Le monache di Sant'Arcangelo

I love the nunsploitation genre when it's at its most exploitative and depicts the servants of God during various sequences of debauchery and blasphemy. Unfortunately, The Nuns of Saint Archangel prefers to spend its runtime mostly on talky drama, which does focus on blasphemy, but unfortunately not much of it is actually shown. On the plus side, the production values are great and director Domenico Paolella (who also directed decent nunsploitation Story of a Cloistered Nun in the same year) produces some nice visuals. The plot focuses, as you would expect, on a convent. The Mother Superior has passed away, and so a vacancy has arisen for that particular post. This leads to several nuns at the convent trying to get the position over the others. Giulia believes she would be best for the post; and so proceeds to take out her rivals; by poisoning one and arranging for the other to be caught canoodling with a man. Meanwhile, she's making her own bargains to secure her wanted position; and showing the corruption of the church in the meantime.

Most people that watch these films will undoubtedly do so mainly to see some hot women dressed as nuns involved in lesbian scenes (or so I've heard...), but unfortunately (err...for those people), this movie does not make lesbian sex it's main focal point. It really does have to be said that the movie is far too talky and this is a problem since a lot of the dialogue is not even all that interesting. I do have to admit that despite having seen quite a few Italian films about nuns; I really don't have that much of an interest in Christianity and how the church is ran. The film stars Anne Heywood, who is good in the lead role (and mostly keeps her clothes on). She receives good feedback from Martine Brochard and Omella Muti, as well as Luc Merenda. I do have to admit that the story itself is actually not bad in the way it is constructed; I just found it rather dull. Despite the genre label; 'nunsploitation', I've found many of these movies to be rather high quality in terms of production values - this one being above average. Overall, I can't say that this film is a favourite of mine; but it is just about worth seeing.

If you follow the "nuns-ploitation" genre at all, uh, religiously (sorry) you know these films generally fall into three categories. First, are the films that are more or less serious and are meant to criticize the more or less real historical crimes of the Catholic Church. These include both the earliest films like "The Nun of St. Monza", but also some of the more violent and lurid 70's films like "Flavia, the Heretic" (a personal favorite of mine). Then there are the straight-out lesbian-nun sex romps like Walerian Borozyx "Behind Convent Walls" or Joe D'Amato's "Images from a Convent". Finally, there are the post-"Exorcist", mostly Hispanic films that veer into the supernatural and full-tilt delerium like Franco's "Love Letters of a Portugese Nun" or the Mexican neo-surrealist masterpiece "Alucarda".

This film falls mostly into the first catgerory, but it does veer a little bit into the second. The plot revolves around the campaign to choose a new Mother Superior for the Convent of St. Archangel. One Machiavellian sister (Anne Heywood) tries to get the edge on her two rivals, who have more wealthy and influential family connections on the outside, by slowly poisoning one and arranging for the other (Martine Brochard) to be caught with her male lover (which she easily manages since this bisexual nun is also HER lesbian lover). She also forms an alliance with an unscrupulous nobleman by promising to deliver her virginal niece (Ornella Muti) to him. All of these machinations eventually bring down the corrupt, patriarchal church authorities on the convent. Without giving away too much, the ending is both moralistic and extremely cynical with some evil character getting more than their just desserts while many other, even more wicked characters get off scot free.

This movie may disappoint somewhat as sexploitation. Martine Brochard has a lot of nudes scenes, but Anne Heywood's could best be described as subliminal. Perhaps most regrettably, Ornella Muti keeps her clothes on, even when the older nuns are "inspecting" her virginity. The two semi-official sequels to this, "Story of a Cloistered Nun" and "The Sinful Nuns of St. Valentine's", feature much more copious sex and nudity,including scenes of the young acolytes (Eleanora Giorgi and Jenny Tamburi respectively) getting very naked (and tied-up and whipped, etc.). But for the few fans of these films out there who AREN'T lecherous perverts, this one is probably the most realistic and hard-hitting of the trilogy. It's definitely worth seeing anyway.

Le monache di Sant'Arcangelo" (1975), directed by Domenico Paolella, is a film that attempts to blend the sensuality of the nunsploitation genre with a historical drama. The film stars Anne Heywood, Ornella Muti, and Pier Paolo Capponi, among others, and follows the story of a convent in 16th-century Italy where the nuns struggle with their vows of chastity and obedience.

The film's strongest aspect is its visual appeal. The cinematography captures the opulence and beauty of the Italian Renaissance, with lavish sets and costumes that transport the viewer to another time and place. The performances of the lead actors are also noteworthy, particularly Anne Heywood as the conflicted Mother Superior and Ornella Muti as the rebellious young novice.

However, the film's narrative falls short of its visual promise. The storyline is convoluted and often feels disjointed, with a number of subplots that never quite come together. The exploration of themes such as sexual repression, religious hypocrisy, and political intrigue is ambitious, but the execution is often heavy-handed and melodramatic.

Moreover, the film's handling of its central theme - the struggle between spirituality and sensuality - is problematic. While it aims to critique the repressive nature of the Catholic Church, it often veers into exploitation territory, with gratuitous scenes of nudity and sexual violence that feel more exploitative than thought-provoking.

Overall, "Le monache di Sant'Arcangelo" is a film that offers some visual and performative pleasures, but ultimately fails to deliver a cohesive or thoughtful narrative.

Intrigues in a 16th century Italian cloister near Verona lead to gruesome happenings. Sister Giulia, pretending to save the Mother Supreme from her sickness, is really trying to kill her in order to become Mother Supreme herself. The cardinal suspects something about sister Giulia's intrigues and raids the cloister, bringing all those who did wrong to trial...

This Italian nun movie may be called "exploitation", but it certainly offers an interesting view on some historic happenings and how it might have been back then. The film even claims to be based on a true story. Whether this is true or not, it probably isn't too far away from reality. There's not very much nudity or violence in this, so fans of sick exploitation films will probably be disappointed. Surprisingly well made, and watch out for a very young Ornella Muti in a supporting role.

The obvious film to compare this to is Ken Russell's 'The Devils'. Both films are explorations of cloister depravity and resulting inquisitions. Neither are exploitation movies. 'The Devils' didn't really try and be erotic, it was more a portrait of human insanity from a spiritual dark age. 'Monache di Sant'Arcangelo' has higher moral currency because it is a purposeful exploration of the subjugation of women. There's erotic value of course, but it's not gratuitous. The suppression of human sexuality can of course be used as fodder for Women-In-Prison movies or nunsploitation but also polemically. There is a lot of scope in such movies as this, one example I have seen championed is Jesus Franco's 'Love Letters of a Portuguese Nun' (1977) which is a criticism of Catholic patriarchy. Basically the movie says that the convents are used to house affluent undesirables and heaps upon the hypocrisy of the Cardinal and his vicar. Not that I would say any of the political comment in this movie is particularly trenchant.

Whilst I'm sure that such polemic was one of the main aims of the film, the main success is to be found in the love stories. Indeed it wouldn't surprise me if this movie became some sort of lesbian underground hit, because the dynamics of the relationships in the movie are quite well done. Sister Chiara's obsessive love for example for Mother Julia is very carefully studied: After Chiara is given the cold shoulder in favour of the young initiate Agnes, she takes to self-mutilation and writing poison pen letters about the nunnery to His Eminence. When they are back together again Chiara, even though she realises that the resurrected relationship is likely to be due to Julia's fear of blackmail is content to live the lie. It's clear to me though that Mother Julia felt much regret over her abandonment of Chiara, when they are back together she tenderly kisses the scars on Chiara's knees that were caused by her purposefully kneeling on broken glass. In another scene she feels remorse when she sees that Chiara has deliberately cut herself on the thorns of a bunch of roses. She is also unable to tolerate the torture of her lover. Basically it's the sapphic romance of the movie that really works well. As laudable as the politics of the film are that part of the director's vision lacked pathos. Basically the men in the movie deliver their lines flatly and the scriptwriter didn't appear to have any passion for the politics of the period.

It's always intrigued me to see relationships unimpinged by hidden breeder agendas, to look at unhinged love. This film provides ample opportunity.

It might be of interest to readers to look at the structure of the film, it is really rather like a Jacobean tragedy in many respects. We have the gratuitous and unexpected murder of Pietro, we have the Machiavellian political powerplays and joustings, the immorality of the cast - principally Don Carlos - and the scenes of torture. And then there is the protagonist's monologue, this time delivered by Julia to the inquisitorial priests, quite similar to the repentance of d'Amville from Cyril Tourneur's Jacobean play 'The Atheist's Tragedy'.

'Monache di Sant'Arcangelo' lacks great production values for me. Others will say that they are a cut above other nunsploitation movies and they are right. However this movie is still pretty unpolished compared to other period movies even though it tries very hard. This won't matter to you too much if you are interested in this film because of the dynamics of the relationships. In that sense it is successful as, say, Fassbinder's 'The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant'.

I can't give the movie higher than 7/10 however because some of the major set pieces, like a poor soufflé, fail to rise to the occasion.