{"id":17991,"date":"2012-02-01T09:23:51","date_gmt":"2012-02-01T17:23:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=17991"},"modified":"2012-04-08T22:41:21","modified_gmt":"2012-04-09T06:41:21","slug":"the-monk-dominik-moll-2011-france-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=17991","title":{"rendered":"The Monk (Dominik Moll, 2011): France"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Alex Canzano<\/a>. Viewed at The Santa Barbara International Film Festival.<\/p>\n

\"\" The story is set in the early seventeenth-century at the Capuchin Monastery just outside Madrid, and revolves around a prestigious Monk<\/em><\/a>, known as Ambrosia (Vincent Cassel), who was abandoned as an infant, placed before the monastery doors to be pecked by vicious crows until being found, and adopted by the Capuchin friars. Now at the age of thirty, Ambrosia has acquired high esteem and admiration for his reputable sermons of which his monastery has gained considerable recognition for and people from all around travel long distances to hear them.<\/p>\n

His irrefutable faith in God and his commitment towards virtue is unmarked until, while receiving a confession from an ambiguous man who claims to have molested his niece, Ambrosia unknowingly challenges Satan\u2019s ability to corrupt by stating, \u201c[He] has only the power we give to him.\u201d The following day a masked figure, calling itself Valerio (Deborah Francois), arrives at the monastery requesting to be admitted. Against some of his peer\u2019s approval, the monk grants Valerio\u2019s admittance and from there, a chain of events that lure Ambrosia into temptation and deplorable sin– initiating his eventual descent into hell.<\/p>\n

Adapted from Matthew Lewis\u2019s classic novel published in 1796, writer\/director Dominik Moll\u2019s fourth picture-length film is a stylistic pastiche that condenses the original monastic story into a ninety-minute noir-ish feature. The Monk is pervaded with gothic imagery and clearly identifiable visual references to German expressionism and American Gothic-Horror. Some notable films of influence could be: F.W. Murnau\u2019s Nosferatu<\/em> (1922), William Friedkin\u2019s The Exorcist<\/em> (1973) Tobe Hooper\u2019s Texas Chainsaw Massacre<\/em> (1974) and certainly Bram Stoker\u2019s Dracula<\/em> (1992) directed by Francis Ford Coppola.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

After Ambrosia suffers from a spell given to him by a poisonous insect bite he received while attempting to pluck a flower from his rose garden, the viewer is exposed to a surrealistic dream sequence\u2014a strange and creepy montage of images– that is reminiscent to the work of Luis Bunuel. Bunuel co-wrote a previous adaptation of the story to film, which was also called Le Moine\/The Monk and also released in France (1972).<\/p>\n

Cinematographer Patrick Blossier\u2019s highly formalized and expressionistic use of light\/shadow reflects the psychological state of the characters, and emphasizes the themes of the text. Familiar edifices of the genre, such as the monastery that appears as a dark castle upon a large hill and elaborately decorated cathedrals, provide the main setting for the film. The gloomy scenery also features foreboding black crows perched upon biblical sculptures, a blanket of sunken fog drifting through a moonlit cemetery, with vine-covered tombstones and solitary dungeon cells infested with rats, skulls and bones.<\/p>\n

While the film has its appeal, the story itself is rather predictable. All the themes seem too familiar and have already been explored countless times. The highly stylized visuals, while effective and commendable in particular moments, come off as being somewhat overstated in others. Vincent Cassel\u2019s performance is solid as always but it would be fair to say that it did not require so much of him, considering his talents. He would benefit from taking on more challenging roles in the future. Overall the film doesn\u2019t quite live up to what it promises, failing to make any sort of emotional or psychological impact, but still pleases certain aesthetic appetites and is an enjoyable experience nonetheless.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Alex Canzano. Viewed at The Santa Barbara International Film Festival. The story is set in the early seventeenth-century at the Capuchin Monastery just outside Madrid, and revolves around a prestigious Monk, known as Ambrosia (Vincent Cassel), who was abandoned as an infant, placed before the monastery doors to be pecked by vicious crows […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1949,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,181],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-films","category-santa-barbara-film-festival-2012"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1949"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17991\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}