[Immagini di un convento]
(1979/ITALY)
Review By-Kit Gavin Directed by Joe D’Amato [Aristide Masseccesi] Starring Paola Senatore, Marina Hedman [a.k.a. Marina Frajese], Paola Maiolini, Maria Rosaria Riuzzi, and Donal O’Brien Source: Exploitation Digital /Media Blasters (DVD NTSC Region 1)
Something strange is happening in and around a convent in 17th century Italy. Sister Marta [Frajese] is approached by the gardener telling her that something is wrong, and the wrong seems to be emanating from a statue in the ground of the convent. The statue is that of a satyr, presumably representing the Roman god Pan, the god of revelry and mischief. The statue, it turns out, was taken from a pagan temple, upon which the convent was built. Meanwhile, inside the convent, the Mother Superior agrees to welcome into the fold of the convent, a young noblewoman Isabella di Lignate, who clearly has no interest in taking her vows or the veil. Isabella’s father has asked that Isabella be sequestered within the convent walls to protect her from corruption from her supposedly cruel uncle, Don Ascanio. In fact it turns out that Isabella secretly has incestuous desires for her uncle, keeping an image of him by her bedside, including a protracted sequence where Isabella fantasies that her uncle is ravishing her, whilst in fact she is being crudely touched up by one of the young nuns, Sister Lacania [Maiolini]. Isabella taunts the older Mother Superior upon their initial meeting bearing her breasts to her in defiance. Sister Marta discovers the younger nun and savagely whips her in the cellar before licking her wounds and vagina. Later, the nuns discover a wounded artist, a handsome young man by the name of Guido Bencio, in the convent grounds whom they choose to nurse back to health. Sister Marta is raped in the forest by bandits. Gradually nursing the stranger, whom she demands to see, Isabella also enlists the help of the two nuns [Riuzzi, Maiolini] by threatening them with blackmail, to help her escape. The demonic statue appears in the chapel whilst the nuns are praying to the horror of the Mother Superior. Whereupon, shortly afterwards, the convent enters into a wild sexual frenzy, with the nuns engaging in wild bouts of masturbation and lesbian couplings with each other. Padre Arnaldo, a preacher is called to perform an exorcism in order to purify the convent and purge it of the evil within. Isabella discovers that not all is as it seems with the young man she has her designs on.
Other than two releases in Greece (one softcore, one – and more difficult to locate – hardcore), and a domestic release in Italy, IMAGES IN A CONVENT has been one of the more difficult nunsploitation releases to locate, other than through the Grey market with iffy transfers ported from the original releases on videocassette. Also, it seems unlikely that an English language print of the film will surface, if one was actually prepared (which seems more than likely but is presumably lost), hence this release in the original Italian language.
IMAGES IN A CONVENT is somewhat more restrained than the forays into hardcore that D’Amato was starting to make. In fact IMAGES was made before D’Amato’s torrid XXX Caribbean series most of would feature an attractive black local girl called Lucia Ramirez in a series of no-holds barred hardcore sexual encounters, from oral sex, masturbation, full penetrative sex to a bizarre scenario which involved de-cocking a champagne bottle. Here D’Amato utilized the "talents" of mainly Italian girls (including two actresses whom he had worked with previously in non-hard roles (Maiolini, Riuzzi) and Marina Hedman Frajese (a.k.a. Marina Hedman / Bellis / Chantall / Frajese – and various permutations thereof), a mature Swedish beauty who had commenced her porno career in D’Amato’s notorious EMANUELLE IN AMERICA and would become one of Italy’s leading ladies of the hardcore scene.
The plotline is hardly original and the storyline is thin and patchy at best, though spiced up with sex scenes which, to an extent, interferes with the pacing of the film. Not that it especially matters with a film such as this. Some of the ideas also contained in the story involve much suspension of disbelief, such as the convent keeping a pagan statue in its grounds. Statues of satyrs were supposedly (and frequently figure in the novels of Dennis Wheatley) the embodiment of evil and would feature in the gardens of Satanic covens. Another example is that of the suggestion that Isabella might convert to being a nun despite having no "calling". Despite this, and if IMAGES IN A CONVENT is to be taken at face value for what it is, the film holds up as being enjoyable gutter entertainment, with gratuitous helpings of female flesh and some quite graphic steamy sex moments along the way. All of the shapely actresses, with only one displaying what may or may not cosmetic enhancements, readily disrobe for the camera some of whom are more willing and uninhibited than others, but none appear genuinely uncomfortable with events they are participating in. Indeed the actresses look and appear more at ease, more natural and wholesome than most of the "actresses" in the modern day adult entertainment sphere. The one disturbing scene is that of the rape of Sister Marta, as played by Hedman, where she is stripped and raped in the woods by passing bandits. Hedman was becoming no stranger to hardcore, and indeed the semi-erect bandit who rapes her is considerably well endowed as the viewer will see when he lowers his pants to rape her, yet there are no close-ups of the act of penetration (bizarrely given the endowment of the actor involved). However shortly afterwards he forces her to suck his flaccid and considerably smaller penis. There are close ups of some of the actresses pudenda in the plentiful masturbation scenes, such as when the attractive Riuzzi plays with herself, and when a nun is masturbated in close up with a wooden dildo (which mirrors a similar scene in the late Polish director Walarian Borowczyk’s BEHIND CONVENT WALLS. Paola Senatore, although seasoned in erotic films, chooses to keep her gropings and sex scenes quite restrained by comparison, to just nudity and pubic hair, as her last foray into erotica with D’Amato had caused her to be charged with obscenity and to pay a hefty fine to the Italian authorities.
Another contributing factor to the mood and atmosphere of the piece that elevates it above most tawdry hardcore offering is that of the score by Nico Fidenco, who had provided the music for the Black Emanuelle series, with lively and upbeat catchy songs. Here, however his music is more eerie, subdued and captures the mood of the movie well. One of the more atmospheric tracks plays over the title menu for the dvd in fact. D’Amato also contributes some fine photography and it is easy to see his roots as a cinematographer who lensed such fine films as Dallamano’s WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO SOLANGE? However, despite the fact that IMAGES IN A CONVENT is essentially a porno film, D’Amato’s masterful and intelligent camera work shines through. Indeed, all of the Black Emanuelle series, together with IMAGES and the Caribbean sex films are well shot and composed. It is only after 1980 when Masseccesi starting shooting hardcore in earnest (to make money) with actors like Mark Shannon in couplings with ugly actresses like Laura Levi, Guia Lauri Filzi and Pauline Teutscher did he seem to lose interest, and only really focused his cinematography on non porno films. In the film under review, there are plentiful well composed and set up shots. Though there at times seem to be almost extreme close ups of female private parts (similar in style, to Radley Metzger’s films under the pseudonym of Henry Paris), the sex scenes are well shot and composed if a little awkward at times for those seeking more explicit action.
There is sufficient softcore moments with furtive touchings of pubic hair, occasionally delving lower, with actresses showing their pudenda (as opposed to inserts of other actresses), but it is actually shot in a rather tasteful way, with a slightly voyeuristic edge. There are a few moments of "hardcore". Both of the main scenes, but by no means all, involve the presence of still "pre-fame" hardcore actress Marina Hedman [Frajese], one shows her masturbating another nun in quite an erotic sense. The other is a rather nasty rape sequence where she is forced to give a blowjob whilst being assaulted. The aforementioned scene of the nun and the dildo, takes place during the exorcism of the convent, when all the nuns are engaging in all out frantic sexual activity. Nearly all of the couplings are lesbian touchings and lickings between the nuns. There is the cliché whipping scene culminating with the victim being tenderly caressed by her perpetrator. One sex scene actually has the nuns keeping their habits on whilst engaging in a 69 with teasing glimpses of flesh and private parts. The one non-lesbian scene which goes beyond softcore is the rape scene with Hedman and the bandits. The scene is anything but erotic, and thankfully quite brief. The most modest of the actresses however is the film’s star, Paola Senatore, who never gets involved in anything too heavy other than the softcore scenes which she had participated in. IMAGES IN A CONVENT also provided the beautiful Senatore, a natural redhead, would appear as a platinum blonde in SALON KITTY, and a brunette here and in Umberto Lenzi’s EATEN ALIVE, with one of her first oppurtunities as a leading lady. Ultimately, just over a decade later, Senatore would appear and perform in her one hardcore effort, before leaving the movie scene all together. By that time, sadly, Senatore had a serious drug addiction to heroin as well, and has subsequently vanished without trace.
Other performances in the film are as good as can expected, even though the characters are rudimentary and thankless as they barely stretch the actors talents nor abilities, other than, for the most part, to writhe around naked and appear in sex scenes. Donal O’Brien, best remembered for his role in DOCTOR BUTCHER (a.k.a. ZOMBIE HOLOCUAST) and D’Amato’s EMANUELLE AND THE LAST CANNIBALS the year previous, appears as the preacher turned exorcist (who happens upon the deflowered Hedman in the woods). He is suitably entertaining in his short role here, determined to rid the convent of the demons and rampant sexuality therein. The pouty Hedman plays well as Sister Marta, leading her cohort of attractive nuns into the ways of the flesh, having supposedly been possessed. Maiolini also turned up in a small role in SALON KITTY as well as in EMANUELLE AROUND THE WORLD, and Riuzzi had a brief but uncredited, memorable role as the attractive blonde disco dancer in EMANUELLE’S REVENGE. The handsome temptor, Angelo Arquila, who may or may not be the Devil, is somewhat miscast here, looking very much a product of the mid 1970’s as opposed to the 1770’s hen this film is supposedly set.
The inspiration/source behind IMAGES IN A CONVENT [i.e. La Religeuse] was later reused by D’Amato for CONVENT OF SINNERS, starring Eva Grimaldi, however the two movies play as completely different entries and it is difficult to see how the two can be tied into the same source. CONVENT OF SINNERS plays like a more erotic film with very loose tie-ins with Mario Mazzuccelli’s The Nun of Monza, whereas IMAGES IN CONVENT plays more like a porno film with an exorcism/horror angle thrown in. Indeed, despite the skimpier storyline, IMAGES is the better film of the two not least due the more attractive leading lady. It is also one of the more interesting nunsploitation entries, not playing to the standard "women in prison" but set in a convent format. Some viewers might find it overlong, but for fans of the nunsploitation genre, the film delivers in spades.
Owing to the cheap film stock which IMAGES IN A CONVENT was shot on, Media Blasters (under their Exploitation Digital banner) have done a fine job. The film was shot, it seems, in comparative soft focus, quite in contrast to the harsh light that D’Amato shot his latter day porno films in. Indeed, the Exploitation Digital label Media Blasters set up as an off-shoot from it’s Shriek Show label, has been gradually bringing out some of the more daring and exploitative films which most companies wouldn’t release (such as THE BEAST IN HEAT and Sergio Garrone’s too SS exploitation movies) and now IMAGES IN A CONVENT. Media Blasters should be commended for their gall, in some of the titles they are choosing to release, some of the sleazier "rich pickings" still out there and available. IMAGES IN A CONVENT, contrary to the packaging however, is not presented in an anamorphic format, so purists be aware. Reportedly there is a missing scene of one of the nuns masturbating in front of the demonic statue which appears in her room. This excision seems bizarre as everything else seems intact in this release. The atmospheric music track is clear and crisp yet it seemed the dialogue was somewhat muffled. Senatore seems to be dubbing her own voice, and all of the actors seem to be speaking in Italian as opposed to English.
Media Blasters have chosen to release IMAGES IN A CONVENT in a double disc set with the majority of the extras to be found on the second disc. Yet despite this being a double disc set, Media Blasters have wisely chosen not to increase the price to reflect this, where some companies have previously chosen to do so. The first disc includes a trailer for the main feature, which looks as if it was created in-house. There are other trailers – D’Amato’s PORNO HOLOCAUST (with most of the hardcore moments excised), the bland YELLOW EMANUELLE, and SS EXPERIMENT CAMP and THE BEAST IN HEAT. All of these have been released under the Exploitation Digital banner. The second disc however contains the main principal extras. First off, there are yet more trailers. There are an (un)healthy selection of D’Amato directed films, including Media Blasters’ releases such as BEYOND THE DARKNESS, as well as offerings such as CALIGULA 2, ORGSMO NERO and the wonderfully incoherent DEATH SMILES ON A MURDERER. Also included are trailers from D’Amato’s production house, Filmirage (here called The Film Mirage) – which includes the lamentable HITCHER IN THE DARK and KILLING BIRDS (both released through Media Blasters). The principal extras however is the documentary Joe D’Amato: Uncut – which was released by Nocturno, seven years ago, which is an extended on-camera interview with D’Amato, laughing and smoking whilst discussing the highlights of his adult movie making exploits/career. Also included are numerous clips from his extensive catalog of films including some moments of hardcore sex scenes thrown in. The documentary seems to be transferred (of lifted would probably be more accurate) however from a videocassette which means the quality is slightly below standard, but none the less it is a welcome inclusion. It also has English subtitles (removable) for viewers unfamiliar with the Italian language. D’Amato speaks with affection about his collaborations with Laura Gemser, and talks of some of the actresses he worked with, such as Sirpa Lane and Ajita Wilson. Also included are some of D’Amato’s earliest films in the 1970’s which have never been seen in English language, and hardly seen out of Italy since the early 70’s. Some of the footage in the documentary turned up on Blue Underground’s EMANUELLE IN AMERICA DVD a few years ago, as well as excerpts here and there on Kult X–Rated’s releases in their Joe D’Amato Collection. However this is not the complete documentary, as none of D’Amato’s non-adult work is included herein.
There is also a stills gallery, most surprising is that none of the lobbycards nor original posters are used to illustrate the gallery. However there is a series of girly pics of the attractive Marina Frajese (taken from an Italian edition of Playboy in 1977) and various pictures of Paola Senatore, who did frequent pictorials in girly mags in Italy – but oddly enough none of which are included here. Still, a nice little inclusion which fits in snugly with all the bared flesh in the main feature. Given her not soon after appearances in countless hardcore features, Frajese never appeared in any hardcore spreads in magazines.
In conclusion, one of the better entries into the Italian nunsploitation genre, and certainly one of D’Amato’s more interesting and enjoyable hardcore films, outside of the Black Emanuelle cycle of films. Admirers of Euro-smut should relish the fact that this film has been released on DVD and in such a nice (though somewhat grainy at times and soft) print. And with clear and easy to read subtitles (even during the aforementioned rape scene (!!)). IMAGES IN A CONVENT is an unexpected treat, a squalid dirty mack brigade treat but a treat nonetheless. Nudity plays topbilling and the film is gore-free, D’Amato gorehounds are advised to pick up BEYOND THE DARKNESS made the following year. However, for the film under review, this is one film which I never thought would see light of day on DVD, and although far from a lost masterpiece of erotica, is a worthy addition for fans of 1970’s Italian exploitation. Kudos go to Media Blasters for this release, a marked improvement in quality and care over some of their previous, at times haphazard, releases where quality control didn’t seem to count. A final word of forewarning to potential buyers, the film will not be to everyone’s tastes, and may be overlong and boring to some viewers, but if your palette is sufficiently corrupted over the years, it is an important but not essential purchase for your collection.
Story \ Film: 2.5 / 5 BITCH SLAPS Picture: 3 / 5 BITCH SLAPS Audio: 3.5/ 5 BITCH SLAPS Extras: 3 / 5 BITCH SLAPS Overall: 3 / 5 BITCH SLAPS You can purchase this from X-Ploited Cinema
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