Nuns in Cinema: From Melodrama to Nunsploitation

We’ll look at ten films spanning melodrama, arthouse cinema, horror, Pinky Violence, Roman Porno and nunsploitation Why are nuns such extraordinarily potent figures in cinema? From The Sound of Music (1965) to Nude Nuns with Big Guns (2010), the cinematic nun has appeared in almost every conceivable form: saintly and sinful, repressed and ecstatic, comic and terrifying, obedient and rebellious. Yet beneath these transformations lies a recurring contradiction. The nun represents restraint, discipline and devotion, while becoming a figure through which cinema explores desire, sexuality, violence, hysteria and transgression. This is also a profoundly gendered cinematic convention. “The nun” is not simply a representation of religious life, but a fantasy projected onto a particular kind of female subject: a woman whose sexuality is supposedly restrained, whose body is disciplined and whose life is enclosed by religious authority. Cinema repeatedly turns this figure into a site where the supposedly opposed forces of devotion and desire, the Apollonian and the Dionysian, collide. In this Exploding Appendix, we’ll look at ten films spanning melodrama, arthouse cinema, horror, Pinky Violence, Roman Porno and nunsploitation: • Black Narcissus (1947), Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger • Mother Joan of the Angels (1961), Jerzy Kawalerowicz • The Nun (1966), Jacques Rivette • The Devils (1971), Ken Russell • Flavia the Heretic (1974), Gianfranco Mingozzi • School of the Holy Beast (1974), Norifumi Suzuki • Alucarda (1977), Juan López Moctezuma • Behind Convent Walls (1978), Walerian Borowczyk • Nun in Rope Hell (1984) Katsuhiko Fujii • Dark Habits (1983), Pedro Almodóvar [Some Films may change on the actual night] From the psychological melodrama of Black Narcissus to the ecstatic horror of Alucarda, we’ll trace how this contradiction changes as the nun moves between genres — and ask what happens when a figure of associated with religious restraint becomes one of cinema's great images of excess. To coincide with the re-release of Ken Russell's The Devils in its definitive restored version, we'll also consider the film's place within this longer history. The newly restored version, which received its world premiere at Cannes Classics in 2026, is being released in UK and Irish cinemas on 30th October — just days before our event. From melodrama to horror, from devotion to transgression, from the convent to exploitation cinema, this is an exploration of why cinema keeps returning to the figure of “the nun” — and what this recurring fantasy of the religious woman tells us about our ideas of religion, gender, sexuality, repression and desire. The session will also serve as a preamble and research for our film challenge on 24th November, Le triangle (三角形). Content note: The films discussed include depictions of religious persecution, violence, sexuality and eroticised restraint. Some material may be disturbing. The session will include selected film clips and still images, including imagery of bondage. We will not be screening the films in full, and any particularly intense material will be introduced in advance. Image:Giuliana Calandra in the 1973 nunsploitation film Story of a Cloistered Nun Session details Session Lead: Bradley Tuck In Person: Southern Belle, 3, Waterloo Street, Hove. The back room. The venue is not wheelchair accessible. There's one step to access the back room where the session is taking place. Click to join On Zoom Meeting ID: 872 7950 0186 Passcode: 363292 Time: 6:30 pm Doors. Start 7:00 pm-9:30 pm.If for some reason you can't make it and you already bought a ticket, please release it so others can come to the event. You can also email us at [email protected] for any inquiries. – Our Website Our Instagram Our Facebook