Story of a Cloistered Nun (1973)

Too much of everything

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

A Masterpiece!

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Honest love - my finger slipped when I was trying to click on the film 'violent bloodbath'. I didn't mean to click on Domenico Paolella's other 1973 nun film (which confusingly features stills from The Nun and The Devil in the opening credits).Carmella is from a noble family and has forgotten that she was promised to marry a guy from another noble family when she cops off with a local soldier. Family enraged, the only thing they can do is throw her in a convent, where we can all rest easy knowing that she will be kept pure and sheltered from the outside world. That's if she can avoid the advances of cruel mother superior Suzy Kendall (lesbian), Sister Elizabeth (lesbian), who appears nice at first and is also knocking boots with soldier Umberto Orisini, who gets his kicks hearing about all the lesbian (lesbian) activity at the convent, or the other two novices (lesbians).Carmella has a hard time adjusting to convent life, and no wonder - it looks awful! When not grassing each other in for everything, the nuns make passes at each other, have affairs with the outside, and Carmella has Suzy Kendall crawling into her room every night while Sister Elizabeth takes her OUT of the room every night. Sounds like a bean-fest, right?Wrong! Just like The Nun and The Devil, this isn't a sex filled exploitation film, rather than a serious commentary on the suppression of female sexuality in a brutal male society, and just like the previous film, this one looks gorgeous. It's also rather touching in a way, especially the last ten minutes of the film, where those expecting nuns in high heels actually end up with actual acting. Suzy Kendall, who usually just screams her way through a film (not her fault - they are usually gialli) do good here as the internally torn Mother Superior, who shows herself to be someone with hidden depths.

Possibly the best of the Italian "Nunsploitationers" – even if, apart from ample nudity (the violence here is quite mild), the film's character-driven nature is liable to disappoint hardened genre fans…not to mention a denouement which could be deemed anti-climactic! It was made by the same people behind THE NUN AND THE DEVIL (1973; see above) yet, being inspired by real events and therefore more 'serious' in tone than its predecessor, director Paolella was not afraid to attach his name to it. While the plot per se is rather thin and offers no real surprises (especially after having watched 9 of these in a brief span of time!), the end result is immeasurably elevated by spot-on central casting: Catherine Spaak (as a rebellious bisexual nun), Suzy Kendall (as the quietly perturbed Mother Superior) and Eleonora Giorgi (arguably the loveliest actress to feature in this type of film and whom the makers miss no opportunity to parade sans clothing); by the way, Martine Brochard from the previous film returns in the role of a crazy nun. The males figure less prominently this time around – even Umberto Orsini is no more than a narcissist relishing his prohibited liaison with a cloistered nun (Spaak). Following on from THE NUN AND THE DEVIL, Piero Piccioni contributes another lush yet moody score to complement the film's striking visuals (courtesy of cinematographer Armando Nannuzzi, a Pasolini regular, and the stark production design). Interestingly, the credits are accompanied by stills depicting vintage artwork but also scenes from the previous film itself!; a small gripe I have with this particular presentation of STORY OF A CLOISTERED NUN is that the admittedly tiny English subtitles are non-removable (which, being fluent in Italian, I did not require).

Nunsploitation has to be just about the most bizarre of all the exploitation variants, and usually these films are good fun to watch. Most of the nunsploitation that I've seen has been rather nasty, featuring brutal rapes as well as the token nudity. This one, however, bucks that trend; as while Domenico Paolella's Story of a Cloistered Nun features a good deal of nudity, lesbianism and general blaspheming; it certainly doesn't have the nasty edge of films such as Images in a Convent and The Killer Nun, and that's actually not a bad thing! The plot is "based on a true story", but that doesn't mean it isn't your usual nunsploitation fare. The story concerns a young girl who was supposed to marry a man from another family due to an 'arranged at birth' marriage, but she falls in love with another man. Naturally, her parents are none too pleased; and the girl is swiftly sent off to a convent where she is degraded and humiliated, and then becomes the object of a sexually repressed lesbian nun's desires.Considering that this is an obscure movie, made in Italy in 1973; the cinematography and production values are surprisingly good, and Story of a Cloistered Nun is actually not really a trash film at all. This is likely to annoy some viewers; and indeed, I do watch this sort of stuff mainly to see sex and violence, but I can't be too hard on the film as the director manages to keep things interesting throughout, and it's obvious that a lot of work went into it. The acting is largely good, with Suzy Kendall providing the highlight role as 'Mother Superior'. The fact that the film isn't very nasty certainly helps it when it comes to the lesbian plot as the fact that it isn't brutal or forced actually means that the film is more erotic than it otherwise might have been (NO disrespect to Images in a Convent, though). I wouldn't say that this film should be at the top of every nunsploitation fan's wishlist, but it provides something a little different from the norm and it definitely is a film worth seeing.

A beautiful nunsploitation epic,sweet and tender where the lovely Eleonora Giorgi plays a blond virgin forced to live behind convent walls. Catherine Spaak is excellent and even more sexy than she was in her early giallos. Suzy Kendall is beautifull in the role of the mother superior who want to be a new mother for her "sister" Carmella She's more sensitive and sad than ever. I prefer this one as THE NUNS OF ST ARCHANGELLO also from Domenico Paolela. beautifull photography, beautifull music, beautifull nuns...