![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.aceshowbiz.com\/images\/still\/the-monk01.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Reviewed by Krista Marquez at the Santa Barbara Film Festival<\/p>\n
This film takes the viewer to a dark and cold place of many years ago. \u00a0The Monk<\/em>\u00a0starts with one man’s dedication to the righteous life he leads, a life without sin. \u00a0However, as he is human, Ambrosio is tempted by the devil himself. \u00a0Ambrosio’s virtues are put to the test when a new, masked monk arrives at the monastary.<\/p>\n Dominik Moll (Black Heaven, Lemming<\/em>) sets the overall tone of the film with dark lighting and gothic style architecture. \u00a0Taken in as an abandoned baby, Ambrosio becomes a well respected priest among the Capucin monks. \u00a0He is revered for his strong will and eloquent speeches. \u00a0He also proves to be a merciless powerful figure when he harshly sends a pregnant nun to starve in the dungeons below. \u00a0Moll embellishes the chilling story when he introduces the newest arrival: a monk who wears a mask because of a so-called sensitive skin disease. \u00a0It turns out that the monk is the devil, personified as a beautifully seductive woman, to bring Ambrosio to the dark side, setting up temptation after temptation.<\/p>\n Vincent Cassel convincingly plays the character of Ambrosio as a man of virtue who loses his morally religious strength to the physical cravings of sex, more or less. \u00a0This story is similar to that of the book of Genesis in the Bible, narrating man’s sacrilegious fall as a result of the woman temptress and deceiver.<\/p>\n What I liked about this film was the complete turnaround that happened from beginning to end. \u00a0The fatal corruption that takes place in a rightfully deemed setting of isolation and morality could very well be the lives of many, a subject that influences one’s own morality. \u00a0Beautiful cinematography paired with artistic acting create this odd but fascinating film some might dislike, in regards to its melancholy. \u00a0Sinfully appetizing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Reviewed by Krista Marquez at the Santa Barbara Film Festival This film takes the viewer to a dark and cold place of many years ago. \u00a0The Monk\u00a0starts with one man’s dedication to the righteous life he leads, a life without sin. \u00a0However, as he is human, Ambrosio is tempted by the devil himself. \u00a0Ambrosio’s virtues […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1971,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[181],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-santa-barbara-film-festival-2012"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20898","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\/1971"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20898\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}