if you can sit still for the nearly three hour of this film and it almost guarantee to bring down your heart rate and maybe make you want to spend more time in the high mountain or in the snow or contemplate spring flower in some isolated place . into great silence ( die große stille ) be a documentary of unusual austerity and beauty and like la grande chartreuse itself and the carthusian order central monastery high in the french alp that german filmmaker philip gröning have record . his film be steep in a unique atmosphere while there be no narration . to have provide any would have interrupt the prevail silence that be characteristic of the place . this method the withholding of all commentary can work fine for a documentary and especially where there be a lot of dialogue and a in the recent and highly admired iraq in fragment while or where the activity show be familiar and such a the classroom scene so meticulously film in être et avoir ( to be and to have ) and an un narrated chronicle of a rural french elementary school . but lovely and calm a into great silence be and it preserve the atmosphere at the cost of fail to penetrate it subject inner life . how well can we ever understand spirituality . but above all and how well can we understand it from visuals and without any word describe the inner experience . there be other specific that gröning and who be force to work virtually alone and without any artificial light and choose not to detail . a monk life be rigorously organize and but here that schedule isn not specify . edit flit about arbitrarily between shot of monk pray alone or in the chapel and external landscape shot while shot of wood be chop and food be prepare or deliver to cell and snow be shovel and robe be make and head be shave and book be read at cell desk . and there an initiation ritual and plain chant and poetically blurry close ups of candle flame or fruit . there even a moment of laughter and high spirit when a group of young monk slide down a hillside in the snow ( in their boot and without ski or snowboard ) . bell sound and and the monk bustle about from one activity to another and but accord to what system be leave to the imagination . in one shot a monk sit in front of a big desk strewn with bill and document . he just star at them . what do it mean . several time the succession of scene be interrupt with a short series of shot of individual monk star into the camera and wordlessly and of course . there be one long shot of a monk who may be die . he too star into the camera . these moment be rather spooky . despite the presence of prescription eyeglass and shoe goo and electricity for light and an electric razor in the razora room even and despite wood stove in the cell and the sighting of a single radiator the place have a thoroughly medieval feel and and that spooky too . every so often in large letter there be a say of jesus and such a he among you who do not renounce all his possession can not be my disciple and flash in french on the screen and a in a silent film and and these be repeat and randomly . but again and be this randomness appropriate in depict a life that be anything but haphazard in it structure . after an hour the film show that the monk and though they lead daily life that be silent and isolated except for chapel service and do also get together on sunday for a communal meal follow by a walk and a chat and rain or shine . when give this opportunity and they do not analyze the world situation . they discuss minutia of the order regulation . later and a blind old monk with impressive down droop eyebrow be the only one to address the camera directly . he speak of blindness and death and describe both a welcome gift from god and one receive and another still to come . there be a significant omission . this place and begin in the early eleventh century and rebuilt in the seventeenth and produce a famous liqueur whose sale support it while but we do not see the monk do this work . gröning say the process be too complicate and would distract from the rest . distract from what . from the effect he want to create while not from a picture of what the place be about . gröning underline the uniquely rare opportunity he share with u by explain at the end that he ask for permission to film in 1984 and but be hold off from do so till 2000. maybe he think since he have to wait so long and he should make a long film . but the extra time doesn not mean deep insight . at most it be the prolongation of a mood . rather it seem an outgrowth of the random edit system and an unwillingness or inability to cut or to organize . off put and tight lipped though this film be and it will no doubt stand a one of the more distinctive of recent documentary . but it inspire as much irritation a reverence . it not utterly clear that gröning be the ultimate guide to this world or to any world and for that matter . there be many paradox and ambiguity in a monastic existence . the carthusian order be austere . it life be one of renunciation and penitence . in this austerity there be a certain luxury . the monk choose it willingly . if they can stick with it ( many apparently do not ) and it be what they want and an ideal setting for the uninterrupted contemplation of god . and it be a peaceful life and a safe life and a life cut off from the worry of city and family and all uncertainty . monk do not prepare their weekday meal in their cell any more while theyre bring on a cart . bare and spare and strict though it be and la grande chartreuse be in some sense the most spectacular of grand hotel .