Third and last in a Series

When I saw the film “Into Great Silence” at the Film Forum in Manhattan a few months ago, I was struck by the reaction of the audience to the film. The theatre was completely silent and those watching the film seemed intently interested in what was appearing on the screen.

The viewing of this documentary about a Carthusian monastery in a valley in the French Alps engaged the audience completely. What struck me was not just that members of the audience were paying close attention but that they seemed to have an almost reverential attitude toward what they were viewing. The members of the audience could not have seemed more reverential if they were priests, brothers and sisters.

Was the audience’s attitude merely due to curiosity as a friend of mine suggested? That’s a possible explanation but I wonder if it’s the only explanation or even a correct explanation. Could it be that the film was touching some perhaps latent desire for a more peaceful way of life or for religion or even for God?

The Carthusian order was founded by St. Bruno of Cologne in 1084 and probably not much has changed in the lives of the monks since that time. They bind themselves to silence, though in addition to praying and singing aloud, some of the monks once a week take a recreational walk during which some talking is allowed.

In his review of “Into Great Silence” (Feb. 28) The New York Times film critic A.O. Scott noted that there were some concessions to modernity in the monastery. For example, there are electric lights and a computer for keeping the books. But he also notes that “Into Great Silence” is not about the Carthusians in the usual sense that documentaries are about their subjects. The director Philip Groning offers no history or theology of the order, or anything about the lives of the monks before they entered the monastery.

Scott writes the following:

“…the rhythm of work, prayer, and reflection — the attitude described as ‘joyful presence’ — flows in a cycle that feels not so much ancient as timeless….

“The psychology and philosophy of asceticism are not Mr. Groning’s concern. He is after something more elusive and, from an aesthetic as well as an intellectual point of view more valuable: a point of contact with the spiritual content of intense religious commitment.

“He finds it by means of a visual style and an editing scheme that match the feeling and structure of the days and seasons as they pass through the charterhouse. Snow gives way to greenery, early morning light cycles around to darkness, and the viewer witnesses ordinary moments that add up to a persuasive representation of grace.

“Not the thing itself – Mr. Groning is not so vain as to suppose that a movie can provide a religious experience – but a preliminary understanding of its shape and weight….

“By the end, what you have learned is impossible to sum up, but your sense of the world is nonetheless perceptibly altered.”

I wonder if Scott is correct in suggesting that a movie cannot provide a religious experience. I suggest that a movie, or indeed any great work of art, might lead to a religious experience. The work of art is not divine but it can lead someone toward God, can be a means for someone to come to God. I believe that the “world is charged with the grandeur of God” as Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote and that art can help us see that grandeur. Artists can help us see the beauty of creation and even the presence of God in creation.

God’s loving presence is everywhere. Everything that is exists because God loves it. God’s love is creative. God’s love produces beings. Sometimes we are more aware of this than at other times. Artists can remind us of this profound truth by their insights into reality and their ability to create works of art that are beautiful. All beauty mirrors God’s beauty.

In his review of “Into Great Silence” Scott implies this when he writes that “the viewer witnesses ordinary moments that add up to a persuasive representation of grace.” If Scott is correct, then a film can accomplish something marvelous.

The distinguished French film critic, Andre Bazin, who was known as the Aristotle of cinema, claimed that with Robert Bresson’s film version of George Bernanos’s novel “The Diary of a Country Priest” for the first time in history the supernatural had been filmed. Scott is not be saying that the supernatural literally has been captured on film but he is saying that film can so depict the world that it can persuade that grace is real.

I wonder if we are just beginning to see what is possible for film to present.