Yesterday, I sat down with Philip Groening, Scriptwriter, Producer, Director, Cinematographer, Sound Editor, and Film Editor of Into Great Silence (Die Grosse Stille), the first film about life inside The Grande Chartreuse, the mother house of the legendary Carthusian Order in the French Alps.
The majority of the film becomes a study in silence, as there is nearly no dialogue in this 164 minute long film recorded over the course of six months Groening spent in the monastery, participating in the silent life there. According to Groening, the film would seem to answer the question, "How does one make a film that, more than depicting a monastery, becomes a monastery itself?" Groening found the answer outside of language, logic, and discursive processes and in the visual power of film.
Our video interview lasts 8:56 minutes and weighs in at 40.9 MBs and should be enclosed with this post and available via the Cinematical podcast in the iTunes Music Store. If you find the discussion of interest then make sure you check out the final screening of the film on Friday, January 27th at 6pm at Broadway Centre Cinemas V in Salt Lake City.
1. Is this film ever going to be made available on dvd, and be available in the U.S. Thanks.
Tim
Posted at 4:20PM on Mar 22nd 2006 by Tim