The Great Silence

Starring:Jean-Louis Trintignant, Klaus Kinski, Frank Wolff, Luigi Pistilli, Vonetta McGee, Mario Brega, Carlo D'Angelo, Marisa Merlini, Maria Mizar, Marisa Sally, Raf Baldassarre, Spartaco Conversi, Remo De Angelis, Mirella Pamphili, Claudio Ruffini, Mimmo Poli, Loris Loddi, Giulia Salvatori, Fortunato Arena, Bruno Corazzari
Director: Sergio Corbucci
Studio: Fantoma
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com
One of the best and most unusual spaghetti Westerns ever made, Sergio Corbucci's The Great Silence is set in the beautiful desolation of the snow-covered high plains. Jean-Louis Trintignant, the romantic French star of My Night at Maud's and A Man and a Woman, hardens his blue eyes into a steely stare to play the mute mercenary gunslinger "Silence." Klaus Kinski (star of Werner Herzog's Aguirre: The Wrath of God and Nosferatu the Vampyre) is his target, a grinning, amiable bounty killer whose deadly logic leaves a trail of corpses in his wake, all murdered "according to the law." Corbucci, whose Django is a genre classics, complicates his trademark cynicism with the compelling contradictions of his hero and villain, and the chilly atmosphere of the frozen mountain community brings a new twist to the phrase cold-blooded murder.

Product Description

Nestled deep in the postcard-perfect French Alps, the Grande Chartreuse is considered one of the world s most ascetic monasteries. In 1984, German filmmaker Philip Gröning wrote to the Carthusian order for permission to make a documentary about them. They said they would get back to him. Sixteen years later, they were ready. Gröning, sans crew or artificial lighting, lived in the monks quarters for six months filming their daily prayers, tasks, rituals and rare outdoor excursions. This transcendent, closely observed film seeks to embody a monastery, rather than simply depict one it has no score, no voiceover and no archival footage. What remains is stunningly elemental: time, space and light. One of the most mesmerizing and poetic chronicles of spirituality ever created, INTO GREAT SILENCE dissolves the border between screen and audience with a total immersion into the hush of monastic life. More meditation than documentary, it s a rare, transformative experience for all.

DISC ONE, THE FILM:
Breathtaking 16:9 anamorphic transfer, created from Hi-Def elements
U.S. theatrical trailer
Optional English subtitles

DISC TWO, THE EXTRAS:
The Making of Into Great Silence : With behind-the-scenes footage,
location photos and handwritten notes from the monks
Additional scenes, including a segment on the preparation of the
Carthusian s world-famous Chartreuse liqueur
Night Mass
The Carthusian Order : An informative guide to the rules, architecture, and
daily schedules of the monks and the monasteries
Extensive photo, poster, and press kit galleries
And more!

Customer Reviews:

Enriching the "Into Great Silence" film experience.......2007-07-08

The visual imagery of "Into Great Silence" is arresting. Its silence is reverential and eloquent. Gronig succeed in combining the best of modern cinematography with the authenticity of the old silent film classics. The film experience can be enhanced by reading Nancy Klein Maguire's "An Infinity of Little Hours". In a sense, Maguire's book is a libretto for the film. Where the film is stark and somber, "An Infinity of Little Hours" is warm and lively. Where the film takes us to another world, the book brings members of the western world's oldest, continuing monastic order into the context of our daily lives.

INTO GREAT SILENCE.......2007-07-02

Filmmaker Philip Groning spent six months living among the monks of the Grand Chartreuse Charterhouse in the French Alps for his documentary "Into Great Silence."

I went into the film with a strong curiosity about the life of the Carthusian monks and was treated to an up-close-and-personal look at their lives across four seasons spanning a one year cycle.

I am told the film-maker was only allowed to bring himself - which meant he was The Director, The Cinematographer, The Lighting Technician and The Editor. To make it even harder, there was no lighting allowed inside the monasteries and the filmmaker was at no time to cause any disruption to the ritualistic cycle of the monks daily life. You will notice extremely "grainy" (ie low resolution) sequences in some that were filmd in portions of the monastery with little natural light.

Certainly a film best watched on screen (than on DVD) if you wish to feel the walls of the monastry and smell the cold air outside in the courtyard where a near 70-year old semi-blind monk chops wood to stock up for winter.

For those keenly aware that they came to watch a documentary film(not a staged re-creation) that waited 16 years before filming was approved, and the fact that the filming itself was carried out in extremely difficult technical circumstances, this will be a rewarding experience. Philip Groening appears to have attempted to use all available footage to tell the whole story, and unfortunately stretched the film duration beyond 3 hours - a litle too long to sit patiently and watch. Did I mention the monks have a vow of silence inside the monastery the whole year, except for a few days?. The silence on the screen is interrupted only by sounds of footfalls, chopping or sawing of wood, and sometimes you will even find yourself enjoying the mere sound of utensils being washed for the next meal, a relief from the deafening silence. There are ofcourse several scenes of chanting in the chapel, something he monks do every few hours day and night, which meant they slept barely a few hours at a time before they woke up and went about their assigned routines.

The overall feel of the creates a strongly claustrophobic feeling if you find yourself getting absorbed into the film. A scene showing the process of acceptance of new monks into the Order almost made me feel first hand the massive sacrifice and commitment two youngsters going through the acceptance ritual, were about to make.

All in all, this film was a unique documentary filmed in the most unusual circumstances and certainly a must-see if only to peek into the lives of a set of people who have voluntarily given up everything that defines life for us, and happily living that existence almost from early life till death. These are extraordinary men living an extraordinarily disciplined lives in dedication to their Order.

The Most Memorable Film of the Year.......2007-06-30

Not knowing what to expect, I was totally overwhelmed by the beauty, quiet and attentiveness of the many aspects of Carthusian life in this film. The camera approached La Grande Chartreuse, the monks and the extraordinary Alpine setting from the inside making of it a stunning, intimate, impressionistic cinematographic masterpiece. I saw the film twice and enjoyed it even more the second time. And I plan to see it again!

Exquisite.......2007-06-20

The experience of this movie was its own silent retreat. So often we neglect silence, we neglect prayer. What a beautiful reminder to enter prayer - and to enter prayer deeply. When I saw this film, I took my friend's fifth and seventh grade girls with me. They loved the film as well and we spent the next hour or so talking about it. This film is exquisite!

See it with your heart.......2007-06-06

Open your brilliant, silent heart and see this film fully as if you were there (in a way, you are.)An unprecedented opportunity to glimpse what life more truly means

Le Grand Silence (Into the Great Silence)(Eng Subs)

Average customer rating:

Into Great Silence - A Sense of the Sacred
Silence that speaks volumes

Le Grand Silence (Into the Great Silence)(Eng Subs)
Starring: Into Great Silence , and Le Grand Silence
Manufacturer: Metropole Canada
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Documentary | Genres | DVD | Video

Into Great Silence (Two-Disc Set)
Into Great Silence
Soul Searching:The Journey of Thomas Merton
An Infinity of Little Hours: Five Young Men and Their Trial of Faith in the Western World's Most Austere Monastic Order
Mother Benedict: Foundress of the Abbey of Regina Laudis

ASIN: B000N3SOSE
Release Date: 2007-05-08

Customer Reviews:

Into Great Silence - A Sense of the Sacred.......2007-06-01

I was totally transported by the beauty of this film and the profundity of its message and was not bored for one second. In contrast, coming out of the film I felt bombarded by the ugliness of our modern surroundings, the visual vulgarity, mind-numbing noise, and frenetic agitation all around. I wished to be back in the film's ambience of the sacred.

It helps to have a sense of the sacred to appreciate this film. If you are looking for action, even if it's only the monks' "inner" struggle, pick another movie. This one is about success on the spiritual path not failure, and measure of success in the monastery is different from that in the world. These men entered the order with a purpose, to seek the great Peace, and they have found it. One has only to look at their faces, presented with stark directness to know this. Yes, we could be told of all the struggles they faced and the joys they knew, but it is not the purpose of this film to expose a roller coaster of emotions that we can imagine, but to show the extraordinary peace we cannot imagine, and it does this brilliantly with its beautiful camera work and its stately and dignified pace.

Some want to know what these men are thinking. Perhaps they are thinking about God, and their thoughts of God need not be complex to be profound, for the simple utterance of His name can contain all other prayers. This connection of silence with the search for God is expressed by the most diverse spiritual authorities from Black Elk - "for is not silence the very voice of the Great Spirit?", to Jili - "He who speaks becomes silent before the Divine Essence", To St. John of the Cross - "One word spake the Father, which Word was His Son, and this Word He speaks ever in eternal silence, and in silence must it be heard by the soul".

It is hoped that the viewers of this film will look past the need to be entertained and open themselves to what this film has to teach us. I for one am very grateful to those who produced it and for those who so generously allowed us entrance to this sacred world.

Silence that speaks volumes.......2007-05-05

"Into the Great Silence" is a German film about French monks who pray in Latin. The monastery of the Grande Chartreuse in the French Alps houses a community of monks of the Carthusian order that has been praying in nearly-total silence and solitude for nearly a millennium. It took the filmmakers over a decade to obtain permission to film at the monastery, but the results are lovely. The monks live in an isolated Bavarian-style villa high in the mountains and hew to an austere daily regimen. They rise well before dawn to pray -- alone in their cells -- for hours. They occasionally gather to chant the liturgy of the hours. They retreat to their cells, where they take meals, bathe and study in solitude and silence. The film follows the monks through their day and over the course of a year, from the deep snows of winter, through the planting season, and around again to winter.

The film is long, it must be said. It features long, lingering shots of the monks at prayer -- favoring closeup shots of an ear, fingers, lips and eyes. But visually, the film is breathtaking. The interior of the monks' cells is spare, with plain wood furnishings and gray, stone walls. The diffuse lighting is almost entirely natural. Many of the shots achieve a Flemish painter's level of natural beauty and homeliness, with parts of the shot plunging into darkness. The camera lingers lovingly on small elements of the monkish life: a candle flame that hovers almost disembodied near the tabernacle in a near-dark chapel during middle-of-the-night prayer; a view of a snow-laden roof seen through a monk's window. The potential monotony of this approach is broken up using a number of techniques. Monks are caught as they make small movements -- adjusting the flue in a wood stove, eating from a tin of soup, scrubbing a plate, learning a new chant. Communal moments are shown as well -- the monks getting haircuts, filling pitchers of water, walking to chapel. The camera also focuses on the small things of nature -- a leaf, a rushing spring, water dripping from a drying dish, a patch of sky -- permitting us to study the beauty and simplicity of the small elements of the creation that surrounds us. In all of these ways, viewers find themselves drawn into the monks' silent world of prayer.

There are drawbacks and debatable choices. The filmmakers interspersed standard film stock with scenes made by (or in imitation of) the shaky home movie stock of the 1960s. Perhaps this was done in an attempt to provide a sense of the community's longevity. But the technique came just "this close" to being the a precious, film-school distraction. Though the Gregorian neums and script in the wonderfully over-sized chant books are an object of the filmmakers' attention, the contents of those beautiful words is never apparent. Those who have chanted the Divine Office during a retreat may know what is going on (the chanting of all 150 psalms over the course of a few weeks), but others will not. Too, there is a focus on the seasons of the year, but not on the seasons of the Church -- Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter -- which are enormously more significant to the monks. Then again, with a single unfortunate exception, one does not know much about the contents of or the motivation for the monks' prayer. What do they spend so much time doing -- meditating on the Passion? Scripture study? Self-analysis and reflection? By the same token, this lack of information brings viewers into contact with their own inner monologue -- "what are they doing now?" "How long will this movie last?" "How is the film structured?" These reflections, born of the silence of the movie theater, may precisely map to the inner lives of the men the film portrays. A more pressing issue is with the biblical texts that are occasionally (and with deliberate repetition) displayed on the screen. One verse, from Jeremiah, was horribly mistranslated from the French. The French read, "You seduced me, and I *allowed myself to be* seduced." The translation read, "You seduced me, and I was seduced," not entirely the same thing. Missing from both was the context of the verse, in which the prophet Jeremiah accuses God of luring him into prophetic career that caused him to be mocked and derided -- a far cry from the gentle feeling these words evoke when divorced from their biblical context. And one more problem: the one monk who spoke about his inner life was an elderly, blind man whose gentle piety was a vapid as his sight was blunted. One can only hope that others had an interior life that was less pollyannaish.

"Into Great Silence" is a challenging film on many levels. It is not easy to spend three hours watching others pray. But in the end, it succeeds in bringing the interior life of the monastery to a cinematic audience. Whatever flaws it suffers are subsumed to that larger and more worthy achievement -- the devotion of one's entire life to the worship of God.

Average customer rating:

Well worth it...
The greatest non-Leone Italian western
It is all according to the law...
Sssssshhhhhhh!
Over rated but it's ok

The Great Silence
Starring: Jean-Louis Trintignant , Klaus Kinski , Frank Wolff , Luigi Pistilli , and Vonetta McGee
Director: Sergio Corbucci
Manufacturer: Fantoma
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00012L77W
Release Date: 2004-01-27

Amazon.com

One of the best and most unusual spaghetti Westerns ever made, Sergio Corbucci's The Great Silence is set in the beautiful desolation of the snow-covered high plains. Jean-Louis Trintignant, the romantic French star of My Night at Maud's and A Man and a Woman, hardens his blue eyes into a steely stare to play the mute mercenary gunslinger "Silence." Klaus Kinski (star of Werner Herzog's Aguirre: The Wrath of God and Nosferatu the Vampyre) is his target, a grinning, amiable bounty killer whose deadly logic leaves a trail of corpses in his wake, all murdered "according to the law." Corbucci, whose Django is a genre classics, complicates his trademark cynicism with the compelling contradictions of his hero and villain, and the chilly atmosphere of the frozen mountain community brings a new twist to the phrase cold-blooded murder.

Cult director Alex Cox (Repo Man) calls The Great Silence "the greatest spaghetti Western ever made" in a six-minute video interview, in which he explains his love for the film in an insightful monologue. Cox also provides optional commentary on the alternate happy ending (which otherwise plays without sound), an unusual find that was likely shot for Asian territories. --Sean Axmaker

Description

On an unforgiving, snow swept frontier, a group of bloodthirsty bounty hunters, led by the vicious Loco (Klaus Kinski Nosferatu, For a Few Dollars More) prey on a band of persecuted outlaws who have taken to the hills. As the price on each head is collected one-by-one, only a mute gunslinger named Silence (Jean-Louis Trintignant The Conformist) stands between the innocent refuges and the greed and corruption that the bounty hunters represent. But, in this harsh, brutal world, the lines between right and wrong aren't always clear and good doesn't always triumph. Featuring superb photography and a haunting score from maestro Ennio Morricone, director Sergio Corbucci's (Django, Compa=F1eros) bleak, brilliant and violent vision of an immoral, honorless west is widely considered to be among the very best and most influential Euro-Westerns ever made.

Customer Reviews:

Well worth it..........2007-06-15

This is a great example of a Euro-Western that delivers on the hype and/or reputation that surrounds it.
I heard and read about it and was curious despite knowing the outcome. [People can't seem to help giving it away.]
Most Westerns suffer from being saddled (pun!) with repetitious plot elements. If you watch enough of these you can get a little bored with almost endless variations on revenge and money grubbing along with characters who can shoot six flies out of midair.
All that is overcome here by all of the various things that make certain Spaghetti Westerns stand out.
An excellent hero by Trintignant who delivers despite being given a tough task by not having any lines. Kinski's amoral villian I liked mostly because you understood him to a degree. Nasty, yes, but having decent bounty money waiting to be had is just asking for men of his caliber to come calling.
[Note: If you recall, this was Gene Hackman's Sheriff Daggett's prime fear in "Unforgiven".]
One his best Western roles and he did many.
Need I mention the Morricone score? Did he ever do a bad one?
But ultimately what did it for me on this movie were the spectacular snow-bound settings. Breathtaking...worth viewing for this alone.

The greatest non-Leone Italian western.......2007-06-08

I saw this film about ten years ago on British TV, after having heard a lot about it in various articles and books on the Italian Western phenomenon. The version I saw was slightly trimmed for violence (The Great Silence had not been released in the UK for many years for this reason) but even so, I was blown away by it.

For those of you who are familiar with Corbucci's work, all his trademark techniques are present- outlandish violence, a few too many zooms etc. but they all come together to present a story that is relatively simple but engrossing. The performances are brilliant all round, especially from Jean Louis Trintingant, Vonetta McGee and Klaus Kinski as a villain who is refreshingly not over the top. It is one of his most effective performances.. And the ending is legendary.

Also on the disc is an great introduction by director Alex Cox (in fact, one minor flaw is that there is no commentary on the film, by him or anyone else), a trailer and an alternative ending.

As if THAT ending could be topped!

It is all according to the law..........2007-06-02

POSSIBLE SPOILER IN THIS REVIEW. This is a western for our troubled times where the distinction between what is lawful and what is justice is not all that clear. It is not set in classical sandy Arizona, but in snowy Utah Territory. Klaus Kinsky, renowned German actor, plays aplty named Loco, a bounty hunter. He kills criminals for a living. He brings in corpses. It is all according to the law since the wanted poster says Dead *or* Alive. A desperate widow hires a gunslinger to avenge her husband, who was forced into banditry and killed by Loco. Trinitigant plays the tragic hired gun with pathos. Frank Wollf plays the doomed Sherrif Burnett who tries to replace the Law by Justice.
The film has a really poor beginning, but picks up speed as it goes. The setting is wonderful, the photography is grandiose, the acting superb, but the beginning and dubbing are appaling...
This film is not really profound, but it hammers in its message without mercy - even though an action is within the the law, it does not have to have anything to do with justice. The end will haunt the viewer, since it does not offer the release of a simple gunfight where Good defeats Evil. The film shows that reality is harsher than that.

Sssssshhhhhhh!.......2007-03-18

Yeah, you've heard lots of different viewpoints on The Great Silence, but it's best for you to check it out yourself and see if you feel it's a big deal or not. Though not my favorite spaghetti western, I do enjoy it quite a bit. It does differ from most spaghetti westerns, that's for sure. The whole film is set in the snow, making it seem-I don't know-Yuckier or darker or something. Alot of snow! Just check out the poor horses who are having a helluva time trying to walk in it. Silence is a mute hunter of bounty hunters who's got his sights set on Klaus Kinski. Kinski's a slimy lunatic(naturally), very cowardly and weasely. In fact, he knows that Silence is a better gunfighter than he is, which leads to his cowardly tactics at the end of the film. I guess I should say "spoiler alert", but reading all of these reviews talking about the controversial ending, I think you've probably guessed that the hero doesn't win this time out, and Kinski doesn't end up at the end of a rope. Yeah, the ending is a downer for sure, but that's part of what seperates this western from the norm. It's directed by "the other Sergio", and quite well if you ask me. The dubbing makes it seem a bit cornier than it should, but many Italian films suffer from this. You may find this to be a fantastic western or overrated piece of crap, but you won't know till you watch it, will ya?

Over rated but it's ok.......2007-03-11

I've read a lot about this film so I decided to get it. It was nowhere near as good as I thought it would be. The dvd quality is ok. The sound is not that good. I never cared too much for Klaus Kinski to begin with so with that in mind, I watched it with an open mind and still find reasons not to like him.

Average customer rating:

Well worth it...
The greatest non-Leone Italian western
It is all according to the law...
Sssssshhhhhhh!
Over rated but it's ok

General | Westerns | Genres | DVD | Video

Action & Adventure | Westerns | Genres | DVD | Video

Spaghetti Western | Westerns | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Indie & Art House | Stores | DVD | Video

( G ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

Django (2-Disc Limited Edition)
Once Upon a Time in Italy - The Spaghetti Western Collection (A Bullet for the General / Companeros / Four of the Apocalypse / Keoma / Texas Adios)
Django Kill - If You Live, Shoot!
Run, Man, Run!
The Sabata Trilogy (Sabata / Adios, Sabata / Return of Sabata)

ASIN: B00005NG0N
Release Date: 2001-09-04

Amazon.com

Description

In an unforgiving, snow-swept frontier, a group of bloodthirsty bounty hunters, led by the vicious Loco (Klaus Kinski), prey on a band of persecuted outlaws who have taken to the hills. As the price on each head is collected one-by-one, only a mute gunslinger named Silence (Jean-Louis Trintignant) stands between the innocent refuges and the greed and corruption that the bounty hunters represent. But, in this harsh, brutal world, the lines between right and wrong aren't always clear and good doesn't always triumph. Featuring superb photography and a haunting score from maestro Ennio Morricone, director Sergio Corbucci's (Django, Companeros) bleak, brilliant and violent vision of an immoral, honorless west is widely considered to be among the very best and most influential Euro-Westerns ever made.

Customer Reviews:

Well worth it..........2007-06-15

The greatest non-Leone Italian western.......2007-06-08

It is all according to the law..........2007-06-02

Sssssshhhhhhh!.......2007-03-18

Over rated but it's ok.......2007-03-11

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