Categories: monasticism, cinema
Date: 20 May 2007 10:54:47
Into Great Silence is now, finally, screening here. After church today I crossed -- taking my passport :) -- to the north side of the harbour (I'm a Club Dendy member [$9.50 tickets rather than $14.00], but I left church too late to make the session at Newtown so I had to look elsewhere) to the grandly named, and grandly decorated (I was in cinema 3, The Lounge), Hayden Orpheum Picture Palace.
If you're expecting a standard documentary, don't. And I truly do not think I would have enjoyed it half as much had it been your usual documentary. I gained so much from it -- all 161 minutes of it: it is a long movie, but one I loved and one in which I could have sat in for longer.
There is so much one could say about this film: the characters, the moments of humour [among them a monk calling for a cat and a discussion on the need for hand-washing: there are a few moments of talking -- the monks are allowed a chat every so often when they go on walks, or slide down snow-covered hills, outside the monastery]; the lack of a musical score or endless chatter making you hear sounds (footprints; the initial slice as a knife cuts celery before it hits the cutting board; snow falling on windows ...) that we often do not hear in our busy and noisy lives; the wonderful commentary on a life lived for God by a blind monk towards the end of the film that was an encouragement, and challenge, to me. There are so many jewels. See the Ship of Fools thread on the movie for more of these and where you can read others' views.
But I'd like to focus on one aspect that hit me: perhaps oddly. Part of Father's sermon this morning mentioned people being bored -- the fact that we live in an age of boredom, where people are constantly saying they are bored: and where being bored is seen as a terrible evil that must be rectified; he also mentioned the constant need for people to have or do something more exciting time than what they did before to keep them interested. It was a great sermon in itself, but I found my mind recalling it throughout this film. Not that I was bored, far from it: but, as someone who finds it very hard to actually be bored -- I make my own amusement easily and am just as happy reading or listening to a CD as I am meeting friends or discovering a new city or place -- the film was a wonderful reflection to me of all the joys God has granted us in this world. Some (such as the change of seasons -- though it's not as dramatic down here in Sin City as it is in places where snow falls; having fun in the snow; watching flowers bloom and trees grow; chanting in a darkened church; laughing and talking with friends...) are obvious at times; others (such as a river simply running; rain or snow falling; the cutting of celery or calling to a missing pet [as mentioned above]; even having a haircut...) are not so obvious to me as gifts from God: but they are -- and they are moments to make and moments to share -- be it with a friend, with yourself as a memory, or with God, in praise and thanksgiving. These are things indeed to be thankful for -- and how can we be bored with this?
That said, I bet I'll say in the next week (perhaps even tomorrow...if I last that long), "I'm bored." But, by the grace of God, I may also be able to see beauty in unexpected, and unthought of, places.