The Monk (1990)

The Monk (also known as The Final Temptation or The Seduction of a Priest) is a 1990 historical drama film directed by Francisco Lara Polop and starring Paul McGann and Sophie Ward. Based on the 18th century Gothic novel The Monk by Matthew Gregory Lewis, it was adapted for the screen by Polop, and employs the common depiction of the 18th century representing “the stately, the lavish, the sensuous, and even the lubricious.” In this way, The Monk can be seen as a heritage film, in which “the past is delivered as a museum of sounds and images, an iconographic display,” though these films are sometimes discredited as attempts to “transform the past into a series of commodities for the entertainment market.” The film was Lara Polop’s last as a director, and continues the themes of eroticism and horror found throughout his works.



^ The Monk, IMDb.com

^ Robert Mayer, "Is There a Text in the Screening Room?" Eighteenth-Century Fiction on Screen (2002), p. 1.

^ Andrew Higson, "Re-Presenting the National Past: Nostalgia and Pastiche in the Heritage Film," Fires Were Started: British Cinema and Thatcherism, ed. Lester Friedman (Minneapolis: University of Minneapolis Press, 1993), p. 115.

^ Christopher Orr, "The Discourse on Adaptation," Wide Angle 6 (1984), p. 73.

^ Francisco Lara Polop, IMDb.com

Synopsis

The film begins in 18th century Spain, with Father Lorenzo (Paul McGann) and Mother Agueda (Isla Blair) being tried before the Spanish Inquisition, and Lorenzo agreeing to confess and tell his story in order to escape torture. The setting then turns to the past, where Lorenzo is a charismatic and admired priest. He listens to a confession by a young nun named Sister Ines (Aitana Sanchez-Gijon), who has become pregnant, and reports her to the covenant’s leader, Mother Agueda, despite the girl’s pleas for help.

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