If one word could describe "Into Great Silence," what would that be? The film's creator Philip Groning doesn't hesitate when he says, "Monastery." Almost a decade years after its European release, "Into Great Silence" will finally open in Japan this month. In an interview with The Japan Times in Tokyo, Groning adds that he probably should feel strange about this time lag. "But, actually, it feels natural," he says. "Being among the monks taught me there is more than one flow of time. Ten years — that's nothing."
Groning's documentary shows how life is lived inside the gates of the Grande Chartreuse, one of the world's oldest active monasteries, known for its order of absolute silence and a herbal liquor crafted by the monks from a secret, centuries-old recipe. Groning was allowed to bring just one camera with him, and was required to live as a monk during the six months of filming. "Into Great Silence" reveals a cinematic scenery breathtakingly different from anything we're accustomed to seeing in films: The experience of watching it is indeed like entering a monastery.
The idea for the film came to Groning in 1984. After an upbringing that was "no different from the ordinary European Christian," something in Groning's 25-year-old mental landscape told him he needed inner peace. This was when he was a budding actor and filmmaker, and with the confidence of the young, he got in touch with the prior at the Grande Chartreuse and requested permission to make a documentary about the monastery and the monks who lived there. He was promptly refused.