There have been surprisingly few feature films or documentaries directly devoted to Gurdjieff’s life and teachings. The only feature-length film, released in 1979, is Meetings with Remarkable Men directed by Peter Brook, who co-wrote the screenplay with Jeanne de Salzmann. The single exploration of Gurdjieff’s life and essential ideas is William Patterson’s documentary trilogy The Life and Significance of George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff. Although many popular movies and underground classics have been influenced by Gurdjieff’s teachings (Groundhog Day, Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life and Alejandro Jodorowsky’s The Holy Mountain), his imprint on these films is rarely suspected by most viewers.
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Meetings with Remarkable
Men |
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This feature-length film was an ambitious
attempt to bring to the screen Gurdjieff’s second volume of All
and Everything, his semi-autobiographical Meetings with Remarkable
Men. Directed by acclaimed stage and film director Peter Brook
and based on a screenplay by Brook and Jeanne de Salzmann, the film
was largely shot on location in Afghanistan.The production of the film
was beset with many challenges. Writer and student of Gurdjieff, Kathryn
Hulme, wrote the original screenplay, but withdrew from active participation
in the early stages of the film and distanced herself from the production.
The conditions in Afghanistan during filming in the late 1970s, shortly
before the Soviet invasion, were dangerous and unpredictable, contributing
a tense urgency to the filming. And, as the film neared completion there
were numerous changes in the script and editing process. When the movie
was released it received a mixed reception from film critics, the general
public and followers of Gurdjieff. The general sense was that the cinematic
result was uneven, poorly edited and failed to capture the “remarkable”
nature of Gurdjieff’s search for esoteric knowledge. Nevertheless,
the film has many strengths including an excellent music score by Laurence
Rosenthal, the magnificent Afghanistan landscape and ambience, the scene
of a traditional musical and singing contest, a young Gurdjieff and
his father silently gazing at the night stars, and the memorable depiction
at the climax of the film of the initiation ceremony and sacred dances
at the mysterious Sarmoung monastery. The latter constitute the most
enduring value of the film as they are the only public record of the
authentic Gurdjieff Movements. |
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In Search of the Miraculous |
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short (42 minutes) black and white film is based on P.D. Ouspensky’s
book of the same name. It combines archival historical footage of the
period (1914-1924) with re-enactments of crucial events in Ouspensky’s
search for objective knowledge under the guidance of Gurdjieff. Most
of the dialogue and commentary are taken directly from Ouspensky’s
book. This modest film is surprisingly effective in capturing the ambience
of the period and the compelling nature of Ouspensky’s life-changing
encounter with Gurdjieff and his powerful ideas. |
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The Life and Significance
of George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff
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Gurdjieff in Egypt: The Origin of Esoteric Knowledge |
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Part I of the trilogy is both a visual tour of Egypt and an exploration of the origins of Gurdjieff’s Fourth Way teachings. It examines the work of scholars of ancient Egyptian history such as Issa Schwaller de Lubicz, John Anthony West and Robert Schoch, explores the myth of Atlantis and presents the theory that an ancient form of esoteric Christianity originating in "pre-sand Egypt" was the wellspring of Gurdjieff’s teachings. |
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Gurdjieff’s Mission: Introducing the Teaching to the West |
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The second part covers the period from 1912 to 1924 when Gurdjieff first introduced his Fourth Way teachings to the Western world. We are introduced to major students such as P.D. Ouspensky, A.R. Orage and John Bennett, and gain insights into how Gurdjieff challenged his pupils to develop their highest spiritual potential. The scenes shot in Moscow, Constantinople, London, Paris and New York provide an overlay that gives a sense of Gurdjieff’s intensive struggle to establish his teachings in the Western world. |
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Gurdjieff’s Legacy: Establishing the Teaching in the West |
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The final part of the trilogy begins with his serious automobile accident in 1924, an incident that completely changed the direction and arc of his work in the West. It details his decision to transmit his teachings in written form as a ‘legominism’ – Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson – and his intensive group work with students in Paris and America during the 1930s and 1940s. The last few years of his life show Gurdjieff teaching his pupils through the ordinary activities of daily life and preparing his senior students to carry on his legacy following his death. |
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In
the summer of 1949, shortly before Gurdjieff’s death, student
Evelyn Sutta recorded various motor trips throughout the French countryside
with her camera. The short silent colour film is accompanied by a soundtrack
of Gurdjieff’s harmonium music and is decidedly amateurish, with
shaky camera work and abrupt changes of scene. We see images of Notre
Dame cathedral, the French Alps, picnics by the roadside and Gurdjieff
and his entourage leaving on their trips. The film is one of the few
publicly available visual records of Gurdjieff during his lifetime and
for that reason has historical archival significance, but little value
beyond that. |
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Introduction to Gurdjieff’s
Fourth Way: From Selves to Individual Self to the Self |
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At
a three-day seminar at the St. Francis Retreat Center, San Juan Bautista,
California, William Patterson presented an introduction to the Fourth
Way teaching of Gurdjieff. The theme was explored through guided meditation,
Conscious Body-Breath Impressions, dialogues and private interviews.
The video opens with an Introduction followed by three seminar dialogues:
‘Images of God and Machines,’ ‘Science of Being’
and ‘Faith of Consciousness.’ Completing the video is a
short vignette, ‘Mr. Gurdjieff’s Celebratory Dinner,’
showing the preparation and execution of a formal meal celebrating Gurdjieff’s
birthday on January 13. |
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Introduction to Gurdjieff’s
Fourth Way Vol. 2: The Movement from Sex to Love |
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The
second volume of Introduction to Gurdjieff’s Fourth Way documents
three days of “probes and dialogues” at a California retreat
led by William Patterson exploring a wide range of topics related to
the Fourth Way. Patterson clearly articulates key psychological ideas
including the human being as a bio-plasmic machine, self-observation
and self-listening, embodiment exercises, the challenge of living in
the present, conscience and ‘being-Partkdolg-duty,’ unconscious
and conscious love, sexuality, and gender identity. Also addressed are
important cosmological concepts such as ‘reciprocal maintenance’
and exchange of energies, the origin of the universe, and the relationship
between cosmic harmony and disharmony. Patterson serves up a menu of
stimulating Fourth Way ideas that both challenge and illuminate the
viewer. |
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Spiritual
Pilgrimage: Mr. Gurdjieff’s Father’s Grave |
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The film, written,
produced and narrated by William Patterson, was awarded the Gold Medal
in the Religion-Ethics-Spirituality category at the 2016 WorldFest International
Film Festival. In Meetings with Remarkable Men, Gurdjieff devotes
a chapter to his father, an amateur poet and bard, who had a deep spiritual
impact on his son. At the end of the chapter, Gurdjieff admonishes “any
of my sons, whether by blood or in spirit” to seek out and visit
his father’s grave. These words inspired Patterson to initiate
a 21-day pilgrimage to Gurdjieff’s father’s final resting
place in Gyumri, Armenia. Starting with a visit to the Prieuré
and Gurdjieff’s own grave in Avon, France, Patterson travels backward
in time to Turkey where Gurdjieff and his students lived, and where
he often visited P.D. Ouspensky. From there Patterson travels to Tiflis,
Georgia where Gurdjieff first opened his Institute for the Harmonious
Development of Man. Returning to Turkey, he visits Kars where Gurdjieff
lived in the medieval quarter and Kars Military Cathedral where he studied
as a youth. After a visit to Ani, Turkey, the ancient city where Gurdjieff
discovered the Sarmoung manuscript, Patterson arrives in Armenia. There
he seeks out Gurdjieff’s birthplace in Gyumri before finally paying
homage to Gurdjieff’s father at his grave in Gyumri’s Old
Cemetery. The film has high production qualities and is expertly narrated
by Patterson. Many of the visual backdrops are stunning and capture
the colour and atmosphere of the Near and Middle East. |
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