Rencontres avec des hommes remarquables

Based on the autobiographical book of the same name, Peter Brooks' Meetings With Remarkable Men is the story of the early years of Russian philosopher and magician George Gurdjieff and the people that led him to become a spiritual seeker and an inspiration to devoted followers around the world. Filmed in the mountains and deserts of Afghanistan, a Russian Prince (Terrence Stamp) directs Gurdjieff (Dragan Maksimovic) and a group of seekers to search for the teachings of an ancient Russian brotherhood called the Sarmound. The adventure leads them through the Gobi Desert and the Himalayas to a monastery where Gurdjieff learns self-expression through dancing and body movement, a technique he taught his followers many years later.

If enlightenment means anything, it means to "lighten up", but this bio-pic of Gurdjieff's coming of age is heavy and significant, reducing the life of a man of exuberance to ponderous banality. The characters walk zombie-like through their lines, never allowing any hint of joy in being alive and the stilted dialogue sounds like a cross between the spiritual kitsch of Lost Horizon and Star Wars. Filming this outstanding book, I'm afraid, requires a visionary who is able to convey its meaning with suggestion, poetry, and a touch of cinematic magic -- sadly lacking here.

Meetings with Remarkable Men is the adaptation of part of the autobiography of George Gurdjieff, a mystic who lived between the 2nd half of the 19th century and the 1st half of the 20th century.

The movie is more like a docudrama, about his travels from central asia to Egypt, and back to central Asia once again in a pursuit for knowledge about the purpose of life and existence, and the movie focuses on the time span between his teenage years back in Georgia to his early adulthood and the discovery of the secret place of the Sarmoung Brotherhood.

The movie was well produced, and its purpose was not to tell a story as much as to enlighten those who are willing to receive the knowledge, which is why I gave it a full score.

It is unusual to even see a film being made about this kind of subject matter. Gurdjieff is an important figure in the history of religion, and this film is interesting in that it not only has a performance by Terrance Stamp in it, but also the fact that the Sufi dancing in it is authentic, as far as I am aware. Also, as far as I am aware, this is the only time that anyone in the outside world has ever been allowed to observe this form of sacred dance that the Sufis have been using for thousands of years. Additionally, the meetings that he has with some of the individuals who are spiritually advanced are handled intelligently and realistically. A must for anyone on the spiritual path.

I echo other reviewers in their description of this as a film for those who are spiritual seekers. Others will probably find it rather slow and dull.

One of the main points of Gurdjieff's philosophy is that most people are asleep. This film depicts the effort it takes to become, and to stay, awake.

My impression is that this is a film by someone who has studied what Gurdieff said about himself and his philosophy (Try 'All and Everything' if you want to get into the details of that), but not what others have said about him. The more you get to know what those who knew him said about him, the less likely you would be to present him in such a rosy light. Frankly, he comes across as a bit of a git who used some rather naive spiritual seekers to his own ends.

I enjoyed the movie, but see it as something of a positive skimming over Gurdjieff's early years.

A major figure of world theater, Peter Brook made three notable motion pictures during the 1960s ("Moderato cantabile" in 1960, based on a novel by Marguerite Duras; in 1963, "Lord of the Flies", from William Golding's novel; and the highly praised filmization of his already acclaimed stage version of Peter Weiss' play, "Marat/Sade", in 1966). A project based on the biography of the spiritual teacher G.I. Gurdjieff, detailing his search for the information that would serve as base for the development of the so-called Fourth Way to enlightenment (a path that does not have a defined step-by-step itinerary, but that must be found and built by each individual), resulted in an interesting film that starts beautifully with a mysterious and fascinating sequence, illustrating a competition in the mountains in which the award is given to the musician that can make the mountains "react" in harmony to the music notes. Following Gurdjieff as he grows up and leaves his father's home, the film logically has the structure of a road movie, making his trip an entertaining voyage of ethnic, cultural and self-discovery (with a parade of solid actors in key roles). It becomes very disappointing as Gurdjieff lastly reaches the monastery of the Sarmoung Brotherhood, a place high in the Asian mountains where he is taken blindfolded, and where he supposedly obtained arcane knowledge from this secret society for his life project. Not that I as spectator was waiting for the revelation of the truth of all truths, but although it is known that his teachings dealt with movements and dance, neither did I expect to see on the screen a place that looks like a resort spa for Europeans who dance and chant like crazy (choreography preserved by scriptwriter Jeanne de Salzmann, Gurdjieff's deputy, who was around 90 years old when the film was made). Fortunately this is only during the last minutes of the film, and the rapture caused by the previous images is not badly ruined by this conclusion. Worth a look.