Le monache di Sant'Arcangelo (1973)

User Rating:

6.0/10   

Director:

Domenico Paolella

Writers:

Tonino Cervi (writer)
Domenico Paolella (writer)

Release Date:

25 January 1973 (Italy)

Genre:

Drama

Plot Keywords:

Female Nudity | Lesbian Nun | Catholic | Convent | Catholic Church

Cast

Anne Heywood	...	Mother Giulia
Luc Merenda	...	Carafo
Ornella Muti	...	Isabella
Martine Brochard	...	Chiara
Muriel Catalá	...	Agnes
Claudia Gravy	...	Carmela
Maria Cumani Quasimodo	...	Lavinia
Pier Paolo Capponi	...	Don Carlos
Claudio Gora	...	Cardinal d'Arezzo
Duilio Del Prete	...	Pietro
Luigi Antonio Guerra		(as Luigi Guerra)
Gianluigi Chirizzi	...	Fernando

Also Known As:

Innocents from Hell
Les religieuses du Saint Archange (France)
Sisters of Satan
The Nun and the Devil
The Nuns of Saint Archangel

Runtime:

Germany:95 min (cut version)

Country:

France | Italy

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | UK:18 | West Germany:18

Company:

Imp.Ex.Ci.

Movie Connections:

Followed by Storia di una monaca di clausura (1973)

Not much exploitation in this talky slice of nunsploitation

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.