How would saints behave in hell? The way Cistercian monks minister to their Algerian villagers during a terrorist uprising in Xavier Beauvois's starkly beautiful dramatization of a true event. The French monks ignore government warnings of unrest; their lives mean less than their mission. Lambert Wilson radiates a patriarchal grandeur as the group's abbot, but it's Michael Lonsdale as Luc, a doctor-priest, who embodies the serenity of a holy man impervious to danger. The 80-year-old actor son of an Englishman and a French-Irish woman, and known as Michael or Michel in movie credits played Hugo Drax in the Bond film Moonraker and the Abbot in The Name of the Rose but is familiar to international audiences as a droll, saturnine figure in films directed by Luis Buñuel, Alain Resnais, Joseph Losey and Marguerite Duras. Of Gods and Men twists the Lonsdale persona away from the Machiavellian and into religious and humanist sanctity. He brings equally compelling conviction to creatures of the devil or the Lord.
The Top 10 Everything of 2011
- Top 10 Albums
- Top 10 Animal Stories
- Top 10 Apologies
- Top 10 Business Blunders
- Top 10 Buzzwords
- Top 10 Comebacks
- Top 10 Consumer-Spending Trends
- Top 10 Crime Stories
- Top 10 Campaign-Debate Moments
- Top 10 Best Fashion Moments
- Top 10 Worst Fashion Moments
- Top 10 Feuds
- Top 10 Fiction Books
- Top 10 Fleeting Celebrities
- Top 10 Food Trends
- Top 10 Gadgets
- Top 10 Green Trends
- Top 10 Marriage Stories
- Top 10 Medical Breakthroughs
- Top 10 Memes
- Top 10 Movie Performances
- Top 10 Worst Movies
- Top 10 Best Movies
- Top 10 New Findings in Parenting
- Top 10 New Species
- Top 10 Nonfiction Books
- Top 10 Numbers
- Top 10 Oddball-News Stories
- Top 10 Overreported Stories
- Top 10 People Not Running for President
- Top 10 Plays and Musicals
- Top 10 Political Gaffes
- Top 10 Protest Signs
- Top 10 Quotes
- Top 10 Religion Stories
- Top 10 Ridiculously Obvious Study Findings
- Top 10 Scandals
- Top 10 Smart-Phone Apps
- Top 10 Songs
- Top 10 Space Moments
- Top 10 Sports Moments
- Top 10 Toys
- Top 10 TV Ads
- Top 10 TV Episodes
- Top 10 TV Series
- Top 10 Best Tweets
- Top 10 Worst Tweets
- Top 10 U.S.-News Stories
- Top 10 Underreported Stories
- Top 10 Video Games
- Top 10 Creative Videos
- Top 10 Viral Videos
- Top 10 World-News Stories
- Top 10 Photos of the Year
In 54 wide-ranging lists, TIME surveys the highs and lows, the good and the bad, of the past 12 months