Feb 10, 2025
Storia di una monaca di clausura (Story of a Cloistered Nun, 1973)
"It is a mark of infamy! A mark of infamy not only on this convent and our diocese, but on the entire Christian community of this country! I should use words of fire to define the abyss of ignominy into which this convent has fallen! Be aware that we are facing one of the greatest disgraces that can befall us, a disgrace too great for the despicable nun among you to hide!"
#storia di una monaca di clausura#story of a cloistered nun#1973#italian cinema#nunsploitation#domenico paolella#tonino cervi#eleonora giorgi#suzy kendall#catherine spaak#martine brochard#ann odessa#antonio falsi#umberto orsini#tino carraro#konrad georg#barbara herrera#caterina boratto#giuliana calandra#piero piccioni#a fairly understated (and honestly quite tame) entry in the italian nunsploitation canon. director Paolella would make the Nun and the#Devil the same year‚ for my money quite probably the greatest example of this subgenre‚ so it's disappointing to realise this film doesn't#have quite the same intelligence or sharpness of that film. but nor is it anything like as depraved or as exploitative as these films#often got‚ and its depiction of lesbian desire is... if not exactly progressive‚ then at least not as demonised nor as fetishised as it#usually is in the genre. similarly Kendall's mother superior is‚ despite the warnings that she not be trusted‚ nothing like the wicked#cartoonish figures that films of this ilk usually conjure. the final act‚ in which romantic jealousies and power struggles are put aside as#the nuns unite against a greater common threat in the external patriarchal order of the church‚ that saved the film for me somewhat#and it's something I'd have valued getting a deeper dig into. but alas. not a bad film by any means‚ tho obviously interest in this genre#is i imagine limited. but decent enough and without the nastiness a lot of them carry.
