Keswick Film Club - The Monk

Synopsis

Dominik Moll has made very few films, but those (’Harry, He’s Here To Help’, ‘Lemming’) have left his fans wanting more, including one of our members who requested this film. ‘The Monk’ is a French film, based on the 1776 novel by English writer Matthew Lewis, set in Spain.

Ambrosia is abandoned as a baby outside a Capucin monastery and is brought up to become an unrivalled and popular preacher whose sermons draw large crowds. All is going well for him, until a masked monk comes on the scene, when a series of temptations gradually pull him from the straight and narrow; no-one, however good, is free from temptation.

What results is a sultry, romantic horror movie, but don't expect ‘The Devils’, this is a much more introspective film, beautifully filmed, with a universally acclaimed but uncharacteristically restrained performance from Vincent Cassel as Ambrosia, powering the film forwards.