Of Gods and Men

I was quite reluctant about going to the cinema here in Ireland. When I pay 7 euros, I want to be sure to understand the whole movie. But Saturday, I realized that the classes were over, which means that my return to France is coming up...  And I couldn't leave Ireland without having tried at least once. So I decided to go and see Of Gods and Men. In fact it is a French film, but that's absolutely not the reason why I chose it. And I swear I didn't know it would be in French with English subtitles...

Anyway, I really liked this film. It is about French monks living in an Algerian village, in harmony with the inhabitants. When civil war and massacres start, they hesitate to leave the country. What is interesting about this film is that it shows the very human nature of the monks. They are depicted as ordinary men, with fears, doubts and even some vices. I realized I had a very stereotyped image of monks... Here is the trailer :

After seeing the movie, I read some spectators' critics and I found out that quite a lot of them had been really bored during this movie. I was not bored a single minute but I can understand that some people were. I think that there is no intermediate position about this movie, it's all or nothing. For me it's definitely ALL.

The movie is slow, for sure. But it so powerful, so "quietly powerful", as a critics from the NY Times wrote very cleverly. I really encourage you to try your luck with it, hoping that it will touch you as much as it touched me. There is a scene in particular which is absolutely amazing, I think it's the best scene of the movie : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrYLJzA1eNs . I don't know if this scene can be seen as beautiful as she is on its own, so you have to see the whole movie!