A film by a German filmmaker, Philip Gröning. It is on border of a documentary film an a meditation guide, it can be both at the same time. Gröning made almost a 3 hours long film about Chartusian monks. One of the most characteristic feature of this order is, that they should speak as little as possible. Normally they do not speak, if they have important things to discuss, they write notes each other, and they only contact each other with loud words, if it is unavoidable. Beside this, there are rooms in the monastery, where it is forbidden to speak in any cases. They eat the meals on their own, exept for some community occasions. On Sundays during the lunch which they eat together one reads during the meal, and afterwords they have an hour to chat freely with each other, that's the only occasion for that each week.
The story of the film is interesting; he waited for the permission to shot this film for 15 years. Finally he lived together with them (undertaking their rules, and lifestyle) for several months, and shot the material completly himself.
When working with it he did not use music, you can only hear the original sounds, the recurring sound of the bells, the prayers, the sounds of the monks' different activities.
It is edited in a way, that on one hand you realize the passing time (it starts in wintertime, and ends in wintertime again), and the monks' repetitive actions in this passing time, and on the other hand you get to know more and more aspects of their lives there. He brakes the film with qoutes mostly from the bible, which are also recurring several times in the film (the one, which I remember the most is: "O LORD, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived"- from Jeremiah 20:7) and also with live portraits of the inhabitants of the monastery. It seems that he has asked them to stand right in front of his camera for several moments. It is very very beatiful to see these monks dressed in their white clothes mostly in front of a totally white background, looking into the camera or moving their eyes around.
I understand the intention to create a film, which transfers the sense of this life, and by letting the audience experience the athmosphere, giving a key to understand the meaning of it.
It is interesting to read to interview with Gröning on the website of the film, he draws a parallel in between the devotion of these monks and a devotion, what an artist makes in his life in order to be concentrated on his work.
The only thing, which I didn't like in the film was ,that I didn't understand why he chose to use shootings, which were not sharp. For me, without them, it would work much better.
The story of the film is interesting; he waited for the permission to shot this film for 15 years. Finally he lived together with them (undertaking their rules, and lifestyle) for several months, and shot the material completly himself.
When working with it he did not use music, you can only hear the original sounds, the recurring sound of the bells, the prayers, the sounds of the monks' different activities.
It is edited in a way, that on one hand you realize the passing time (it starts in wintertime, and ends in wintertime again), and the monks' repetitive actions in this passing time, and on the other hand you get to know more and more aspects of their lives there. He brakes the film with qoutes mostly from the bible, which are also recurring several times in the film (the one, which I remember the most is: "O LORD, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived"- from Jeremiah 20:7) and also with live portraits of the inhabitants of the monastery. It seems that he has asked them to stand right in front of his camera for several moments. It is very very beatiful to see these monks dressed in their white clothes mostly in front of a totally white background, looking into the camera or moving their eyes around.
I understand the intention to create a film, which transfers the sense of this life, and by letting the audience experience the athmosphere, giving a key to understand the meaning of it.
It is interesting to read to interview with Gröning on the website of the film, he draws a parallel in between the devotion of these monks and a devotion, what an artist makes in his life in order to be concentrated on his work.
The only thing, which I didn't like in the film was ,that I didn't understand why he chose to use shootings, which were not sharp. For me, without them, it would work much better.
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