Story of a Cloistered Nun – 88 Films

Director: Domenico Paolella
Screenplay: Domenico Paolella, Tonino Cervi
Starring: Catherine Spaak, Suzy Kendall, Eleonora Giorgi, Martine Brochard, Umberto Orsini, Tino Carraro
Country: Germany, Italy, France
Running Time: 98 min
Year: 1973
BBFC Certificate: 18

88 Films’ excavation of Italian grot obscurities continues. Made in 1973, Story of a Cloistered Nun (alias Unholy Convent or Diary of a Cloistered Nun) comes from the relatively unexplored Italian genre of nunsploitation. One of those Italian subgenres or filone that originated with an Italian film and not an American production, these films, at least in Italy, were born out of the success of (Luchino’s nephew) Eriprando Visconti’s The Lady of Monza (1969), starring the British actress and former beauty queen/variety starlet Anne Heywood, though the success of Ken Russell’s The Devils (1971) clearly didn’t hurt. This film was directed by Domenico Paolella, who later did The Nun and the Devil, which featured Heywood. This, unusually does not feature Heywood. Allegedly, this film was intended as a vehicle for Joan Collins (in her pre-Dynasty, pre-The Stud doldrums when she was doing films in Europe). Suzy Kendall, the British actress who’d come to fame in To Sir With Love (1967) and Up the Junction (1968) had found a niche in Italy, doing films like Alberto Lattuada’s Fraulein Doktor (1969), The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1969), Sergio Martino’s Torso (1973) and Umberto Lenzi’s Spasmo (1974). This feels like a departure. Though in her mid-thrties, Kendall was still playing ingenues. Here, she’s the Mother Superior of a 16th century Italian convent. Though the actual lead is Eleonora Giorgi as Carmela Simoni, a young aristocrat who is punished for refusing an arranged marriage. Giorgi’s Carmela is a pampered, ringletted blonde who seems designed to look like some kind of Tudor Shirley Temple in her pre-nun gear. Despite the rich period setting, this is basically a women in prison movie in a medieval habit.

All the cliches are here – the warden becomes the Mother Superior, the pervy guards become older nuns. However, it is beautifully shot by the overqualified Armando Nannuzzi, whose credits include La Cage Aux Folles (1978), Luchino Visconti’s Ludwig (1972), Bondachuk’s Waterloo (1970) and Zeffirelli’s Jesus of Nazareth (1977) as well as DeLaurentiis Stephen King jams Maximum Overdrive (1986) and Silver Bullet (1985), Roger Corman’s Frankenstein Unbound (1990) and the Cannon Brooke Shields tosh Sahara (1983). However, Nannuzzi treats this film like it was a Luchino Visconti or a Zeffirelli film, and not the work of Domenico Paolella, an Italian journeyman at the end of his career who mainly did sword and sandal films, finishing with the rote Eurocrime Stunt Squad (1977). Nannuzzi helps the film, with beautiful compositions of nuns gathered around wells and young women playing around cross-dressing. The film is sleazy and sordid, released in America dubbed by exploitation merchants Cinemation Industries. However, it is such a handsomely made film that it becomes perverse. The rich Piero Piccioni score only helps to underscore the class.

However, it is a bleak, miserable film. It never lets you forget it is a sleazy exploitation film. The end credits with its text epilogue that position it as if it were a true story in truest Italian style, ‘actual events from Abbey of San Giacomo’, claiming that its lead should be sainted is admirably shameless. However, for fans of Italian sexploitation, the film is a masterpiece of its genre.

88 Films’ restoration is wonderful and there are plentiful extras with co-star Martine Brochard interviewed, audio commentary by Italian cinema experts Troy Howarth and Eugenio Ercolani and a video essay by critic Andrea Meroni.

– High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation in 1.85:1 Aspect Ratio
– 2.0 English Dual Mono
– 2.0 Italian Dual Mono with English Subtitles
– Audio Commentary with Italian Cinema Experts Troy Howarth and Eugenio Ercolani
– Story of an Uncloistered Martine – Interview with Martine Brochard
– Novices and Malices – A Video Essay by Andrea Meroni
– English Trailer
– Reversible Sleeve featuring original poster
– INCLUDES FIRST PRESSING O-RING
– INCLUDES BOOKLET WITH NOTES FROM DANIEL BURNETT