5. Nunsploitation
Nunsploitation is the term applied to a group of films which feature nuns that are not of the holy ilk. These nuns are lascivious, immoral and devious in their behaviour - exposing the hypocrisy of the Church - indeed, most Nunsploitation films have a strong anti-clerical agenda. This is best seen in Flavia the Heretic in which the titular Flavia revolts against the pain and oppression she has endured in a nunnery and joins a crowd of Muslim Soldiers with the intent of destroying the Church. Most Nunsploitation movies get their inspiration from Ken Russell's The Devil - a tale of unrequited love between a charismatic, liberal Priest - Father Grandier - and his obsessed nun admirer - Sister Jeanne, who when she hears of him taking part in a marriage ceremony with a woman, cracks up with jealousy and accuses him of witchcraft. There is much capering with nuns losing the plot and having wild naked orgies. Grandier gets charged on spurious claims of witchcraft and he is tortured and burned at the stake. At the end, Sister Jeanne can be seen masturbating with a charred bone of Grandier's. The Devils is a monumentally important film - not just due to censorship issues but also because of its treatment of clerical power and abuse (Cardinal Richlieu puts an appearance in at the beginning of the film). The films that were inspired by The Devils are a lot softer and less political. Walerian Borowycz painted a portrait of rampant naughty nuns in Behind Convent Walls. There was not a great deal of political commentary in the film but there was plenty of nude nuns and kinky sex. The most fun within the nunsploitation genre came in the guise of Sister Gertrude in Killer Nun. Anita Ekberg cheerfully chews the scenery up with her portrait of a depraved, morphine addicted, perverted nun. Gertrude goes about terrorising the patients of the geriatric hospital where she works - forcing them to exercise and reading gruesome details of the saints' deaths to her elderly congregation. The film has a fantastic sinister soundtrack and is an absolute hoot to watch. Nuns have been part of Japanese exploitation cinema since the early 1970s. I must confess that I didn't know about this particular streak of Japanese perversion until fairly recently. Shame on me! Particularly popular Japanese nunsploitation include School of the Holy Beast and Sister Lucia's Dishonour. With such scope for both the sacred and the profane in nunsploitation, it will always be a titillating, kinky sub genre for film makers to explore.