'In Pursuit Of Silence'

In cinemas October 21st!

Well this is an odd one. Documentary filmmaker Patrick Shen goes on an existential quest to understand the concept of silence and peacefulness and how it may apply to the chaos of modern life. He speaks to experts on the subject of silence (yes, there are experts on the subject of silence), analyses the historical significance of silence in prayer and meditation as well as some of those customs that still take place, including a look at John Cage’s famous composition 4’33” which still inspires artists today.

As a concept this probably sounds kind of dull and as a movie it’s pretty far from exciting, in fact it’s basically about the pursuit of a lack of excitement, a lack of anything, but oh my God I cannot get this movie out of my head. I was utterly transfixed even when nothing was happening, and there are large portions where arguably nothing is happening, and the message of the movie has stuck so deeply in my brain that I find myself altering the way I perceive the world as we know it.
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Honestly, I don’t think a movie has ever inspired me to change the way I live my life before but this one has certainly made me stop and think. Let me sell it to you, because I’m aware it’s doesn’t sound that interesting.

First of all, yes it’s slow paced and completely lacking in thrills. This isn’t the story of a serial killer or obsessive fan or one of those documentaries with an engaging narrative, this doesn’t really have a narrative at all. It probably is everything you fear it will be, I’ll just be upfront about that. What it is though is a complete look at something you’ve never really thought about but which affects you’re life every second of every day in ways you never bothered to consider.

It’s easy to think of the world in a visual way, and in that regard the film is beautifully shot in parts, but equally if not more so we are audio-centric beings. We are always hearing the world all of the time, we receive much more audio input than visual and the film sets out to explore that. This isn’t purely about “inner peace” there’s a genuine health concern about the noise that affects our lives. Before this film I had no idea that the World Health Organisation lists excessive noise as one of the most serious health risks in the modern world, just behind air pollution. We take for granted how much sound we consume every day and somehow assume that it wouldn’t have a lasting effect on us because it’s basically invisible.

The film plays with sound wonderfully as well, slowly spacing the talks on meditation and the calmness of wellbeing in a soothing tone whilst quickening the pace and adding in a harsher level of background noise when the subject becomes more serious. A gimmick employed by sound designers on movies world wide but played more obviously here so you can’t help but feel yourself being emotionally manipulated.

It seems strange but it’s honestly true that excessive noise is a serious problem of the modern age and once you’ve had it explained to you it’s one of those things that seems really obvious in retrospect. I can’t recommend this film enough, no it isn’t exciting but it is fascinating.

Review by Kristian Mitchell-Dolby.

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