Matka Joanna od Aniolów

The subject of this film is a fascinating one and it has been portrayed in several media with great eloquence. I know nothing at all about the director of this film except that he is apparently not an experienced director at all. He might be a writer or theologian or philosopher but his field of expertise does not extend to direction. The film is poorly paced, verbose and it drags on for at least thirty minutes in excess. It repeats itself almost literally near the end to make a rather feeble point that it actually does have structure with apologies, I suppose, for the talk fest for the past two hours plus.. Frankly,I can't find anything to admire in it.

Curtis Stotlar

Religion is control on what makes us human and in touch with nature. Is control on our bodies and to deny it what he craves. At least that's what the extreme one want to accomplish.

To most blatant theatrical show was the exorcism in the church where all the nuns put on the show in front of the clergymen...all for the purpose of indoctrinate the live spectators but also the ones in the movie theaters. This is what religion is. The fight between good and evil sprinkled with some fear of death and oblivion.

But in this film it's all about desire and sexuality. About man and woman and the forever war between them. All because the need to repress your most true desires.

Good thing I moved on to this fantastic part of humanity and have chosen the scientific method. I feel it's more part of myself than divinity.

Father Jozef Suryn (Mieczyslaw Voit) is the latest in a long line of priests dispatched to an isolated 17th century convent to investigate the rumours of satanic obsession and possession affecting the nuns who live there. His particular task is to exorcise Mother Joan of the Angels,(Lucyna Winnicka) the mother superior of the convent who it would seem is possessed by numerous demons. Father Josef has been in training so to speak for many weeks, through prayer, abstinence, limited fasting and self flagellation and when he arrives at a nearby inn, he is shocked at the rumours he hears from the locals,who seem to take great pleasure in telling him of his difficult task, a task it would appear his that is going to be very difficult as the previous incumbent of his job had just recently been burnt at the stake.

Mother Joan of the Angels was in fact based on real events and might be considered by some as one of the earliest examples of Nunsploitation, but the film is not exploitative in any way and never resorts to nudity or explicit sex, in fact it's a beautifully filmed, superbly acted horror drama that it would seem was very influential on William Friedkin's The Exorcist(1973), in fact if I hadn't previously known of its influence I would be comparing it to that film along with perhaps Bergman's Sjunde inseglet, Det (1957)a film set in a similar time frame that also boasts many wonderful scenes of rusticity amongst the peasants and that explores their every fear, not least in the first 15 mins where Mother Joan of the Angels is, it must be said, slow to get going, but in a good way, as Kawalerowicz builds up the tension, there is much talk and speculation amongst the peasants as the demonic things that go in the convent, the viewer is left in high anticipation of the evil that lurks there. The stunning high contrast black & white photography by Jerzy Wójcik is reminiscent of many an expressionistic silent era film, in particular the first meeting between the two main characters is superb as the juxtaposition of Suryn's black hair, black beard and black robe against Mother Joan's pure white habit and headdress is very striking, mainly because the classic colours of good and evil are actually reversed, for Mother Joan is possessed by no less than eight demons which don't take long to show themselves to Suryn, his plight seems doomed to failure as he is a man unsure of his own ability, his wide eyes giving away his fear of the demons and his task ahead. On the whole the film is an very intelligent character study that also touches on some very interesting theological issues, issues that are explored when Suryn goes to a local Rabbi for help. The only negative I would say for the film concerns the DVD which had some really poor subtitles, other than that I can't recommend it highly enough.9/10

This has nothing to do with the reality of the so called devils of Loudun and the case of the local vicar Urbain Grandier and his conflict with Cardinal Richelieu, eventually leading to his burning at the stake. This is an entirely Polish paraphrase on the phenomenon set somewhere in the wilderness in an apocalyptic landscape of desolation with no trees, no music except monastic monodies, sterile surroundings and a bleak environment, like changing the whole situation into some dark medieval times. Instead, this is a thoroughly stylistic film using the obsession of the nuns for ballet-like performances of striking cinematography and efficient beauty, while there is no actual story here. A young priest comes to the convent of the nuns to do something about their obsessions, which he ultimately fails in, as he himself becomes infatuated with the beautiful abbess mother Joan, who dominates the entire film. A previous priest has been burnt at the stake for being alleged to have seduced the nuns and caused their obsession, here is the one parallel to the case of Urbain Grandier, but all the rest is Polish conjecture. The film is worth seeing for its stylistic treats, but there has never been made any correct or convincing film of what really happened at Loudun. The only one who has tried to investigate the case thoroughly, as far as I know, was Aldous Huxley.

Released a decade earlier than Ken Russell's The Devils, yet functioning as a spiritual successor of sorts, Jerzy Kawalerowicz's Mother Joan of the Angels also bases its story around the 17th century Loudun possessions to interesting effect, especially when taking into consideration the vast stylistic differences that define each film.

Where Russell exposed the ugliness of this tale of unholy devotion through farce, allowing his characters to writhe around in all the filth and hypocrisy that defined the period, Kawalerowicz created a world where the peasants, nuns, and clergymens' mindsets were treated as frankly as it may have been for those residing in it, unaware of any other reality besides their own. It was documentation not through historical hindsight but by retracing the footsteps that led to its foregone conclusion. Russell's maximalism replaced with Kawalerowicz's minimalism. Vibrant colors traded in for textural black and white. Psychosexual phantasmagoria replaced by emanations of a slowly corruptive force.

If a directors' execution could be grouped by an imaginary school of thought, these two men may as well be rivaling factions. Rusell's proximity to Alejandro Jodorowsky in stylistic technique equals the vastness that may group Kawalerowicz to Frantisek Vlacil when tackling the same subject matter. And yet, both films are masterfully done despite their radical departures in approach.

With Mother Joan of the Angels, Kawalerowicz showcases the temptation, elation, and destructive power that blind devotion could manifest. A thin margin separating spiritual ecstasy from cardinal desire. A nudge made in either direction holding the power to change a pillar of sanctity into one accused of sacrilege. The same kind of thin margin that separates the physical space between a nun and priest, bound by an unspoken unison. It's either sainthood or sinner. Any system defined by that sort of dogmatic rule is a house of cards waiting to topple.

An honest meditation on faith and its inescapable fight with the world that surrounds it, Kawalerowicz's Mother Joan of the Angels has cult-classic status written all over it. All it's missing is its faithful congregation.