Blinded by desires The only novel by Matthew Gregory Lewis “Monk”, although not as famous as some other Gothic works, occupies a prominent place in the ranks of European mystical literature and is very difficult to adapt. At the moment, there are 3 versions of his film reading, the first of which was the eponymous film by Adonis Kiru in 1972. It is worth noting that in all cases the content of the original source was expectedly curtailed, and each of the directors put the mysterious image of Abbot Ambrosio at the forefront, despite the fact that the plot of the work of Lewis is a confluence of many factors and actions of a number of characters.
On the one hand, the release time of the debut film adaptation played to her benefit. The penetration of the sexual revolution into art, the removal of many taboos and the simplification of moral principles made it possible to address the “immoral” side of the novel and, to some extent, recreate it on the screen. At the same time, the excessive deepening of the theme of carnal passions threatened Keir’s film to fall into category B and, as a result, to reduce its authority. To solve this puzzle could only be a more or less clear script and a successful cast. Over the first was a group of writers, including Luis Buñuel. The role of the abbot went to the popular in those years Italian-medium Franco Nero, and the role of Matilda – Natalie Delon, whose fame was largely determined by a short marriage with a famous compatriot and his surname. It is through their efforts that the fatal passion of Matilda and Ambrosio is visualized.
But there was another factor to mention: the position of the Catholic Church. The history of Christianity, as well as all world religions, is, first of all, the history of the eternal struggle of man and vice, the outcome of which largely determined the position of the Church at one time or another. People who have an official spiritual status in one way or another embody the moral need a priori of sinful humanity in the endless quest for the salvation of the soul. Literary work, once put Christianity in a very uncomfortable position, again declared itself on the screen, embedded in the realities of the almost modern era. Therefore, it is hardly surprising that the final scenario of the picture turned out to be very ambiguous.
The pluses should be added by the presence in the ranks of screenwriters Buñuel, who could have removed “The Monk” in the late 60s, if not for financial difficulties. However, he did his job more than well. In fact, Buñuel’s anti-Catholic message has always worked well in his own productions. But, as it turned out, the Spaniard enough one minute of screen time and in someone else’s project to take this story beyond time, “dot all the i”.
The first film adaptation of “The Monk” is the case when the movie and the book, significantly different, do not enter into serious confrontation with each other. In the end, nothing pleasant novel Lewis does not contain, and written by pen, as you know, extremely durable. But to protect the aesthetic feelings of the viewer and not to lose the atmosphere of the source, Adonis Kir, nevertheless, succeeded.