Because so few of you read the inspirational review of The Boogens yesterday I'm gonna punish everyone with a black & white Polish drama from 1961! Oh, but it's not any kinda of black & white Polish drama from 1961 - it might be one of the first movies to deal with nuns and possession! Yeah, Mother Joan of the Angels, is also based on the same case as Ken Russell's The Devils, the 1634 Loudun possessions. Pretty interesting stuff. Now, of course... this was made before cinema went haywire in the 60's and instead of showing us a lot of graphic demonic possession, nudity and torture, director Kawalerowicz tells a truly spectacular low-ley story about Father Jozef Suryn (Mieczyslaw Voit) who arrived to a faraway monastery to investigate the rumours of Satan's work. There he finds the charismatic Mother Joan (Lucyna Winnicka - RIP 2013), the leader of the nuns and the center of the possession.
So you won't get any spectacular masturbation scenes with penis-shaped candles or gory suicides, but believe me, the story is so good and so well-written that you just don't need any sleaze or graphic violence. I, for one, have nothing against it - but Mother Joan of the Angels is a mesmerizing drama with hints of horror and mystery. Most of all it's a criticial view on religious madness. Is Mother Joan really possessed by a demon called Gresil? Or is she just going frustrated - like she's telling us at one point - with being trapped in this boring life of religion? Father Suryn obviously believes there's something supernatural going on and starts to feel the madness himself - even after getting a critical lesson from a local Jewish man (also played by Voit) who seems to have a much clearer view of both religion and reality than the more than naive Father.
Lucyna Winnicka as Mother Joan is a revelation. One of the best performances I've seen. She goes from giving us the evil demon look to a crying nun in a second, always fucking owning the scene she's in. I've rarely seen such a commited performance before. Also, to be noted, the film is packed with gorgeous and quite bizarre scenes of possession. It's not special effects or something, it's the nuns acting weird - they're dancing, screaming, twisting their bodies - the best is when Mother Joan almost does a spider walk (without walking), the same thing as the scene from The Exorcist. Another powerful sequences is when a priest enters the chapel and sprinkles holy water on the nuns, who screams and hides.
Director Jerzy Kawalerowicz was one of Poland's biggest directors, even if he during his last year mostly made boring historical dramas, probably just made to torture poor Polish school kids during their history lessons. But during the 50's and 60's he flirted with different kinds of genre cinema - and it's my plan to watch a few more of them to see what he has to offer.
I wouldn't go so far to call it a horror movie, its not. But as a dark drama, tinted with horror, its a beautiful exercise in early nunsploitation. Don't expected fast-paced action. Sit back and be hypnotized by Mother Joan instead...
"Because so few of you read the inspirational review of The Boogens yesterday I'm gonna punish everyone with a black & white Polish drama from 1961!"
HA!
I laugh at such a vain act!
Punish...?
Me...?
I love B&W dramas form eastern europe, of course I mainly seen the mainstream titles that everyone namedrops like, Nóz w wodzie/Knife in the Water (1962), Cerný Petr/Black Sheep (1964), Horí, má panenko/The Firemen's Ball (1967)
etc.
Only time you would scare me....or punish me would be a full in depth review of.....Transformers(2007)!
Yeah... then I know something has gone wrong......
"Yeah, Mother Joan of the Angels, is also based on the same case as Ken Russell's The Devils, the 1634 Loudun possessions."
I love Russells take on it this story, don´t know much about it´s origins, but I like his film.
"So you won't get any spectacular masturbation scenes with penis-shaped candles or gory suicides, but believe me, the story is so good and so well-written that you just don't need any sleaze or graphic violence."
Yeah, I remember how surprised I was by those scenes in Russells film.......they truly look crazy, in that odd orgy scene.
"I, for one, have nothing against it - but Mother Joan of the Angels is a mesmerizing drama with hints of horror and mystery."
Sounds almost like Black Narcissus (1947), very nice low key drama about nuns in Himlaya.
"the best is when Mother Joan almost does a spider walk (without walking), the same thing as the scene from The Exorcist."
Ouch!
I think Friedkin used animatroncs.......no actors involved.
"Director Jerzy Kawalerowicz was one of Poland's biggest directors, even if he during his last year mostly made boring historical dramas, probably just made to torture poor Polish school kids during their history lessons."
Your BF told of some horror stories...?
"But during the 50's and 60's he flirted with different kinds of genre cinema - and it's my plan to watch a few more of them to see what he has to offer."
Yeah, do it!
"I wouldn't go so far to call it a horror movie, its not. But as a dark drama, tinted with horror, its a beautiful exercise in early nunsploitation. Don't expected fast-paced action. Sit back and be hypnotized by Mother Joan instead..."
I will, great review and thanks.
See Black Narcissus (1947) if you can...you might like it.
Posted by: Megatron | July 03, 2013 at 18:08