Into great Silence

Director's Statement

It's not easy.
Not easy at all to write about a film that gets by with nearly no words, a film that is truly as far away from language as a film can be, and far, too, from any discursive processes.
Nor is it easy to make a film outside the realm of language, outside what I'd always taken to be logic, dramaturgy even my own abilities.
How does one make a film that, more than depicting a monastery, becomes a monastery itself? How?
To this day, I don't know how. I only know that one can. That, at some point, this film took on form, became a monastery - space and not a narrative.
A film like a cloud; that's how I described it 21 years ago when the initial idea for this project carne up. And this idea, it's remained intact; 19 years ago, when I met the Carthusian for the first time; 18 years ago, when they said it was too early, 'in ten, 13 years maybe'; five years ago, when the monastery called: 'If you'd still be interested'.
Yes, Yes.
What is a cloud? Hard to say. There are different kinds. Very different, every one, and always right, just right, each one. I’ve never seen a wrong cloud.
Altogether, I spent nearly six months in the monastery of Grande Chartreuse. I took part in the life there, in the daily routine, and lived like a monk in a cell. Took part in this incredible balance between seclusion and community.
I shot a film there, recorded sound, edited. A voyage into silence.