Chichester Cinema at New Park
No Greater Love
A documentary reflecting the pace of life at the Monastery of the Most Holy Trinity in Notting Hill, home to a cloistered order of Carmelite nuns.
Ten years in preparation, this thoughtful documentary examines the life of a closed order of Carmelite nuns at the Most Holy Trinity monastery, in Notting Hill, London. The director Michael Whyte, granted access to this cloistered world, captures something of its severe self-discipline - silence is observed for most of the daily round of prayer and contemplation - but also its strange merriment, as the nuns go about their work (gardening, laundering, cooking) and talk on camera about their vocation. Whyte captures moments of stillness and tranquillity that recall Dutch domestic painting of the 17th century - the Vermeer-like angle of light as a nun stands at a window - while suggesting the extraordinariness of such a place's survival, and in such an area: Notting Hill has never seemed so quiet. Like ‘Into Greater Silence’ this documentary demands a measure of patience from the viewer, and repays it tenfold.
Part of the SPIRITUAL CINEMA SEASON
UK · 
France · 2008 · Michael Whyte · 100min
