Despite some very ropey, almost Franco-like camera-work and generally lacklustre performances, Walerian Borowczyk's "Behind Convent Walls" (aka "Within a Cloister") is an artsploitation film with real erotic value.
The plot is nonsense, but the convent setting is convincing and the scenes of nuns behaving badly are directed with great erotic detail.
With the exception of the Mother Superior, these sisters have more interest in phallic objects, masturbation, lesbianism and the local lads than the Holy Trinity. It's a good thing because this is a Borowczyk film and Borowczyk, the director of "Immoral Tales" and "The Beast", is at his best when focusing his camera on illicit sexuality.
The film has an art-house patina, measured pacing and a heavy-handed organ score, but it remains an interesting curio for its single-minded subversiveness and cast of carnally-minded Christians.
Euro art trash at its finest.
The plot is nonsense, but the convent setting is convincing and the scenes of nuns behaving badly are directed with great erotic detail.
With the exception of the Mother Superior, these sisters have more interest in phallic objects, masturbation, lesbianism and the local lads than the Holy Trinity. It's a good thing because this is a Borowczyk film and Borowczyk, the director of "Immoral Tales" and "The Beast", is at his best when focusing his camera on illicit sexuality.
The film has an art-house patina, measured pacing and a heavy-handed organ score, but it remains an interesting curio for its single-minded subversiveness and cast of carnally-minded Christians.
Euro art trash at its finest.