loud when the fabric of my jacket rubbed together.  – director Philip Gröning

How to move from the silence onto South St?

please join us for Into Great Reflection

after the silence, exchange a few words

an informal reflection with other filmgoers