An offbeat mixture of art-house weirdness and sleazy exploitation, I found this to be a highly unappealing movie. I for one am not a fan of art-house cinema in general - maybe I just don't 'get' it, but I find much of it boring, and the same is true for this movie. Personally I was expecting some sleazy horror film in the vein of KILLER NUN or THE OTHER HELL, but instead I got a lame art movie with nothing going on.Sure, the direction of Walerian Borowczyk (what a name to go to bed with!) is unconventional and stylish, but this movie just doesn't go anywhere. Instead we have endless scenes of seduction, intrigue and the like and a few spotty deaths, and we're supposed to care? The strict uniform that the nuns wear mean that it's difficult to distinguish between them, not that you would care to either. The sexual side of the film means that there's a lot of nudity (for instance, one nun likes to do nude aerobics!) and sex scenes, which were unappealing to a fan looks for thrills of a different sort like myself. Only the organ music playing on the soundtrack is really distinctive. Otherwise, give this art-house bore a miss.

Walerian Borowczyk's contribution to the nunsploitation genre, shot, mostly hand-held, by the extraordinary cinematographer Luciano Tavoli who expertly uses authentic locations(and, not to mention, his impeccable use of light) exceptionally well.Debauchery and carnal desires, yearnings of the flesh, a lust which defiles the very soul, in director Walerian Borowczyk's BEHIND CONVENT WALLS young nuns, blossoming into women with burgeoning hormones and sexual appetites appeased by the order, educated by their superiors in the church to remain loyal to their "spouse", Jesus Christ.Promiscuous, chatty, talking over each other, loud and playful, these are girls buried away into a repressive, reclusive environment, where the older nuns go through their things, nosy busybodies trying in every way possible to eliminate any outside world influence which might "coerce them to sin." Blasphemous, Sacrilegious satire includes one young nun whose obsessive love for Jesus borders on the absurdly sexual as she masturbates herself with a wooden dildo with Christ's drawn face at the end(she uses a mirror so she can see his face!)...not to mention that she prays to him in the nude! This nun, Sister Clara, with her unhealthy devotion to Christ, allows herself to be erotically drawn to Father Confessor's artist nephew, Rodrigo(known for his pious portraits which don't sell as well as other works). Sister Martina loves a fellow named Silva and is coerced by Sister Lucretia in spiking the Mother Superior's tea with an opiate! Clara considers Mother Superior(and her damned black cane)of being the anti-Christ because she interrupted a "session with her Savior". The confessions can be so lurid, as in the case of Clara, that Father Confessor has to wipe his brow constantly of sweat! In regards to the dreaded black cane, it's actually a sword in a case for which the Mother Superior uses to stab beds looking for provocative materials. Sister Veronica cuts her hands while intensely grasping roses creating bloody wounds having her believe she has stigmata! One nun collects flower petals she keeps in her front drawer. One nun is pregnant, her punishment being that she's not allowed to say Hail Marys out loud or keep her window open. One nun gorges herself on grapes. Another loves her violin, fighting Mother Superior with all her might when she attempts to take the musical instrument away as punishment for playing non-religious music(the violin is later used as a "pleasure device"). All this in one convent shows that no matter how hard you try to keep sin from young women hidden away from the world, the craving for pleasure and ecstasy finds it's way to the flesh. Clara, who had dedicated so much to Christ, gives herself over to Rodrigo who introduces her to the joys of oral bliss.I imagine director Walerian Borowczyk was enjoying himself, showing this convent evolving into essentially a den of hedonism and depravity. It gets serious(well, probably meant as humorous considering Borowczyk's stance towards the Catholic Church) when, because the door to the convent was opened, the Mother Superior winds up dead from the opiate put in her tea to keep her asleep so the nuns could conduct themselves in whatever way they so pleased. By the end, three nuns are dead, one is responsible for the poison which killed them(and for opening the convent door which produced the final result), and a cardinal is covered in the blood of a raving Sister Veronica blaming him for the crucifixion of Christ..this nunsploit is quite a wild ride. I noticed in a documentary of this movie that the masturbation-wooden dildo scene is cut from most prints..purists may want to seek this Cult Epics release out for the official version.

This movie isn't sure where it belongs. In part it is a well-realized historical period picture based on a novel by Stendahl. The photography is very fine, as are the settings and costumes.Then it's also a movie that exists for the many opportunities to show nuns and novices without clothing, often involved in some sort of sexual activity. A somewhat trite them runs through this level, something about the unnatural state of confinement and the irresistible need for pleasure that nuns must feel. So we see kissing and fondling and masturbation with a hand-carved dildo and several tasteful scenes of copulation with men. The corollary theme is that sexual deprivation in women produces either a grimly authoritarian repression—the abbess (Gabriela Giacobbe) who carries a cane with a concealed sword she uses to find contraband in the bedding—or madness, as in the case of the nun who is convinced Jesus has taken her to bed and whose rose-thorn wounds she represents as stigmata. Or in the case of one of the main characters, Sister Clara (Ligia Branice), who begins the story as a truly devout nun, but in the last twenty minutes she seeks out the handsome artist Rodrigo (Howard Ross) and has ecstatic sex in the convent courtyard, crying out phrases that mirror the devotional language she's used earlier as a mystical bride of Christ. Then, inexplicably, she is mad, exposing herself with defiant, mocking, leering words and laughter to the priest, and then she is dead of the same poison that killed the abbess, as is the other nun, Sister Martina (Loredano Martínez), who'd been having sex with the virile male helper Silva (Alessandro Partexano) and who gave the abbess the poison she thought was just opium useful for mellowing her out a little, and opened the door for her lover as well. The cardinal, Clara's uncle, arrives and prays for assistance in ensuring that no word of this business will go beyond the convent walls, and he flashes a wicked grin. The nun earlier shown in late pregnancy smiles a different smile as she nurses her newborn baby; it is typical of the contradictions of this movie that the abbess, so firmly opposed to all forms of carnality, is kind to the pregnant nun.The third element derives from making the film a vehicle for Ligia Branice, who happened to be married to the director. She has a striking, tapered face, with wide-set eyes and a generous mouth. Somehow she manages to acquire more and more exaggeratedly sexy make-up as the movie progresses. Her range as an actor is limited, however. She does fine as a quiet, devout nun, but as a lover and a madwoman she grimaces and chews the scenery, as they say, looking a little like a slim female impersonator trying to mimic Sophia Loren at fever pitch. She's much better than she is in Blanche, but she's still the weakest part of the film.

I've watched quite a number of so called "Nunsploitation" or "Convent Erotica" movies and at least eight of Walerian Borowczyk's erotic escapades and I think that "Interno di un Convento" aka "Behind the Convent Walls", truly deserves the term "Art-House Movie". In my opinion, it has to be considered one of the few artistic peaks, among the several dozens stinkers (mainly purely exploitative), which crowded European screens, during the '70 and '80s. The director shows us here more then a glimpse of his cinematic genius, crafting a little movie on a "shoestring budged", full of mesmerizing images and sounds. The cinematography (the movie seems almost entirely shot on a hand-held camera and in natural light) is simply gorgeous. Streams of bright sunlight flow towards the viewers from the background windows of beautiful Renaissance settings, creating dream-like visuals, in which the bodies of the female interpreters, quite often involved in steamy erotic games, appear almost floating weightlessly at mid air. By the way, Marina Pierro as "Sister Veronica" and Ligia Branice as "Sister Clara", are unbelievably beautiful even in (or half out) their rough monastic robes. The Mediaeval harpsichord, violin and organ scores, which underline the most climatic sequences, provide the proper musical frame for this dark tale of forbidden love affairs, sacrilegious erotic rituals, psychological and physical abuse and murder. The movie has a few dull moments where it seems that it is going nowhere, but then it gets back on track with a few pleasant surprises. There are two sequences which, personally, I consider among the most outstanding of the whole picture. The first begins with a flock of nuns busy cleaning up and decorating the chapel using straws of red carnations. Suddenly one of them, practicing on her violin, strikes a few musical notes of what seems to be a very lively tune. This attracts the attention of all the other nuns, who start looking at her in great expectation...Encouraged by her sisters, she strikes another series of notes, which immediately originates giggling of approval from the audience... Another nun joins right in playing the organ and they both start an improvised duet playing a very captivating "pagan" tune. Like stricken by a sudden electric discharge, the nuns immediately forget all about their work duties. The whole Sisterhood improvises a party and start dancing and jumping around happy and thoughtlessly. The camera jumps right in the middle of this improvised party, cavorting around with the nuns, by means of circular dancing movements at the rhythm of the music. It's an amazing apotheosis of flying black veils, black gowns, white undergarment and red carnations... You can almost feel the sense of relieve of the poor nuns, who get carried away in a temporary escape from the frustration of their austere and mortifying living routine. The other sequence is the one everybody who has seen the movie, obviously talks about... It's probably the only really explicit and graphic scene of the whole movie, but I think that the way it has been shot and directed, makes this sequence beautiful and not disturbing. Borowczyk unveils here the deepest roots of his erotic fantasies. He shows us a nun deeply (and desperately) in love with Christ. Spiritual love is not sufficient for her; her repressed senses demand to be also physically possessed by him. She reaches her objective, with the help of a home-made wooden dildo, with a Christ-like face painted on one end and a mirror...and a big deal of imagination. WOW! Definitely eroticism at his peak and definitely... not a movie for everyone! I give this one an (enthusiastic) 8 out of 10.