3. Love Letters of a Portuguese Nun (1977)
15 year old Marie frolics innocently in the greenery with a young gentleman, unaware that there is an older gentleman spying on them. This man turns out to be Father Vincent, the priest of a convent. He takes her home to her poor (literally and metaphorically) mother to tell her he is taking Marie to his convent as she is a sinner and must repent. Naturally obeying the clergy as folk did in them days, Marie is packed off to the convent in shame. At the convent, Marie realises it is no place of God. Father Vincent masturbates loudly while she confesses. Turns out they are all a pack of Satanists - including the Mother Superior Alma. They force Marie to take part in a black mass where she is raped by the devil. Marie runs away and tells the town mayor about the diabolical goings on but he doesn't believe her and brings her back to the convent where she is deemed 'possessed by the devil', tortured and brought before the Grand Inquisitor who condemns her to be burned at the stake. Marie writes a letter to God explaining that she loves him and she was forced to do the devil's work. She floats the letter out the window and two noblemen on horses pick it up. As she is put on the stake, the noblemen and the Prince break up the farrago and save her. They order Father Vincent and the Mother Superior to be burned as heretics instead. The film ends as the army captures the disgraceful pair. I was quite impressed by Jess Franco's little naughty nun tale. It is very beautifully and appropriately scored as well as having relatively high production values for a Franco film. The setting is very opulent and the film looks classy. The actress who plays Marie - Susan Hemingway - is very young looking and convincing in her agony. There are naked nuns aplenty - lots of bare breasts and Franco's ever present pubic hair shots. The sex is mostly coercive apart from some lesbo-nun action. Marie is forced to perform fellatio on Father Vincent and have sex with the Devil. Franco produces a coherent narrative, which from him is quite a miracle. It is a straightforward story but Franco must have the mother of all grudges against the Catholic church, painting all of its adherents as corrupt deviants. The title is misleading. At no time does Marie write a love letter. The film should have been called The Agony of a Portuguese Nun. But kudos to Franco for this little number.