This really is a masterpiece! I know I say that about almost all Franco movies, but this one truly is gorgeous! It's beautifully filmed, has excellent scenes with quick shot (pun intended!) subliminal editing sequences and a good all round editing look and feel to it. The locations are great for the period piece due to the fact the Swiss movie mogul who produced it Erwin C. Dietrich bestowed an ample budget on Franco (as well as most other directors he hired) and obviously took time to find good locations for the film so it would look great for the period, and it does! It's a brilliant directing job by Franco. Yes it's just a straightforward trial of an innocent nun piece, the genre dictates certain scenes have to be in there and they are all here! Pervy priests, horny Mother Superiors, lesbian nuns, make that naked lesbian nuns, characters claiming their righteousness when we know otherwise, the infamous inquisition and a good old stake burning. A couple of slight deviations though, the God of the convent worshipers is actually Satan, though to all outsiders they do claim to be Christians! And well a little, I think, unconventional ending, but apart from these two deviations, it's a straight 1,2,3 -nunsploitation movie, but this is how it's done properly! The few things that we know are Franco touches are not really present here, there are no interludes of seemingly unnecessary/annoying (depending on your opinion of his film making!) shots with loud jazz over them a'la Vampyros Lesbos (1970)/ She Killed In Ecstasy (1970) among many others. In fact there is no jazz at all just a very appropriate, non intrusive use of well executed period sounding pieces. Except in one part where it turns all frenzied and anxious during a scene of Maria's confusion, but two seconds in when you realise it's displaying the characters state of mind, and is not just out of tune, you think "Brilliant!" Zooms, are minimal and barely noticeable, and not of the nauseating kind, just a slow zoom in or out her and there, and none in quick succession. So if you have a problem with Franco films because of the nauseating camera work this is the one to get over it with, and expose yourself to the genius! The story is not as brutal as some other nun movies, The Devils (1971), Flavia The Heretic (1975) and Nuns Of San Arcangelo (1973) come to mind as three that were way more bloody. A nice touch was actually seeing the Priest in the confessional, and just seeing how much he was actually enjoying Maria's confessions! Something that was always believed to be what went on, but not as far as I can remember shown before! Obviously parallel's coming up now, with the Marquis De Sade. Maria is obviously the innocent and virtuous Justine at the beginning of the movie, but fortunately does not continue to be so blindly convinced (faith bordering on stupidity) of the inherent good of mankind throughout the movie, as Justine is in De Sade's novel. During production it was normal for Franco to be shooting more than one film at a time, which would leave his actors losing sight of what movie the were actually filming at that moment. In the 1970's Jesus Franco along with Luis Bunuel shared the title of "Most Dangerous Filmmakers in The World" a nice little title bestowed on them by the catholic church. Isn't it nice how we get a showing here of people gathering round to see the stake burning, and people blame the ills in today's society on videos and computer games! So what the hell happened 200 years ago during all these witch trials, while all these fuckers were cheerily sitting round the burning's and hangings with popcorn in there fucking hands, ohh what a nice wholesome family day out, I'd say! The version I saw was the wonderful director's cut disc from "The Official Jess Franco Collection" a crisp and clean wide screen version, with language choices, and a clear sound track, it has loads of Franco & Dietrich trailers, an interesting and informative documentary on the complicated and time consuming film restoration process and brilliant interviews with Erwin C. Dietrich, Jess Franco & Lina Romay, what more could a film fan ask for? It's just absolutely gorgeous! Oh and by the way this is that sexy tramcar full of nuns I was telling you about!

• published: 02 Apr 2014
• views: 108