The_Void What supposedly goes on 'behind convent walls' is the subject matter of pretty much every nunsploitation film ever made, and this film is director Walerian Borowczyk's take on the theme. Given that he previously directed The Beast; I have to say that I was expecting something a little stranger from the director, and while the film does have some quirks not seen in other nunsploitation efforts; it has to be said that it's pretty much a textbook entry and that is really the most disappointing thing about it. As ever, its sex, Satanism and general sinning that is the order of the day; although the film does not really follow a set narrative. The film is apparently based on a novel by someone called 'Stendhal' and focuses on a convent, where most of the nuns are beautiful and like to do everything except what nuns are supposed to do (despite having seen so many films about nuns, I actually don't know what that is!). Basically, what we get is the leaders of the convent trying to instill proper values in the nuns, while the nuns ignore them.This genre is best known for its hardcore entries by directors such as Joe D'Amato, but this one is actually surprisingly soft. The director delights in showing the nuns half dressed; we get plenty of shots of naked women wearing the nun's headgear and while it could be considered blasphemous, it's not particularly offensive. The most noteworthy scene of the movie goes against the flow a little bit and sees a nun pleasuring herself with a carving featuring the face of Jesus! Outside of that, however, the film doesn't feature the hardcore atrocities that Joe D'Amato delights in filming. The plot is really unimportant and it soon becomes apparent that the film is only going to be an excuse to show what (or rather, what probably doesn't) go on behind convent walls. The women are all rather beautiful and the cinematography is too which ensures that the film is at least nice to look at. Overall, I don't think this film will do a lot for those wanting hardcore pornography from their nunsploitation; but it's a decent film and provides enough for the average nunsploitation fan.

netwallah This movie isn't sure where it belongs. In part it is a well-realized historical period picture based on a novel by Stendahl. The photography is very fine, as are the settings and costumes.Then it's also a movie that exists for the many opportunities to show nuns and novices without clothing, often involved in some sort of sexual activity. A somewhat trite them runs through this level, something about the unnatural state of confinement and the irresistible need for pleasure that nuns must feel. So we see kissing and fondling and masturbation with a hand-carved dildo and several tasteful scenes of copulation with men. The corollary theme is that sexual deprivation in women produces either a grimly authoritarian repression—the abbess (Gabriela Giacobbe) who carries a cane with a concealed sword she uses to find contraband in the bedding—or madness, as in the case of the nun who is convinced Jesus has taken her to bed and whose rose-thorn wounds she represents as stigmata. Or in the case of one of the main characters, Sister Clara (Ligia Branice), who begins the story as a truly devout nun, but in the last twenty minutes she seeks out the handsome artist Rodrigo (Howard Ross) and has ecstatic sex in the convent courtyard, crying out phrases that mirror the devotional language she's used earlier as a mystical bride of Christ. Then, inexplicably, she is mad, exposing herself with defiant, mocking, leering words and laughter to the priest, and then she is dead of the same poison that killed the abbess, as is the other nun, Sister Martina (Loredano Martínez), who'd been having sex with the virile male helper Silva (Alessandro Partexano) and who gave the abbess the poison she thought was just opium useful for mellowing her out a little, and opened the door for her lover as well. The cardinal, Clara's uncle, arrives and prays for assistance in ensuring that no word of this business will go beyond the convent walls, and he flashes a wicked grin. The nun earlier shown in late pregnancy smiles a different smile as she nurses her newborn baby; it is typical of the contradictions of this movie that the abbess, so firmly opposed to all forms of carnality, is kind to the pregnant nun.The third element derives from making the film a vehicle for Ligia Branice, who happened to be married to the director. She has a striking, tapered face, with wide-set eyes and a generous mouth. Somehow she manages to acquire more and more exaggeratedly sexy make-up as the movie progresses. Her range as an actor is limited, however. She does fine as a quiet, devout nun, but as a lover and a madwoman she grimaces and chews the scenery, as they say, looking a little like a slim female impersonator trying to mimic Sophia Loren at fever pitch. She's much better than she is in Blanche, but she's still the weakest part of the film.

fertilecelluloid 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.

cread Borowsky's artistic, distinctively edgy pseudo-art erotic movie will appeal to all familiar with his work. The over-exposed light pours in through the windows and light up the stark, angular corridors, perfectly off-setting the naked female bodies on display. The plot is pretty mundane stuff - a mother superior has trouble keeping her naughty nuns from sins of the flesh (that's pretty much it). Although the weird subplots about stigmata and a nun who seems to believe Jesus slept with her in her sleep will please art-house fans like me. The film is set against a loud organ score (reminiscent of the art-house classic Last Year at Marienbad) and of course it all ends pretty tragically. This is a great little art-house film, although the acting is at times a little hokey (not helped by terrible dubbing) and it isn't exactly the biggest budget in the world. Ironically, given the film's exploitionist title, there isn't much here for softcore porn fans (a little female masterbation and 2 or 3 short (heterosexual) sex scenes) but fans of this kind of european arthouse should be more than happy.