Angels of Sin (1943)
"Les anges du péché" (original title)

Rich young Anne-Marie thinks she has found her vocation when she joins a Dominican convent as a novice. The convent specialises in rehabilitating female prisoners, and Anne-Marie becomes ... See full summary »

Director:

Robert Bresson

Writers:

Robert Bresson (scenario), Raymond Leopold Bruckberger (scenario),

Stars:

Renée Faure, Jany Holt, Sylvie

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Renée Faure	...	Anne-Marie Lamaury
Jany Holt	...	Thérèse
Sylvie	...	La prieure
Mila Parély	...	Madeleine
Marie-Hélène Dasté	...	Mère Saint-Jean
Yolande Laffon	...	Madame Lamaury
Paula Dehelly	...	Mère Dominique
Silvia Monfort	...	Agnès
Gilberte Terbois	...	Soeur Marie-Josèphe
Louis Seigner	...	Le directeur de la prison
Georges Colin	...	Le chef de la P.J.
Geneviève Morel	...	Soeur Berthe
Christiane Barry	...	Soeur Blaise
Jean Morel	...	L'inspecteur de police
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Jacqueline Champi	...	Une religieuse

Storyline

Rich young Anne-Marie thinks she has found her vocation when she joins a Dominican convent as a novice. The convent specialises in rehabilitating female prisoners, and Anne-Marie becomes especially fascinated with Therese, trying to get her to join the convent to redeem her for her sins - but Therese protests her innocence. However, when released, Therese shoots the man who committed the crime for which she was imprisoned, then joins the convent, where she is reluctant to tell anyone her secret, least of all Anne-Marie. Meanwhile, outside the convent, a police search is widening...

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Plot Keywords:

convent | novice | police | burning photograph | murder | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

France

Language:

French

Release Date:

16 January 1950 (USA)

Also Known As:

Angels of Sin

Company Credits

Production Co:

Synops

Technical Specs

Runtime:

96 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Referenced in The Road to Bresson (1984)

User Reviews

Tolstoy in the convent

More people should see this beautiful film! It is easily available on amazon.fr (with subtitles), free for streaming on youtube or google video, or for download on the usual sites. It looks great and the print is fine for 1943. The grim corridors of the prison and the foggy streets outside the prison, makes for a suitably noirish contrast to the shining white walls and robes in the convent. Although the professional actors and the suspenseful plot make this an atypical Bresson film, the careful camera framing and the discrete panning produces typically sparse and detailed interiors. The plot may be melodramatic and music a bit intruding at times, but almost every scene is a joy to behold. There are a lot of interesting little touches that show in great detail the daily life and the more mundane side of convent life, clothing regulations, mores etc.

I find that I watch this film more for the aesthetic quality of the individual scenes than for any statement the film as a whole might have. There are also many oddities: For example when Therese knocks upon the convent door after shooting her betrayer, sister Anne Marie is chanting a text from what, one might assume, is a book of prayers. The title, however, reads: "Leo Tolstoj : Krig og fred", which makes it a Norwegian or Danish version of Tolstoy's War and Peace. Strange? But the most impressive and memorable sight in the film for me is the early scene when the submissive sisters lay face down with arms outstretched cross-like on the cold floor. It is almost frightening in its austere beauty, and also very strange for anyone without convent practice. It is the strangeness that does it. Like every Bresson film, I guess.