Meetings with Remarkable Men | Film Review
By: Film Review by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat (Spirit-Practice)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Meetings with Remarkable Men
Filmed in the mountain ranges and deserts of Afghanistan, this fascinating drama transports us to a strange and exotic world of spiritual adventurism.
This film directed by Peter Brook is based on an autobiographical work by G. I. Gurdjieff (1866 - 1949) who was one of the most famous and controversial explorers of perennial wisdom and esoteric philosophy. He was a great believer in the Socratic ideal of the examined life. Filmed in the mountain ranges and deserts of Afghanistan, this fascinating drama transports us to a strange and exotic world of spiritual adventurism.
One of the first remarkable men in Gurdjieff's life is his father (Warren Mitchell), a bard who teaches him the importance of self-respect. Having been trained for both the priesthood and medicine, Gurdjieff (Dragan Maksimovic) is equally intrigued by sacred and scientific knowledge. An escape from death in a youthful prank further deepens his thirst for answers to the mysteries of life.
Gurdjieff and his friends come across some scrolls that indicate the existence of an ancient esoteric brotherhood. Determined to learn more about them and their secrets, he begins a quest which will take him from the vast stretches of the Gobi Desert to the snow fields of the Himalayas until he arrives at a monastery where devotion, dance, and esoteric knowledge all combine in a mysterious religion.
Meetings with Remarkable Men salutes Gurdjieff's quest as a spiritual seeker animated by a real love of questions, openness, attention, and wonder. The teachers he meets along the way — including an ardent Russian prince (Terence Stamp) — share his yearning for a systematic overview of life and death.
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This very rare and esoteric film is very special to me. When my ex-wife was preparing to be a Certified Yoga Instructor she had HER instructor and class come to our home because we had a large family room in which the instructor was able to show us all this movie with her 16mm projector. I had a client who was also a friend come over as well because he was Armenian, as was Gurdgieff, whose story this move was about. I than had a cd made of the movie, because it is one I have watched many times.
I don't expect many NT members will find this it to be of interest, because it isn't about politics, it's about seeking enlightenment.
Well, as I said, I knew this wouldn't be of interest to most NT members, the one or two I assumed would be have not been on line for a while, so I am satisfied that at this point 497 non-members have looked at it.
Although I could not find a trailer, not even on IMDb, there are quite a few images from the film:
Terence Stamp, who specializes in acting in strange movies and playing unusual characters is in the middle and bottom middle images. In the middle one he is speaking to Gurdjieff.
The two bottom left images are set at the hidden monastery of the ancient Sarmoung Brotherhood, and the middle right image is the leader of the B rotherhood.
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This is at the beginning of the movie. There is a contest among musicians to see if one could make the mountains echo their sound, and the one who did won a lamb.
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Gurdjieff, as a young man, is with his father.
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.Gurdjieff, in the centre, and his friends discover the ancient scroll that tells them of the ancient Sarmoung Brotherhood, which Gurdjieff then seeks.
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The next two images are dances at the Sarmoung Brotherhood monastery.
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In this image, those are Whirling Dervishes in the background.
This is no 'ordinary' film.
Do you know what The Fourth Way is?
I believe that it's a kind of philosophy invented by Gurdjieff to enable us to seek enlightenment, but I've never studied it. Tell us about it.
The Fourth Way—Principal Ideas
"It may surprise you if I say that the chief feature of a modern man's being which explains everything else that is lacking in him is sleep. "
G.I. Gurdjieff— In Search of the Miraculous, pg 66
Mr. Gurdjieff distinguishes between to two types of sleep. The first is the ordinary sleep in bed. In this state we are passive and immersed in our dreams.
The second state is the so called 'waking state' in which we go to our jobs, read books, interact with family and friends, and so on. At first glance this second state is much different than the passive state of sleep. But in fact it is just another form of sleep—hypnotic sleep.
We are hypnotised by the surrounding environment and our identification with everything and everybody. We cannot stop the flow of our thoughts, we cannot control our emotions, our imagination or our attention. We are lost in the subjective world of our likes and dislikes, our desires, our judgments. We never see the real world.
We can awaken from this sleep, but first we must realize that we are asleep and only by serious self-observation will we be able to see that for ourselves.
The Principal Ideas of The Fourth Way Teaching of G.I. Gurdjieff
I hope you don't mind that I reset your comment so it would not run off the page, which made it difficult to follow. I don't particularly agree with his theory that when we are awake we are in another form of sleep. But then I could see from the movie itself that some strange things were said. For example, when Gurdjieff meets with Prince Lubovedsky (Terrence Stamp) he discovers that the Russian prince is even more advanced than him in seeking enlightenment, and they go out for a cup of tea. A stranger who is aware of what the prince is seeking sits next to him and tells him that to find what he seeks he must "die", meaning that he must give up everything and accompany him. This is the scene.
It would be a spoiler to tell you where he takes him.