Movie: Into Great Silence

An unlikely film has been filling cinemas in Germany in recent weeks: a three-hour documentary with hardly a single spoken word, set in a monastery.

The film Into Great Silence is an intimate portrayal of the everyday lives of Carthusian monks high in a remote corner of the French Alps...

The Carthusians are the strictest Christian order and this three-hour, almost totally silent film about them, was not expected to be a hit. But it is playing to packed cinemas, fascinating audiences with the unique glimpse of a contemplative life, unknown beyond the monastery walls.

Bavaria Film Intl. has a humble hit on its hands with Philip Groening's "Into Great Silence," a documentary about life in the Great Charterhouse, a Carthusian monastery high in the French Alps.
Bavaria has sold the pic to major European territories, including Spain's Karma Films, Metacinema in Italy and Cinemien for Benelux.

The critically acclaimed film has screened in Venice, Toronto and Seville, Spain.

"Into Great Silence" also has been a commercial success for German distribdistrib X Verleih, which released the film nationwide in November. In its second week, pic reached a per-screen average of nearly $100,000 and has so far garnered more than $810,000 at the box office.

Frenetic released the pic in Switzerland, where it entered the top 20 with only three prints in its first week.