The Monk (Dominik Moll, 2011): Spain/ France

Reviewed by Sandra Andersson. Viewed at Santa Barbara Film Festival.

The Monk is a dark and twisted film directed by Dominik Moll and based on Matthew Lewis’ novel from 1796 with the same name. The film catches your attention from the first scene where we jump straight into the mystery and darkness of the monastery. The Monk contains great cinematography, big contrast in lighting, superb acting and a mysterious plot that makes you wanting to know that happens.

At a monastery in the 17th century Spain, an infant is left on the steps. This boy, Ambrosio(Vincent Cassel), is raised by the friars at the monastery and becomes a well respected friar. People come from all over the country to see and hear Ambrosio preach, he has more followers than any other friar. One day, Valerio(Déborah François) comes to the monastery and wants to join to “be closer to God”, the others in the monastery are skeptical to Valerio who wears a mask so no one can see his face. Ambrosio convinces the other that they have to give Valerio a chance, and finally they agree to let him in to be a part of the monastery. Valerio explains that he needs to wear his mask due to a fire, where is face was burned and can’t be exposed to sunlight, he is given a separate place to live in the monastery, a place where he can take his mask of and be by himself. During the same time Ambrosio starts feeling more and more drawn towards the evil, is Satan there to take over him?

In the film you notice the lighting immediately, and it sets the mood of the film from the start. Almost every scene taking place in the monastery have very low-key lighting which creates a mysterious atmosphere and you know that something is going to happen in that monastery and it can’t be that good. Outside of monastery the scenes are often very bright and high-key lighting, even the scenes on the roof of the monastery contains high-key lighting. You notice the differences in lighting very soon into the film, because of this the audience soon know that the monastery that is suppose to be a good and safe place really isn’t in the film.

Vincent Cassel who is playing the role of Ambrosio does an amazing job in portraying the character. We recently saw Cassel as Thomas Leroy in Black Swan, also a twisted film and a twisted role. Even though these two roles are very different there are some resemblances between the two, that is something that might have helped in Cassel’s good job as Ambrosio.

The mystery around the masked Valerio is a big factor in the film, you immediately want to know who and what this man is and what he wants. With Valerio’s character they really succeeded with the mystery, you never know what is coming with him and the character surprised you over and over again. Although the director could have showed us a bit more about Valerio’s background and what the graveyard was all about, it leaves the audience hanging and wanting to know then the film ends.

At the end of the film there are some thing that are never really explained that I wish we could have gotten explained to us. Even though I was a bit disappointed in the lack of explaining certain things I do think The Monk is a great film, you never know what is going to happen and you are sitting on the edge of your seat through the whole film. I would highly recommend to go and see the film for those who already hasn’t done so.