Les religieuses du Saint Archange

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.

This was given to me by a crestfallen guy who was bitterly disappointed in the nunsploitation genre, along with Jess Franco's 'Les Demons'. I can see why the guy was let down: There's not much by way a lesbian trysts or what not to be encountered here. This is a more serious film about power within the Catholic church, and, as usual, the subjugation of women.

The Mother Superior at a convent is ill, and there's a race against time to see who's gonna be the new Mutha on the block. Could it be the old nun? Or how about the one having an affair with a guy? Or the other one who's poisoning the old nun and grassing in the nun who's having an affair with that guy? She's the one I would bet on, especially seeing as she's got complicated relationships all over the place, with a jilted, flagellating ex-lover, an impossibly young novice nun lover all set up and ready to go, and her own niece to deal with (the chick from Umberto Lenzi's 'Dirty Pictures'). It's a busy life being a Mother Superior, because she owes a local Spanish guy a favour and he wants it in the form her niece! Even more trouble: Her niece is having an illicit affair with Fernando, who went on to star in major zombie/stupid people movie Night of Terror! It's all too much to bear for a baldy Scotsman weaned on Nightmare City, The Beyond, and Strike Commando! Worse still (or even: greater still) Luc Meranda shows up and gets all Torquemada on everyone's arse. Yep – Luc Meranda, the guy who looks somehow like a deflated Arnie, from The Violent Professionals and The Corpses Bare Traces of Carnal Violence. He's out for some confessions and suspects all is not orthodox at the convent, and he'd be right. So, before you can say 'didn't we see this in The Devils?' the nuns are getting all racked up and ready to go.

As I said about sixteen paragraphs ago, this is not really a nunsploitation film. It plays out more like a period drama about how women lived under the Catholic church, and is fairly engaging due to the complicated plot and many characters. I'll tell you this, though – the film looks gorgeous and the colour schemes used are genius. Mostly red, black, gold, and white. Like them or not, you've got to hand it to Italian films, they almost always look great. If you're wanting a change of pace from the usual seventies Euro madness with food for thought thrown in (not to mention some familiar faces), the Nun and the Devil is a good time waster. Please note: There's no devil in this film.

There are some really scandalous nunsploitation films available for those who want to indulge their fantasies or prurient interests. This is not one of them. Before you go running away, however, you should know that this film is well worth watching for the quality of the film.

It is all about the machinations that go on in and out of a convent after the Mother Superior dies. Three nuns: Mother Giulia (Anne Heywood), Mother Chiara (Martine Brochard), and Mother Livinia (Maria Cumani Quasimodo) are vying for the position of Mother Superior.

The latter two have very wealthy and influential connections on the outside. Sister Giulia uses poison to get rid of one rival, and is going to expose the other's immorality with a man. This is easy for her as her rival is bisexual and her lesbian lover. No, we don't get to see Heywood in the buff, but we do see Brochard.

Another player in this game is a young, virginal novitiate, that also happens to be the niece of Mother Giula. Isabella (Ornella Muti) was put in the convent to get her away from her boyfriend. Mother Giula is using her to get a nobleman on her side. What she doesn't know is that Isabella and her boyfriend have been secretly meeting at the convent, and now they will have a chance to be together.

The sets are exquisite and the story is compelling. There is some nudity, but it is just the right amount for the story, not exploitative.

There is a torture scene, including water-boarding at an inquisition to discover the truth behind the campaign. Cardinal d'Arezzo (Claudio Gora) screams for more torture. He is a symbol of the evil and corruption in the church at the time.

Justice is meted out for some sinners, but certainly not for all.

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.

Yet another Stendhal-inspired "Nunsploitationer" in the vein of THE NUN OF MONZA (1969) and ABBESS OF CASTRO (1974) – incidentally, MONZA's Anne Heywood dons the habit here as well, while Pier Paolo Capponi appears in all three (in this case, he is a lecherous nobleman). Actually, the film's German title translates to THE NUN OF VERONA: with this in mind, the absurd English moniker is utterly misleading…not to mention liable to confuse it with Jerzy Kawalerowicz' much superior THE DEVIL AND THE NUN aka MOTHER JOAN OF THE ANGELS (1961)! It emerges somewhat more plot-packed than usual, with several nuns being involved in illicit/corrupt business behind convent walls: apart from Heywood (who is more of a conspirator this time around and caps her performance with an effective diatribe at the obligatory trial followed by an excruciating death scene), these include Martine Brochard, Claudia Gravy (from the weird Spaghetti Western MATALO! [1970]) and Ornella Muti (most appealing when sporting short-cropped hair and masculine attire, her role is secondary but she carries it with aplomb). The Inquisition, then, is represented by a fanatical Luc Merenda (miscast) and Cardinal Claudio Gora. The oppressive medieval atmosphere is nicely caught (though the print I got hold of, featuring a reasonable English-dubbed track, is a bit too dark – furthermore, the split between its two parts irritatingly occurs in mid-sentence!) and, while the trademark nudity and violence are certainly there, these are not particularly explicit. In the long run, THE NUN AND THE DEVIL (which comedy/peplum exponent Paolella directed under the pseudonym Paolo Dominici!) is pretty solid as "Nunsploitation" films go.