A Monja e o Demônio

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.

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.

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.

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.