Do you have a favorite nun movie? It seems that the most popular and commercially successful of the lot are either serious dramas like The Nun’s Story (1959) or comedy/musicals such as The Sound of Music (1965) and Sister Act (1992). There is also the more polarizing subgenre known as nunsploitation which caters to grindhouse audiences with abundant scenes of sex and violence (Jess Franco’s Love Letters of a Portuguese Nun [1977], Killer Nun [1079]) but can also embrace art house fare like Ken Russell’s The Devils (1971) and Walerian Borowczyk’s Behind Convent Walls (1978). Entre Tinieblas (English title: Dark Habits, 1983), directed by Pedro Almodovar, doesn’t fit easily into any of the above categories but, like any nunsploitation flick, it is likely to offend conservative and religious viewers. Still, Almodovar’s film is much closer to a Hollywood soap opera crossed with screwball comedy but its subversive and controversial nature isn’t the result of explicit sex or violence but its wicked satire of Catholicism and those who practice it. In this case, it’s a quintet of nuns who call themselves the Community of Humble Redeemers.
Continue reading
Cinema Sojourns 