Review of Flavia, the Heretic

I first read about this "Nunsploitation" effort – considered among the most extreme of its type (infamously featuring a scene in which a naked girl climbs inside the hanging carcass of a cow!) – in the Leslie Halliwell Film Guide, but became even more interested in checking it out in the wake of online reviews for the R1 DVD from Synapse. However, I somehow never got around to acquiring it – chiefly because the print included was English-dubbed…though, in retrospect, that's what the actors are speaking (with leading lady Florinda Bolkan providing her own voice). Then, just last week – coincidentally, on the very same day I acquired an even more obscure entry within the same genre (albeit of a much-filmed source i.e. THE NUN OF MONZA [1969]) – I stumbled upon a copy of FLAVIA itself and, at this stage, I simply could not let the opportunity pass me by. The film's reputation for gory depictions of carnage and torture was not exaggerated but, seeing how these scenes are part and parcel of its unflinching portrayal of the Middle Ages (stunningly shot in earthen tones by Alfio Contini), they do not feel gratuitous or sensationalistic; besides, the whole comes wrapped in an evocatively beautiful soundtrack courtesy of future Oscar-winner Nicola Piovani. Bolkan, able to convey much without the benefit of dialogue, is impressive as ever: she convinces in her character's every facet (including donning a soldier's armor), and this is possibly her signature role. Maria Casares (best-known for playing Death in Jean Cocteau's ORPHEUS [1950]) is animated and uninhibited, despite her time-ravaged looks a' la Alida Valli: for the record, I thought she would be playing the convent's obligatory stern Mother Superior but is actually the one to inspire Flavia towards rebellion. Claudio Cassinelli appears as a Jew befriended by the heroine, whereas Anthony Corlan (later Higgins) – of Hammer's 1972 outing VAMPIRE CIRCUS – is the young leader of the Muslim invaders (none of whom look remotely Arabic!) aiding the heroine in accomplishing her male/Christian-hating campaign…until she rejects marriage and conversion to his own religion. While having undeniably greater significance and scope than most films of its ilk (though the expected hysterical writhing is still present in the form of a wandering sect afflicted by the bite of a tarantula!), plot development is curiously lacking here – which, coupled with the trademark deliberate pacing of the "Euro-Cult" style, makes for an altogether muddled (if never less than interesting) affair. An unexpected touch involves fantasy sequences showing various religious paintings come to life, often as a result of the nuns' (typical) sexual repression. Naturally, we get plenty of nudity and, for violent highlights, anything from numerous beheadings, the castration of a horse(!), rape, sodomy, cannibalism, boiling oil being poured on a girl's naked body, nipple-slashing, impaling and skinning alive is the order of the day! One final thing: viewers of the Synapse edition had regretted the lack of a trailer on that disc; incidentally, a German one has been made available among the extras accompanying the X-Rated Kult R2 DVD of the afore-mentioned THE NUN OF MONZA