Several months back, I watched Brazilian actress Florinda Bolkan play the part of a vengeful modern-day nun in the 1978 Italian exploitation film "The Last House on the Beach." As it turns out, though, four years earlier, Florinda had also played the role of a vengeful sister, in the infamous Italian/French coproduction "Flavia the Heretic." This earlier, film, however, takes place around the year 1400, in the Pulia region of southern Italy. In the film, Flavia Gaetani is forced into a nunnery by her monstrous father. She witnesses the ugliness and brutality of the era and, protofeminist that she is, wonders why men have all the power, both in the Church and secular life. She decides to run away from the nunnery, is captured and punished, and ultimately seeks her sexual awakening--as well as her vengeance on the convent and her father--with an army of invading Muslims. Florinda, who appears in virtually every scene in the film, has rarely been better--she is a terrific actress--the picture's lovely and memorable score by Nicola Piovani does much to establish a medieval atmosphere, and director Gianfranco Mingozzi's work here is assured and imaginative. The picture looks very authentic, with excellent attention to period detail; it was largely filmed in the town of Trani, in Pulia, on the Adriatic, near where the actual events of this story transpired. A word of warning to prospective viewers: This is an extremely violent film, featuring fairly graphic depictions of beheadings, various impalements, nipple slicing, equine castration, burning tar torture...not to mention Flavia's stomach-churning ultimate fate. The picture also contains several fantasy segments that would make Bunuel smile with approbation. In all, a serious film that should please not only feminists of all stripes, but also the gorehounds, as well as fans of nunsploitation and Euro horror. A rare interview with Florinda today, an extra on this great-looking DVD from Synapse, is the icing on the cake. Pair this film with 1970's "Mark of the Devil"--another picture that features brutal violence in the name of the Church, and also set hundreds of years ago and to a gorgeous score--for a double feature that may require several glasses of holy wine before venturing in....
Review of Flavia, the Heretic
