Mother Joan of the Angels
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“If one can't be saint, it's better to be damned.”
Overview
We're delighted to present this beautifully restored version of Kawalerowicz's rarely screened (but hugely influential) Mother Joan of the Angels. Father Joseph Suryn (Mieczyslaw Voit) is the fifth priest to be dispatched to a remote convent— after the three before him tried without success to drive out the demons that have plagued the cloistered Sisters since the diabolical Father Garniec was burned at the stake for sexual temptation and depravity. The nuns are stricken with violent fits of convulsion, blasphemy, and hysteria and the abbess, Mother Joan, is said to be the most afflicted. Father Joseph takes on the role of investigator and exorcist, but as he struggles to understand Mother Joan's demons he finds himself under her spell.
Why You Should See This Film
Drawing from the same “Possession of Loudon” that inspired author Aldous Huxley's psychotronic The Devils of Loudon and Ken Russell's infamous The Devils, Mother Joan of the Angels is a very different beast. Jerzy Kawalerowicz was one of the leading figures of the post-war Polish Film School, and some have interpreted this work as a commentary on the schism in his homeland between their longstanding Catholic faith and the ruling Communist Party. Shot in stark high-contrast black and white with Kawalerowicz's signature geometric angular precision, this film won the 1961 Cannes Film Festival Grand Jury Prize and remains a moving and deeply humanistic exploration of constraint and desire.
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