女教徒1966

English Title: The Nun

Original Title: La religieuse

Year: 1966

Country: France

Language: French, Latin

Genre: Drama

Director: Jacques Rivette

Screenwriters: Jacques Rivette, Jean Gruault

based on the novel by Denis Diderot

Music: Jean-Claude Eloy

Cinematography: Alain Levent

Editing: Denise de Casabianca

Cast:

Anna Karina

Liselotte Pulver

Francine Bergé

Micheline Presle

Jean Martin

Francisco Rabal

Christian Lénier

Yori Bertin

Pierre Meyrand

Charles Millot

Marc Eyraud

Gilette Barbier

Wolfgang Reichmann

Michel Delahaye

Rating: 8.1/10

Catching Jacques Rivette’s THE NUN on the big screen pays great dividends, restored in its pristine luster, the film is among three films screened here in Shanghai to commemorate the diva of Nouvelle Vague, Anna Karina (1940-2018), another two are Godard’s VIVRE SA VIE (1962) and A WOMAN IS A WOMAN (1961).

Initially banned for its scathing anticlerical ridicule and opprobrium, THE NUN is an adaptation of Denis Diderot’s novel, and Rivette’s second full-length feature. During 135 minutes, it relates the story of Susanne Simonin (Karina), an 18-year-old girl of the mid-18 century, who is railroaded into nunhood by her bourgeois parents, because she is a bastard (a secret her mother tries to keep from her unwitting husband) and the family has no money left for her dowry, sending her to the Almighty’s calling seems to be the only option, although it is plain specious.

The crux is, for Susanne, devout as she is, she feels that she has never received the calling from God. Her eventual vow-taking ceremony is conspicuously omitted on the screen, and reckoning by the reactions of her mother (Lénier) and Mother Superior Mme de Moni (Presle, ever so graceful and compassionate), something is certainly amiss there. Later Susanne claims that she has no recollection of the ceremony, perhaps she was in a fugue, witnessed by many, that fact could have been graciously taken as a testimony of revoking her vows had the church assumed a more liberal attitude towards its devotees. So one can see that it is religious orthodoxy, not Catholic church itself is the fair game here.

Susanne possesses an innocuous, inexperienced soul, her idée fixe is that she cannot be cloistered in a convent because she is not qualified for that kind of devotion. She is not “enlightened”, neither secularly nor spiritually. When she is taken as the new favorite of the sapphic Mme de Chelles (Pulver), she is none the wiser to understand it is the carnal urge in the play (not until she is illuminated by the priest who listens to her confession, the “mansplaining” avant la lettre), nor could she survive in the secular world, as it is equally, if not more sinisterly, cloistered.

It is overt that the part after Susanne finally escapes from the convent is fast-tracked (encapsulated in less than 10 minutes), as if Rivette suddenly registers that time is running out. But previous to that, audience have undergone a Manichaean rollercoaster of a ride that segues from the high-handed oppression under a cold, stern, authoritative Sister Sainte Christine (Bergé), who succeeds Mme de Moni as the new abbess and cruelly persecutes Susanne for her recalcitrance, to the utter vivacity, chipper sorority stemmed from Mme de Chelles’s governance, like Susanne, we viewers also cannot believe our eyes, how mischievously cunning is Rivette to stage-manage such an about-face (including the modulation of its palettes) to taunt the church’s disparate improprieties!

Karina is at the top of her game here, grittily buckles down for Susanne’s ordeal and is most pathos-invoking in her heartfelt cri de coeur, bedraggled, miserable, baring her heart out and kneeling down to a ruthless superior. Bar Sister Sainte Christine, can any human being stay unaffected by such a soul-shattering emotional plea? That said, Karina’s brilliance is somehow dimmed when Pulver makes her appearance, her handsy Mme de Chelles is a delightful outlier of all the prior characters, an archetype of lesbian nun which would be vilified, mocked and exploited in lesser hands. Yet Pulver plays her with such a facility of earnestness that is in tandem with Mme de Chelles’ superficial frivolity and benevolence, and when her infatuation brings her downfall, our giggling slowly freezes and what gels is something less definitive, she is between the butt of a joke and a tragic figure tormented by her inner demons, Pulver is fantastic from A to Z. Concurrently, Karina’s Susanne takes a back seat as a perturbed virgin, like a scare-easy bird, her integrity is the sole lifeline she can hold on to, which foreshadows her denouement. Viewed today, Rivette’s exceedingly watchable cause célèbre is neither scandalous nor sacrilegious, if anything, it might aid to rectify the church’s abiding Procrustean canker.

referential entries: Rivette’s WOMEN DUELLING (1976, 7.3/10), CELINE AND JULIE GO BOATING (1974, 9.2/10); Luis Buñuel’s VIRIDIANA (1961, 8.2/10).

18世纪的很多贵族会把女儿送进修道院成为修女以保持女儿的贞操，这样在以后的联姻中可以保持或抬高身价。苏珊娜就在这样的背景下被母亲强制性的送到了修道院。但苏珊娜是悲惨的，虽然父母也是贵族但苏珊娜并不是他们亲生的，父母的亲生女儿是苏珊娜的姐姐，所以苏珊娜得不到任何遗产，而且家庭经济上的困难也是她被抛弃的原因之一。她恳求母亲不要遗弃她，但无论多么卑微的示弱和祈求都无法动摇母亲的意志。苏珊娜是善良的，她放弃了哀求。至此，她只剩下两条路：要么成为修女，要么无家可归。苏珊娜无可奈何的成为了修女，噩梦就此开始。

苏珊娜忍受不了宗教对自己身体和思想的禁锢，以及修道院压抑人性的氛围。她渴望自由，她奔腾的意志驱使她成为了修道院里的“坏孩子”。她迟到，晚归，缺席祷告，托朋友帮忙寻找生父生母，找律师试图用法律的手段让自己活得自由。这在教母眼中是不可原谅的，所以她被体罚，被其他修女排挤，唾弃，诬陷，殴打，被停止食物供给。在精神和肉体双重折磨下，奔腾的意志逐渐干枯。同时生母的来信告诉她生父已死，生母也生活窘迫，苏珊娜彻底失去了希望。在律师的帮助下，苏珊娜转移到了另一个修道院。新的教母对她非常友善，这种友善让苏珊娜感受到了久违的安全感，她开始变得平静顺从。可渐渐的这种友善和亲密开始越界。教母在与苏珊娜相处时有了很多亲昵的行为甚至要和苏珊娜一起睡觉，并且每时每刻都在缠着她。显然，教母是个同性恋。苏珊娜很害怕便把事情告诉了神父，神父在夜色下翻墙把苏珊娜偷偷救出了修道院。可苏珊娜都还没来得及感谢，神父突然变了个人似的企图强奸苏珊娜，在陌生人的帮助下，苏珊娜偷走了。她无家可归，无路可走，寄人篱下做着女佣的工作。又因为不好的名声被辞退。走投无路的她成为了街边的乞讨者，无意中被富婆看中，带着她参加了一个上流社会人士举办的淫乱酒会。苏珊娜面对眼前的一切和自己无望的生活，跳楼结束了自己凄惨的人生。

这是一部对宗教和人性进行猛烈批判的电影。整个故事都在压抑黑暗的氛围下行进。善良，单纯的苏珊娜在“上帝无处不在”的修道院里见识到了人性的黑暗，她忍受着上帝子民的傲慢和迫害。她如同尼采的化身用奔腾的意志证明上帝已死。

第12届#法罗岛电影节#无人知晓单元第8个放映日为大家带来《女教徒》，下面为大家带来前线痛苦修女们压迫无比的评价了！

墨夜轩：

如果后半段没有那么赶会更好。

RIVER：

结局是必然的结果，但通往这个终点的路走的太快了。

果树：

虽然拍法高级，但实在不是一个观赏起来很亲民的电影。

法罗岛帝国皇后：

宗教的权威性和强制性断绝了信仰的合理性，生意里金钱最重要，把主义做成生意，哪还有底线。

我们敏熙：

竟然是一部“快速电影”，剪辑干脆，细枝末节砍得一干二净，留白颇多。古典故事中注定毁灭的命运。

格系艺人：

压抑，绝望，镜头压迫着角色的同时也压迫着观众。导演的节奏越后面越赶，但与此同时绝望感愈加猛烈。

子夜无人：

从一个牢笼转移到另一个牢笼，人物始终挣扎在久远的禁闭中从而失去了时空性，在屏幕上反复出现了不断扑空摔倒在地的动作，像一种千锤百炼的拷问。清规戒律是酷刑，温柔呵护是觊觎，施以援手是占有欲，摆上台面是小玩意，唯有纵身一跃，才能了结循环往复的悲剧宿命，此生终于分明。

Bboard19920313：

雅克·里维特这个该死的导演一个猛子撞在我枪口上，上届《不羁的美女》我就已经对他没什么好印象了，哪知道这次竟然让我更加抓狂。他真的能把一个本来的无聊的故事讲的更叫无聊，没有了优美画作的本片让人更加难以忍受，外搭上演员一言难尽做作无比的“神级”表演，以及我今天真的很累很累，我宣布再也不看他的电影了。

#FIFF12#DAY8的无人知晓场刊评分将在稍后为大家释出，请大家拭目以待了。