Flavia La Monaca Musulmana

Love, Sex, Pain, Satan!

The nunsploitation genre was something you would either read about or hear from connoisseur friends every once in a while. However, experiencing such genre without a proper guide can be brutally misleading as most of the films that fit the genre are a complete frantic boredom. Nevertheless, there are places you can go to get an education on the matter, and yeah, this is one of those places. 

it's funny how I got my hands onto Flavia, La Monaca Musulmana, AKA, Flavia The Heretic but since there aren't enough blogs where people talk about their personal lives like anyone cared, here goes my irrelevant story: Vancouver was under heavy snow and there wasn't much left to do after 4:00PM since the sun would go bye bye so friggin' early, out of nothingness,  I had a tremendous christmas days revelation: your blog lacks the nunsploitation films that shaped the genre! So, with a quick online research I found this half Italian, Half French gem that I will encourage you to watch on Christmas eve to add the evil touch to make a family reunion perfect.

Fuck in the name of Jeezus.

Dinner's ready!

Flavia The Heretic is a striking film, set in Italy somewhere around the 15th century. Definitely Medieval-era (though I don't think any specific year is ever given). This being the time of Christian ascendancy, the age is a time of utter madness, and the movie captures this very well.

Flavia, our protagonist, is a young lady who encounters a fallen Muslim on a battlefield. He seems a warm and intriguing fellow, and she's immediately taken with him. Her father, a soldier of a a family of some standing, comes along, almost immediately, and murders the wounded man right before her eyes. But she'll continue to see him in her dreams.

Praying in the nude it's better!

Take this you filthy vegans!

Her father ships her off to a convent that seems more like an open-air insane asylum--the residents, so harshly repressed by unyielding Medieval Christianity, slowly go mad. Flavia comes under the influence of one of the nuttier nuns. But in a mad world, only the sane are truly mad, and this sociopathic sister clearly recognizes the insanity around her. Her take on the times in which they live strikes a chord with Flavia, who, being young and apparently sheltered, is beginning to question everything about this world in which she finds herself trapped.

The movie is unflinching in its portrayal of that world, showcasing a lot of unpleasantness. We see a horse gelded, a lord rape one of the women of his lands in a pig-sty, the pious torture of a young nun. Through it all, Flavia observes and questions, rejecting, eventually, the Christian dogma that creates such a parade of horrors in terms that would gain the movie some criticism over the years for seeming anachronistic. I disagree with that criticism. Flavia's views, though sometimes expressed in ways that vaguely mirror, for example, then-contemporary feminist commentary (the movie was made in 1974), revolve around what are really pretty obvious questions. It is, perhaps, difficult to believe she could be so much of a fish out of water in her own time, but that's the sort of minor point it doesn't do to belabor. Flavia is written in such a way to allow those of our era, or of any era, to empathize with her plight. Getting bogged down on such a matter would be missing the forest for the trees.

Menstruation tastes better in the morning.

Nipple Fatality!

Flavia is heartened when the Muslims arrive, invading the countryside, and she finds, in their leader, a new version of the handsome Islamist who still visits her dreams. Smitten with her almost immediately, he allows her to virtually lead his army, becoming a Joan of Arc figure in full battle-gear, and directing the invaders to pull down Christian society, and wreak vengeance upon all those she's seen commit evil.

Is she the herald of a new and better world? She may think so, but Muslims of that era weren't big on feminism, either, as she soon learns the hard way. As they say, meet the new boss...

This is really just a thumbnail of some of the things that happen in FLAVIA THE HERETIC. The movie is quite grim, and with a very downbeat, rather depressing ending. Not a mass-audience movie at all, to be sure. It's quite good, though, and doesn't belong on the "nunsploitation" pile on which it is often carelessly thrown. I think there's much value in the final film, and I'm glad I watched it. 

Here's the entire movie thanks to Youtube:

 

Suor Omicidi/Killer Nun

God, sex, drugs, killing!

Many of my fellow reviewers seem to have very poor opinions of this film, but believe you me Suor Omicidi, AKA Killer Nun does deserve a second look and I'll tell you why.

 

What plot there is (loosely based on actual events) concerns Sister Gertrude (a still luscious Anita Ekberg), who was once a respected nun, but is spiraling into madness due to a post brain surgery addiction to morphine. However, this does not stop her from getting a job into a hospital for the retired that is apparently run by a catholic sisterhood of nuns.

Before long she's abusing her patients, neglecting her duties, seducing her young room mate Sister Mathieu (Paola Morris)and turning a host of ordinary objects (lamp bases, needles, wads of cotton) into implements of death for anyone who dares stand in her way, while stealing their stuff to support her habit.

Her devotion is not God.

Looks like this will kill you.

As an added bad taste bonus, we also get Sister Gertrude having anonymous sex in an alleyway and admitting a fetish for humiliation and silk stockings during Sapphic trysts.

Unlike most other nunsploitation fare, this movie isn't as explicit as it could be (on the interview on Blue Underground's recent DVD this was revealed as a gesture of respect from director to his star), but it doesn't suffer too much for it, as there is plenty of suggestive and evocative imagery.

Ekberg doesn't show much of her famous curves, but nails a cruel seductress hauteur that does plenty to suggest what the character is capable of. Wheather surveying the residents for her next victim or prowling a café for a sexual conquest, there's something distinctly predatory behind those blue eyes, like a hungry cat looking for something small and helpless to torture.

 

mmm, I want to diddle a skiddle!

Hey you! come and fuck me!

Her drug mania scenes are also beautifully shot, with visual references both psychedelic and sacrilegious. Several scenes use sly visual references to Catholic Mass as a way of indirectly connecting religious ecstasy and the more base and carnal kind.

 

As the story develops, things start to look creepy and you feel like you are actually getting doped along with sister Gertrude because her killings are mere visions that are unclear. The rest of the nuns and doctors decide to keep an eye on the sister because, they obviously think her drug addiction can be the reason of the killings. Luckily, our lead sister is not alone, as young sister Mathieu is always behind her trying to comfort her and drive her towards the path of God. However, how good is sister Mathieu if she's in a lesbian relationship with Gertrude and fucking with most of the male characters that work at the hospital?

 
By the time the story reaches its climax, sister Gertrude can't take it anymore as her drug addiction has taken control over her mind and body completely. Moreover, Everyone in the hospital has officially targeted her as the mysterious murderer they've been looking for but, in The Matrix terms, "appearances can be deceiving Mr. Anderson"

 

Is this menstruation? or is it something nastier?

Sister Gertrude's youth.

All in all, "Killer Nun" is a stylish slice of delightfully trashy exploitation, worth the hour and a half of your time and 7 stars.

 

Here's the movie trailer:

 

Satánico Pandemonium: La Sexorcista

The best you can get out of a Catholic country.

After quite a while not talking about actual B movies I return to my dirty with several reviews I had in mind long ago.  This week we'll deal with a couple of great Nusploitation flicks, one comes from Mexico and the other from Italy. Let the killing begin...

"Satànico Pandemonium" may not rank high on the exploitation Heaven, but it manages to deliver horror like no other Latin American movie has. The religious slang used in the film adds a macabre vibe that only those who speak Spanish will enjoy fully. Dubbing and subtitles tend to lose the core essence of the religious language only used by the Catholic church's Latin roots fluently present  in the Spanish & Italian languages.

Believe it or not, Mexico, being an almost 100% Catholic country, produced several nunsploitation flicks in the 70's. Before censorship took a big role in Mexican movies, there were many, many exploitation flicks like today's entry.

Murdering nun.

I'll pray for Satan!

So, is Satanico Pandemonium worth the try?

Definitely! it's not like you get to watch a 70's exploitation movie made in a Latin American country. Besides, having been filmed in Mexico gives it an added value that takes you into a darker ground knowing the Catholic church is extremely powerful in Latin America to these days. Watching it is like "Fuck the catholic church, they're all a bunch of pervs and Satanico Pandemonium is not afraid of showing the dark side to the audience" So, if you're not a church believer as yours truly, you will most certainly enjoy the ride.

The acting is average at most but, that is not necessarily a bad thing in  a film of this genre. However, the lead role, Sister María is played by Cecilia Pezet delivers a brave, solid performance. She definitely could have had more leading roles in her brief career. Too bad that this was her farewell movie. She was just too beautiful to be involved in Nunsploitation films I guess. In addition,  Veteran t.v. and movie actor Enrique Rocha gives a strong performance as the Devil with a baritone voice that is convincing alone. The rest of the cast is more like "filler material" but, as they do not play a relevant role I guess they're fine with me.

Pay for your sins.

Lesbian nun sex, oh dear!

The musical score is very convincing and also quite disturbing, providing the proper atmospheres to the quieter scenes where not much seems to be happening. The director, Gilberto Martinez Solares,  relies heavily on classic theater techniques that do not give the film a dynamic pace. The camera angles are boring sometimes, and some events truly last longer than they should. For example, when Sister Maria takes care of a sick cow, you're like "c'mon we've seen enough already!" Also, when sister María realizes she's been possessed by the devil nothing much seems to be happening and you could easily fall asleep if it were not for the magnificent score composed by Gustavo César Carrión. 

Despite the fact the film has scenes that seem longer than necessary, the opening scenes lead us quickly to the plot. A young beautiful nun meets with the devil a random afternoon while enjoying a rest. The devil dissapears and Sister María feels instantly sexually motivated enough as to approach a teen boy who's fishing nearby. Unfortunately for her, the kid is too scared to continue with the idea and runs away. Later she starts a roaring rampage of lesbian sex and murder that will please gore & sleaze fans. 

Sex & Blood.

Party hard!

The movie deals with quite a lot of controversial topics, I mean it was 1975 in a deeply Catholic country! Sister María sins include, masturbation, torture, lesbian sex, raping an underage boy (holy macaroni!) burning down an elder lady, convincing a black of nun of committing suicide and the list goes on. 

As the story develops you get a sense of "hey, something's wrong with continuity! there are scenes that don't make sense" However, that is exactly what the director wants you to think in order to be taken straight to the most unexpected final scene. I won't spoil it to you because Satánico Pandemonium is the kind  of movie that requires me to keep secrecy to make it interesting for you to watch it in case you haven't.

Today, the film has become somewhat a cult item in the nunsploitation genre; it's even been referenced in Robert Rodríguez vampire tale "From Dusk Till Dawn". 

"Hi, I'm Satan. Pleased to meet you"

Overall, a great entertaining movie that is heavily inspired in the international success The Exorcist had. The film itself has nothing to do with what The Exorcist dealt but, it somehow resembles the idea of an innocent being seduced and/or possessed by Satan.  For the faint of heart this may not be your cup of tea as we're explicitly shown with lesbian sex, brutality, murder and even a child abuse scene that would be too much even for today's standards. 

Here's a 7 minute extended trailer. Spanish language knowledge required:

Sin City

The ultimate graphic novel onscreen experience.

Depending on your age, if you were asked about the best comic book adaptation ever your answer would vary significantly. Also, your comic book/graphic novel knowledge would play a defining role in pointing the right answer. For instance, 70's kids would answer "Superman, the Movie by a long shot!" While late 80's would strongly state "Tim Burton's Batman all the way!" 2000's kids would say "there is nothing like the Avengers" and so on...

Truth be told: There is only one film that deserves the adjective "Unique" for its outstanding results, and no! it is not Christopher Nolan's Batman I'm talking 2005 here, I'm talking exploitation genius Robert Rodríguez, and most of all, I'm talking legendary comic book artist Frank Miller! Sin City is a movie made for hardcore comic book fans, not the frequent posers who pretend to be "geeky" or "nerdy" just because it's trendy(have you checked how many geeky/nerdy sluts have come out from out of nowhere stating they're hardcore fans?)

After his negative personal experience working in Hollywood on RoboCop 2 and Robocop 3, Frank Miller was reluctant to release the film rights to his comic books, fearing a similar result. Rodriguez, a long-time fan of the graphic novels, was eager to adapt Sin City for the screen. His plan was to make a fully faithful adaptation, follow the source material closely, and make a "translation, not an adaptation". In hopes of convincing Miller to give the project his blessing, Rodriguez shot a "proof of concept" adaptation of the Sin City story "The Customer is Always Right" (starring Josh Hartnett and Marley Shelton). Rodriguez flew Miller into Austin to be present at this test shooting, and Miller was very happy with the results. This footage was later used as the opening scene for the completed project, and (according to Rodriguez in the DVD extras) to recruit Bruce Willis and others to the project.

Marv, my kind of guy.

The Yellow Bastard.

The Film is Based on Translated from three of four of the first graphic novels by Frank Miller (who also co-directed and wrote the screenplay) Sin City tells three stories of crime, corruption, and redemption set in the fictional town 'Basin City'.  The first story The Hard Goodbye, details the quest of Marv (Mickey Rourke) who searches town for the man who murdered Goldie (Jamie King), the woman he believes to be his one true love. The second story, The Big Fat Kill, tells of Dwight (Clive Owen) who must cover up the death of a corrupt police officer (Benicio Del Toro) in order to avoid a war between the cops, and the girls of old town, led by Gail (Rosiaro Dawson) The final story, That Yellow Bastard, shows Hartigan, (Bruce Willis) a beat up retired cop framed for a crime he didn't commit, trying to save the life of a girl whose life he saved at a young age, who grew up to become a stripper, (Jessica Alba) while all the while being tracked by a mysterious stranger with a grotesque appearance. (Nick Stahl)

It's a churning vat of old fashioned pulp style stories, each one more dark and edgy then the last. And yet, Sin City itself is morbidly fascinating; if you don't mind delving through the haze of sleaze, violence and corruption you'll find a really compelling story underneath the hard exterior. Sin City exudes the essence of classic film noir, except combined with over-the-top violence, characters and dialogue to maintain that comic book feel. Giving co-director status to creator Frank Miller and allowing him to write the screenplay was perhaps the wisest move director Robert Rodriguez ever made, because Miller's gritty influence shines through, perfectly capturing the mood of his original creations.

Hartigan, the good cop.

Dwight and the babes.

And the visuals... extraordinary. The entire film is shot in black and white, except for certain items which appear in colour. (a red dress, red blood, although sometimes the blood is stark white, and not to mention Nick Stahl's character, Yellow Bastard, who is, indeed, yellow) Rodriguez is also smart enough to use a green screen backdrop, so as to recreate Miller's gritty, moody sets by computer animation instead of trying to create them first hand. And it works, wonderfully - the sets perfectly set the tone for the rest of the movie: dark, bold, over-the-top and quality work unlike any other. Add the characters' noirish costumes (almost every male character sports, as Marv puts it, a "damn fine coat") unique appearances, (it says a lot for the quality of the movie when a character like Yellow Bastard doesn't seem out of place) and movement (take note that if the movie was paused at any given point, the frame would look like a panel from a comic book) and Miller and Rodriguez perfectly nail the comic book feel.

It also helps that a wonderful cast has been assembled to bring life to the mayhem. Spot on performances abroad here, but the standouts in my opinion were Elijah Wood, who was truly chilling as Kevin, the silent, cannibalistic serial killer; Nick Stahl as Roarke Junior/Yellow Bastard, a truly creepy and disgusting character; Clive Owen, playing against type as Dwight; (who isn't exactly a sophisticated, British gentleman, but then again, no one in this film is) Mickey Rourke as Marv, managing to turn out a stunning performance, even with his face buried under several layers of latex; Benicio Del Toro almost unrecognizable as corrupt cop Jackie Boy and a welcome appearance from late Michael Clarke Duncan as Manute, an enforcer specializing in inflicting pain. The hard edged ladies also do a great job, with Jessica Alba, Rosiaro Dawson, Carla Gugino, Jamie King and the rest all giving great performances.

Nancy Callahan.

Goldie?

The film opened on April 1, 2005, being acclaimed by reviews. Film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 78% of critics gave the film a positive review based on 242 reviews with a "Certified Fresh" rating, with an average score of 7.4/10. The site's consensus states: "Visually groundbreaking and terrifically violent, Sin City brings the dark world of Frank Miller's graphic novel to vivid life." On Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 based on reviews from critics, the film has a score of 74 (citing "generally favorable reviews") based on 40 reviews.

Roger Ebert awarded the film four out of four stars, describing it as "a visualization of the pulp noir imagination, uncompromising and extreme. Yes, and brilliant." Online critical reaction was particularly strong: James Berardinelli placed the film on his list of the "Top Ten" films of 2005. Several critics including Ebert compared the film favorably to other comic book adaptations, particularly Batman Begins and Hulk. Chauncey Mabe of the Sun-Sentinel wrote: "Really, there will be no reason for anyone to make a comic-book film ever again. Miller and Rodriguez have pushed the form as far as it can possibly go."

Lovely Lucille.

Oh Lucille!

There were several reviews predominantly focused on the film's more graphic content, criticizing it for a lack of "humanity". William Arnold of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer described it as a celebration of "helpless people being tortured ... I kept thinking of those clean-cut young American guards at Abu Ghraib. That is exactly the mentality Rodriguez is celebrating here. Sin City is their movie." Other critics focused on especially negative elements: "scenes depicting castration, murder, torture, decapitation, rape, and misogyny."

The New York Times critic Manohla Dargis claimed that the directors' "commitment to absolute unreality and the absence of the human factor" made it "hard to get pulled into the story on any level other than the visceral". Credit is given for Rodriguez's "scrupulous care and obvious love for its genre influences" but Dargis notes "it's a shame the movie is kind of a bore" where the private experience of reading a graphic novel does not translate, stating that "the problem is, this is his private experience, not ours".

In a more lighthearted piece focusing on the progression of films and the origins of Sin City, fellow Times critic A. O. Scott, identifying Who Framed Roger Rabbit as its chief cinematic predecessor, argued that "Something is missing – something human. Don't let the movies fool you: Roger Rabbit was guilty," with regard to the increasing use of digitization within films to replace the human elements. He applauds the fact Rodriguez "has rendered a gorgeous world of silvery shadows that updates the expressionist cinematography of postwar noir" but bemoans that several elements of "old film noirs has been digitally broomed away", resulting instead in a film that "offers sensation without feeling, death without grief, sin without guilt, and, ultimately, novelty without surprise".

"She says her name is Goldie"

Murdering bastard.

Overall, Sin City it's all in the style of such films as Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill, so it may be wise to use those films as guidelines of what to expect in terms of content. It's true that Sin City is not for everyone: the violence is brutal and unflinching, most characters are disreputable, manipulative and sleazy, and the whole feel of the film is undesirable, and not too cheery. But if none of that deters you, Sin City should be known as a must see, for the superb visual stylistics if nothing else. But the style and feel of the comic books is perfectly captured and thrust into our faces. Frank Miller must be proud.

Here's the movie trailer for the coolest graphic novel/comic book adaptation translation ever!

and as a bonus video the first trailer for the sequel: Sin City, a Dame to Kill for.

Under The Skin

a special kind of film.

A fair enough way to divide film viewers is between those that come for a coherent sequence of facts (to call a story) and those that come for an experience induced by any means. Most films address both communities, but grand experiments in contrasting the two can be powerful. For me, the greatest evocation of love in film was "In the Mood for Love;" little happens in terms of conventional story. In fact, what story is invoked is in the mind of a science fiction writer and not seen at all in that film, constituting the sequel.

Shift a bit. What are the most cinematic things you know? Choreographed violence? Languid landscapes? Smoke? Sex, surely sex ranks high. More exactly it is seduction, used as a pull by whatever means necessary (just as with story) — and usually that is sex. Why? Because it is cheap and essential. Because the world runs on urges and this is the most pure. So here we have something close to pure cinema, evoking something close to pure seduction. Story as we usually think of it is shifted to ambiguous context. It is easy enough to make up a story that fits this, but the whole point is you have to make it up, you are seduced at even this level.

Beautiful on the outside but...

...what about the inside?

The essentials are: an inner being belongs to a group. Perhaps 'she' is exploited, perhaps in the way a queen bee is, maintained by the hive until exhausted — then replaced. She wears a skin that has its own being, and the two collaborate to seduce single men. The inner being governing the mission, and the outer the seductive power. (We don't know enough until the very end to suggest even this much.)

The two work in reasonable symbiosis, the outer being seemingly ignorant of the inner, or of not being 'fully' human. As the film progresses, the seductress tries to escape. This apparently has happened before. Instead of being reskinned, she is destroyed, perhaps throwing the whole hive into risk. That is as much story as we can reach, and other views will have smaller and likely different ones. The effect of the film is carried not by this story, but by the 'skin' — the literal skin — of the movie.

Men are hunted to death.

Goodbye female shell.

Some will say this is a matter of style only, but what the filmmaker has created is seductive images of seduction. Some evoke the notion of seen/unseen. Others are languid, liquid, tragic passion. Always we are in the dark, often contained in wearable spaces.

This is not my favorite actress, but it is my favorite acting challenge: carrying and conveying two personalities and narratives simultaneously. She does better than Norah Jones in 'Blueberry Nights.' Better than DiCaprio in 'Shutter Island.' But not well enough to balance the power of the containing images. It is her arms, I think. They need to do more than surrender. She does do well in leading the prey across/into the pool: seduction is not in the dance, but what is left out of the dance, and she knows this.

Checking her new shell.

These are the first ever nude scenes of Scarlett Johansson on film.

Perfection is a synonym for woman body.

My definition of noir has a seemingly ordinary human caught up in odd circumstances that are overtly driven by an acknowledged audience as capricious gods. Recent film experiments try different advanced formulas for noir, and this is noe of the most novel: the men she watches are the ordinary public, namely us. Often we/they appear in the film without their knowledge or control.

The main character likely was just walking home from her job before being captured to be worn. 

Here's the movie trailer: