Into Great Silence — this week at the VIFC!

I’ve been awfully busy lately, but I thought I’d give a heads-up to anyone in the Vancouver area who might be interested in Philip Gröning’s Die Große Stille (2005), AKA Into Great Silence. The film, a mostly silent documentation of the prayers, services and chores performed by the monks of the Grande Chartreuse monastery in the French Alps, is playing at the VanCity Theatre next week, but only on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday nights.

FWIW, I watched this film on a screener in anticipation of last year’s film festival, and I suspect its long, long passages of silent introspection and ritualistic chant would work a lot better in a darkened theatre — not unlike, say, the meditative, don’t-munch- the-popcorn-too-loud experience that I had watching James Benning’s 13 Lakes — but like I say, I’m awfully busy these days.

Then again, that’s exactly why we need retreats like these, no?