Mother Joan of the Angels (1961)
Mother Joan of the Angels / Matka Joanna od aniolów (1961)
DVD5 | ISO | PAL 4:3 (720x576) | 01:44:58 | 4,29 Gb
Audio: Polish AC3 2.0 @ 192 Kbps | Subs: English
Genre: Drama, Mystery | 1 win | Poland
DVD5 | ISO | PAL 4:3 (720x576) | 01:44:58 | 4,29 Gb
Audio: Polish AC3 2.0 @ 192 Kbps | Subs: English
Genre: Drama, Mystery | 1 win | Poland
One of the landmarks of Polish cinema, this film is based on the documented story of the ‘possession’ of a group of nuns that led to the burning of a priest at the stake in Loudun, France in 1634.
A Mother superior in a 17th-century convent finds herself possessed by the Devil in this Polish drama set in a convent of Ursuline nuns. Several attempts are made to exorcise the demon. While four priests attempt to banish the spirit, two more are burned at the stake for impregnating her. All but one of the other nuns allow Satan's minions to enter their bodies. An extremely devout priest uses every power at his disposal to exorcise them. But even self-flagellation cannot stop them. In desperation, the priest consults an aged rabbi who suggests that the "demons" are really manifestations of human nature. The priest then finds himself becoming possessed by the Mother Superior. Suddenly he desires her body and soul. To prove his desire, he murders two stable grooms. He then encounters the one unpossessed nun who has just spent a night of lovemaking with an aristocrat who has since tossed her out. She is terribly upset and the priest advises her to go back to the convent and tell the Mother Superior of the lecherous man's misdeeds.
IMDB
Senses of Cinema
DVDBeaver
Mother Joan of the Angels (1961)
Kawalerowicz’s sensually mounted, barely disguised polemic – in which pious members of the Catholic church (representing the idealistic communists) try to drive the devil (representing human nature) out of a convent full of possessed nuns – proves itself to be a beautifully photographed and excellently acted political allegory.Iain.Stott
Mother Joan of the Angels (1961)
Mother Joan of the Angels is beautifully shot on black and white film. I haven’t seen as much Bergman as I probably should, but I was reminded of The Seventh Seal, at least visually, while watching this. The film is very stark, and the two leads, Voit and Winnicka, seem to have been chosen as much for their acting as for their piercing eyes. Many of the shots are expertly composed, and aside from some jump-edits (which might be the DVD, for all I know) the film is well-executed.
Mother Joan of the Angels (1961)
Father Jozef Suryn (Mieczyslaw Voit) is the latest in a long line of priests dispatched to an isolated 17th century convent to investigate the rumours of satanic obsession and possession affecting the nuns who live there. His particular task is to exorcise Mother Joan of the Angels,(Lucyna Winnicka) the mother superior of the convent who it would seem is possessed by numerous demons. Father Josef has been in training so to speak for many weeks, through prayer, abstinence, limited fasting and self flagellation and when he arrives at a nearby inn, he is shocked at the rumours he hears from the locals,who seem to take great pleasure in telling him of his difficult task, a task it would appear his that is going to be very difficult as the previous incumbent of his job had just recently been burnt at the stake.
Mother Joan of the Angels (1961)
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Mother Joan of the Angels was in fact based on real events and might be considered by some as one of the earliest examples of Nunsploitation, but the film is not exploitative in any way and never resorts to nudity or explicit sex, in fact it's a beautifully filmed, superbly acted horror drama that it would seem was very influential on William Friedkin's The Exorcist(1973), in fact if I hadn't previously known of its influence I would be comparing it to that film along with perhaps Bergman's Sjunde inseglet, Det (1957)a film set in a similar time frame that also boasts many wonderful scenes of rusticity amongst the peasants and that explores their every fear, not least in the first 15 mins where Mother Joan of the Angels is, it must be said, slow to get going, but in a good way, as Kawalerowicz builds up the tension, there is much talk and speculation amongst the peasants as the demonic things that go in the convent, the viewer is left in high anticipation of the evil that lurks there.
Mother Joan of the Angels (1961)
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The stunning high contrast black & white photography by Jerzy Wójcik is reminiscent of many an expressionistic silent era film, in particular the first meeting between the two main characters is superb as the juxtaposition of Suryn's black hair, black beard and black robe against Mother Joan's pure white habit and headdress is very striking, mainly because the classic colours of good and evil are actually reversed, for Mother Joan is possessed by no less than eight demons which don't take long to show themselves to Suryn, his plight seems doomed to failure as he is a man unsure of his own ability, his wide eyes giving away his fear of the demons and his task ahead. On the whole the film is an very intelligent character study that also touches on some very interesting theological issues, issues that are explored when Suryn goes to a local Rabbi for help.IMDB Reviewer
Mother Joan of the Angels (1961)
Based on the documented possession of Ursuline nuns that led to the burning of Father Urbain Grandier at the stake in Loudun, France in 1634 (that also served as the historical basis for Aldous Huxley's novel The Devils of Loudun, subsequently adapted for the screen by Ken Russell in The Devils), Mother Joan of Angels is a spare, visually rigorous, and profoundly disturbing exploration of faith, repression, fanaticism, and eros. Jerzy Kawalerowicz employs high contrast lighting, stark chiaroscuro imagery, austere landscapes, and minimal mise-en-scène that meticulously distills the narrative into its essential composition: the arid, desolate fields that lead to the convent and the site of Father Grandier's execution; the image of prostrate cloistered nuns in the chapel that is paralleled against images of birds in flight as Father Suryn and Mother Joan are sequestered to an attic room; the sound of footsteps in an underlit corridor as possessed nuns emerge towards the light, calling out to Father Suryn; the contrasted doppelgänger imagery of Father Suryn seeking guidance from a rabbi (also played by Voit) that is later repeated in his despondent, introspective monologue facing his obscured reflection in a mirror; the sublime final shot of a tolling church bell that intermittently occludes the daylight view from the tower. By exposing the uncertainty, repression, and moral ambiguity that exist beneath the abstinent, dogmatic ritual of institutional religion, Mother Joan of Angels serves as a provocative and haunting portrait of man's eternal spiritual struggle against the indefinable nature of evil, sin, and corporeal existence.
Mother Joan of the Angels (1961)
Special Features:
- Digitally re-mastered with restored image and sound.
- New and improved English subtitle translation.
Mother Joan of the Angels (1961)
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