Saturday, April 23, 2011

Into Great Silence


It's Easter weekend and I'm going to do two films that are very different. Both felt as though they belong in the slots they got. Tomorrow's film is the final film in the long running series of films from the director Sabu.

Today's film is a short sweet meditative piece on a documentary about monks.

Into Great Silence is about life in a monastery. It is a film of silences and where we watch the life of the monks happen.

It will either bore the living shit out of you or it will keep you completely enraptured with it's portrait of life behind the cloistered walls.

I was enraptured and I really liked where the film took me and how it made me feel.

I know a great deal of my enjoyment of the film came from the extras on the DVD which went into how the film came about, provided extra scenes and explained bits and pieces of things I didn't quite understand the first time through. If you are going to try the film I really suggest you get the DVD since it will add to your understanding.

I'm not going to lie and tell you the film is for everyone. It;'s not, just as a life of devotion is not for everyone. That said, if you have any interest in the subject matter do pick up the film and indulge yourself. If nothing else you'll get to see some really beautiful religious eye candy.

(There is a soundtrack album out. The CD is full of the sounds of prayers, of rooms and other ambient noises that the filmmakers recorded while making the film.)

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