Synopsis

Around 1750, a girl is forced against her will to take vows as a nun. Three mothers superior treat her in radically different ways, ranging from maternal concern, to sadistic persecution, to lesbian desire.

When she asks to renounce her vows, she finds herself caught in a fatal trap.

A 1966 French drama film directed by Jacques Rivette from a screenplay he co-wrote with Jean Gruault, based on the novel of the same title by Denis Diderot.



Cast: Anna Karina, Liselotte Pulver, Micheline Presle, Francine Bergé, Francisco Rabal, Yori Bertin, Danielle Palmero, Catherine Diamant, Christiane Lenier, Wolfgang Reichmann


Due to its sensitive depictions of high-authority Catholic figures, the film was petitioned against by an outraged public ahead of its completion in 1965, as well as condemned by the Catholic church.

The film was twice approved for release by the Censorship Board and both times blocked by the Minister of Information, Yvon Bourges, thus effectively banning the film temporarily from a theatrical release. Mention of the ban was itself banned on French TV.

Elliott Stein, an American journalist living in Paris, reported in the British film magazine Sight and Sound that “Le Monde ran a day-to-day feature, 'L’Affaire de La Religieuse,’ to which one opened as if to a daily horoscope or weather report".

Finally, in 1966, after a year of acrimony, the Minister of Culture André Malraux allowed "La Religieuse" to be shown at the Cannes Film Festival, where it received critical acclaim and a nomination for the Golden Palm Award. The praise allowed for a theatrical release in France, where it was met with much anticipation, despite earlier sentiment towards the subject matter. The film would go on to have a theatrical release in the United States in 1971.