Into Great Silence & Liqueur
Into Great Silence is a movie without narration, not much spoken words or background music. It’s the story of life within a cloistered monastery in the French Alps. The subjects are the Carthusian monks of Le Grande Chartreuse monastery. The film is mostly in French and Latin and created by German filmmaker Philip Groning. The USCCB rates the film as A-1, General Patronage.
The films depicts the lives of the monks over a six-month period and is 3 hours long. It shows how, in silence, these monks are still able to maintain intimate relationships with each other. There is even a scene of a monk playing like a child with a squirrel in the snow. The USCCB’s review states that the film focuses on the lives of these monks from the moment they wake up for prayers, ablutions, sweeping floors, shoveling snow, watering plants and cutting fabric for clothes. One chore was missed out and I wonder if it’s in the film.
Last week, while reading the Time Magazine issue of April 2, 2007, I stumbled upon an article about making expensive liqueurs in Europe. The manufacturer of these upmarket liquers was originally purveyed as health potions in 1605. It’s concoted entirely of herbs and plants and the most expensive bottle retails at $115. However you can find more reasonable bottles sold between $40 and $45 for 750ml. You won’t find women clad in skimpy clothes dishing out samples at bars. The marketing is by word of mouth, rather.
The manufacturers are none other than our monks at Le Grande Chartreuse. The income generated by their liqueur business sustains them and their other monasteries around the world. Who says you can’t be religious and be successful in business ethically.
