THE MONK
DVD. Metrodome

Matthew Lewis’ classic gothic novel The Monk had already been filmed in a surprisingly obscure yet rather impressive 1972 from Ado Kyrou, based on a screenplay by Luis Bunuel and starring Franco Nero, and so this new version has a lot to live up to – for the handful of people who have seen the earlier version, at least. And on the whole, it does so successful, creating a brooding tale of religious repression and its inevitable tragic consequences.

Vincent Cassel plays Brother Ambrosio, found as a baby on the steps of a monastery and brought up within the confines of the Catholic religion, never having contact with the outside world – a 17th century world that is almost as repressed, with young women forced into convents or having loveless marriages arranged for them within the strict social boundaries that govern them. Inevitably, it is a world where passions boil up internally before spilling out uncontrollably.

Ambrosio is shown to be a stern and pious figure when he rejects a pregnant nun who has thrown herself on his mercy, and instead exposes her secret to the Mother Superior, condemning the girl to death by starvation. But when a new monk, Valerio, arrives at the monastery – a youth claiming to have been burned in a fire who has to wear a facemask and full body covering – things start to go badly wrong. It is soon revealed that this new monk is, in fact, a woman (Deborah Francois), who seduces Ambrosio, and once his pious exterior has been torn open, he becomes filled with lust for innocent parishioner Antonia (Josephine Japy), a lust that sees his life spiral rapidly out of control in a spiral of rape, murder and incest.

Director Dominik Moll brings an almost old-fashioned sedateness to this tale, matching the world of repression he is depicting. This is a world where monks, preaching fire and brimstone sermons to the masses, are almost rock stars, and so the subject of erotic fantasy for young women, and where the slightest touch, glance or gesture can have intense erotic meaning. In that sense, it has an almost Borowczykian atmosphere – but far less sex, as the film seems almost as coy as its characters in depicting the sex scenes.

Still, it’s impressive stuff – it looks gorgeous and Cassel is excellent as the man who’s cast-iron view of the world is slowly torn apart. It could do with perhaps a little more delirium – at times, it feels too restrained – but on the whole this is an excellent, and engrossing tragedy.