This type of film is not, frankly, my cup of tea. The idea to see it was more my wife's - she is Mexican and during our trips to her region of Mexico we always pop in and see a community of Trappist/Cistercian monks whom she has known for many year and one monk in particular who is a great friend of hers. When you know such a community, it's true that the film takes on a more familiar meaning. The monks live a simple and healthy life, selling their produce locally, and caring for the local population and indeed most impressively are little interested in material possessions like the rest of us. To return to the affair in question, I had heard of the Tibherine monks at the time in 1996 so knew something about this drama. The film was incredibly slow to me and of course lacking in action - but, knowing the story, I really don't see how it could have been livened up otherwise. I did not know most of the actors, outside Michel Lonsdale and Lambert Wilson but I found their performance magnificent given the very limited subject matter.On the subject of image quality, I found that several scenes left to be desires - too much grain on inside scenes and a lot of over-whiting in the sunnier outside shots plus a slight tendency towards yellow overall. Ironically, some of the best and most natural scenes are those where they country side was covered in snow and where one might have expected white to over dominate - but this seems to have been very correctly handled by the cameraman. To resume - the limited subject matter means that a passionate exciting film is out of the question - but the actors did the best they could with what they had available. Some of the musical passages were too long and we both concluded that the whole affair could have satisfactorily been locked into a ninety minute time frame instead of dragging on for 120 mins. On the blue ray disc we have, a "complément d'enquête" gives a very interesting comparison of the real monks vs the actors who portray them plus showing the actual monastery and interviews with some of the monks' family members. Certainly a useful contribution to cinema with good production qualities - I am sure the film will end up in a few years being sold in monasteries around the world once it has become better known internationally.
Review of Of Gods and Men
