Review of Mother Joan of the Angels (1961)
A diligent priest goes to assist in an exorcism taking place at the French convent of Loudun in the early 17th century. Another priest has already been sentenced and burned outside the convent’s walls, but most of the nuns are still disturbed by demonic forces.
Dense auteur surrealism, based on a historical case of Christian hysteria. A potential seed of Andrei Rublev (1966) and The Exorcist (1973). For a film about poorly repressed sexuality and hysterical murder it’s beautifully subtle, with an amazing exterior location.