Oliver Reed tops a lot of lists for me insofar as crazy, incredible to watch actors who I will watch about anything they are in. And Vanessa Redgrave is in this and it is directed by Ken Russell!
I'm starting out energetic here for a reason, which is that mainly this movie is very slow, but I'm also going to include the extremity, because it's also extreme. I don't really know how to encapsulate it really, it's a bit all over the place, and fits in well with Tommy, also directed by Russell, and also a film I didn't exactly love.
What is hard about all of this stuff going on, is that at a certain point I very much wonder: What exactly is happening? I know that I may cling too desperately to the concept of "plot" but really....honestly...what the fuck is happening in this movie again?
From the onset we have Oliver Reed as a thoroughly corrupt and repugnant priest who is fucking his nuns and bathing in sin basically. He is living the very definition of the idea that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. He is brought to a new convent where the nuns all want to fuck him, and he begins to want this too when he meets Madeleine, a nun who wants him all to herself, and he falls in love with her.
This is where I begin to lose track of things basically. Since he is desired by all the nuns and in love with one, he isn't fucking the others, who get encouraged to express their sexuality in other ways, and slowly fall into depravity and sexuality, getting all hot and bothered in every conceivable way. But the why of this remains, and in the "real life story" this is based on, I'm going to read more, but basically the priest was accused of witchcraft, and in this he is too, but there is no witchcraft or even suggestions of it... so... why?
Oliver Reed is his ethereal, otherworldly self, full of enigmatic appeal and energy, completely transfixing in this role. The other actors are all excellent as well, and the film is certainly different and challenging, I just find it hard to enjoy when it moves so colossally slow. Once the insanity reaches it's breaking point you still have like 50 minutes left!
I am maybe nitpicking. The sexuality in this movie is extreme, and it was censored for like 40 years. The nun sex is crazy shit, and this borders Salo in terms of boundary pushing. The whole end is really great actually, and extreme is not a strong enough word.
I'm conflicted on it, but one thing is certain: the 70s is my favorite era in film, and it's because of movies like this. This is unlike anything made since, and I wish that this sort of this was still around. I will give it 4 stars.
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