Page 138 - Alternative Europe Eurotrash and Exploitation Cinema Since 1945

C H A P T E R 1 0
B A R R E D N U N S : ITALIAN N U N S P L O I T A T I O N F I L M S

Tamao Nakahara

INTRODUCTION

Images and narratives of sexual or sexualised nuns have appeared sporadically over many centuries.
They feature in the real-life stories of Héloïse and the nun of Monza; in literature such as Giovanni
Boccaccio's II Decameron {The Decameron, 1351), Pietro Aretino's Ragionamenti (Dialogues, 1600)
and Denis Diderot's La religieuse (The Nun, 1762); as well as in films such as Benjamin Christensen's
Haxan (1922), Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's Black Narcissus (1947) and X-rated nun
porn to name but a few examples.1 What stands out from this intermittent attention given to the
lives of nuns and, in particular, to that of transgressive nuns, is a brief period in the 1970s in which
three to four Italian exploitation films per year were devoted to the narratives of naughty nuns. These
'nun exploitation' films were produced around the globe in countries as varied as the US, U K , Spain,
Australia, the Philippines and Japan; however, the highest concentration of production came from

124