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Italy
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1986
Directed by Joe D'Amato
Starring
Eva Grimaldi
Karin Well
Gabriele Tinti
Color |
91 Minutes |
Not Rated
Format: DVD (R1 - NTSC)
Exploitation Digital
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5
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10
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Italian
director Joe D'Amato (Anthropophagus,
Porno
Holocaust) again ventures into Nunsploitation
territory, which naturally means he serves up
plenty of sapphic sisters getting salacious. Unlike
1979's Images
In A Convent, however, this film doesn't cross
the line into hardcore porn — no instances of
forced blowjobs or dildo diddling pop up unexpectedly
amid the softcore petting. Convent
Of Sinners is different, too, in that there
are no supernatural elements insinuated in the
story. Consequently it emits much less of a gothic
horror vibe, despite being set in the 18th century.
The basic plot is the same, though, that of the
'Hot Young Nun Who Unleashes a Wave of Unbridled
Horniness'.
This is pure, unadulterated sexploitation.
Sexy,
pouty-lipped Eva Grimaldi is Susanna, a young
woman raped by her lustful stepdad in the opening
moments of the film. Her
mother walks in right as he starts thrusting
away. "You evil, wicked man!"
(We're led to believe it's
her biological father doing the molesting
until told otherwise much later.) Of course it
is the victim who is punished for this shameful
episode, so for Susanna it's "Get thee to
a nunnery!" posthaste —
she's banished to a French
convent to keep her out of the Old Man's clutches.
The girl despairs because, although a God-fearing
Christian, she feels no vocation, no calling,
to serve the church. She hopes to become a wife
and mother someday.
Instead,
our tenderlicious heroine is sent straight to
Our
Lady of the Throbbing Erogenous Zones.
Beneath
its placid, holy veneer the convent is a seething
cauldron of suppressed
(and behind closed doors, not so suppressed) sexual
passion. The Mother
Superior (Karin Well) — a woman in her forties,
not a crone — is overcome with lesbian lust the
moment she lays eyes upon Susanna's naked form.
She wants to get under the new arrival's habit
in a major way, which doesn't sit too well with
her current lover, the convent's second-in-command,
Sister Theresa (Gilda Germano, AKA Jessica Moore).
As the Mother Superior presses her increasingly
forward advances on Susanna, the neglected Sister
Theresa at first grovels for attention. When that
fails she draws plans against the young novice,
determined to turn all the other nuns against
her. She'll have to tread carefully, though, if
she doesn't want to jeopardize her position as
second banana —
cracking down on Susanna by assigning her shit-work
earns the wrath of the besotted Top Nun. While
Theresa schemes, Susanna gains the trust of the
convent's Father Confessor (Gabriele Gori), a
young priest who's soon falling in lust with the
comely lass himself. He promises to help her get
a hearing with the Monsignor that could potentially
release her from her vows. Then the Mother Superior
falls seriously ill, leaving the vengeful Sister
Theresa in temporary charge...
The emphasis
here is as much on story as it is sleaze, but
rest assured there's plenty of female pulchritude
on display. You
simply can't have this high a percentage of nubile
cuties at a nunnery without frequently getting
them naked. If Susanna isn't being undressed and
bathed by the Mother Superior, the other gals
are getting it on with the studly mute handyman,
each other, or themselves. As mentioned
above, none of the sex is hardcore. Probably the
kinkiest scene involves one of the nuns guiltily
flogging herself while masturbating... Shocking,
I suppose, if you happen to be Catholic, but I'm
not.
Like
with the earlier Images,
D'Amato — here directing as "Dario Donati",
one of his many aliases — again forgoes torture
and gore, limiting the physical punishment to
bitch-slaps, mild self-flagellation and a whipping
of the bare thighs (which, while not graphic,
does look rather painful).
He also doubled as cinematographer. Shot almost
entirely indoors, the film is given a soft-focus
look amid rather muted hues. The brightest flashes
of color seen are the red clerical garb of a cardinal,
the scarlet sash and cap of the Monsignor (Emanuelle
In America's Gabriele Tinti), and the pink,
tender flesh of the oft-naked nuns.
Not especially
transgressive and with enough of a plot to keep
it from being a total sleaze-fest, this middling
entry in the Nunsploitation sweepstakes nevertheless
parades enough T&A
to keep the average horndog watching. Eva Grimaldi
is a honey, too —
one might even wind up caring just a smidgen about
sweet Susanna's ultimate fate. (Yep, she's accused
of being possessed by the devil. What else?)
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Released in Spring 2006 by Media Blasters subsidiary
Exploitation Digital, the DVD boasts an anamorphic
1.66:1 transfer taken from unblemished source
materials; the film looks great within the parameters
of D'Amato's soft, subdued photography. Its mono
audio track is relatively clean, with the occasional
popping at reel changes. (The English dubbing
is above-average, I should add.) The main extra
offered by the disc is a 12-minute featurette,
Sex, Truth, and Videotape, which follows
the late director behind
the scenes as he helms a porno flick in Prague
called The Monk.
(Which is not listed on his IMDB page, by the
way.) No hardcore sex is glimpsed, but does make
an abrupt appearance in the "Joe D'Amato
Trailer Reel" that's also included. (Lucia
Ramirez is shown giving a blowjob in the trailer
for Orgasmo Nero.)
7/28/06
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