etnobofin

Choir of Christ Church, Oxford – Kyrie: Deus creator omnium
From Taverner- Missa Gloria tibi Trinitas [Buy] [emusic]

A life of abstinence and simplicity seems a difficult thing to maintain… my resolution to give up alcohol for Lent lasted exactly 24 hours from Ash Wednesday until Thursday evening, thanks to an impromptu farewell gathering for a good colleague returning to New Zealand.

But the modest denial of a simple pleasure for 40 days (modest in my case, because – by English standards at least – I don’t drink often or much) pales in comparison to the lifetime of denial chosen by monks of the Carthusian order. Their strict code includes a vow of silence, reclusion from the outside world and a rigorous daily pattern of prayer, manual work and study.

Last night I watched Into Great Silence, the first documentary ever made about the Grande Chartreuse monastery, nestled in the Chartreuse massif north of Grenoble. It was filmed over six months by the German director Philip Gröning, who worked entirely on his own, sharing the same routine as the monks. (The monks are so reclusive that it took Gröning 16 years to gain permission to make the film).

The film is long – almost 3 hours – but it is engrossing despite the lack of any narrative and almost no dialogue. On screen, the monastery and its inhabitants create a universe that runs to rhythms utterly alien to the lives of most of us. We might even envy the simplicity of the monks’ routine as they pursue “the peace that the world cannot give”.

I was reminded a little of Tarkovsky‘s editing technique of “sculpting in time”- images and scenes are held for long periods, other shots are repeated in different contexts or from different angles. Stars rotate across the sky and seasons pass through the valley, and yet the routine of the monks remains constant and unswerving.

However, the silence is never absolute. The film is filled with the noise of daily activity and sounds of nature beyond the windows. Bells punctuate the movie just as they mark the lives of the monks. And the monks have a weekly “recreation” where they leave the monastery for a walk in the mountains, when they are permitted to speak to each other.

Perhaps the most haunting images are the portraits of the monks themselves, gazing down the barrel of the camera at several points during the film. Their expressions are inscrutable – we are forced to ask why these men have chosen to seek God through such a severe and demanding life: a life they accept with joy.

As with all humans, the ultimate spiritual motivations of the monks remain hidden from our view, knowable only unto their creator. But through the rhythms of Into Great Silence, we are offered an intimate and thought-provoking portayal of a way of living that has remained largely unchanged for a thousand years.