Overview: Religious orthodoxy, human desire and institutional corruption all rise to a mesmerizing boil in multi-genre Italian director Domenico Paolella’s The Nun and the Devil/Le Monache di Sant’Arcangelo (1973), a cinematic fever dream about power plays within - and brought to bear outwardly upon - a 16th-century Neapolitan nunnery.

Inspired by authentic period records and a novella by Stendhal, the film casts Anne Heywood as a senior sister scheming to become Mother Abbess, Ornella Muti as a defiant aristocrat sequestered into religious service, and policier star Luc Merenda as a righteous cleric investigating the convent’s sexual and heretical improprieties.

It stands out as one of the more noteworthy cinematic successors of Ken Russell’s notorious The Devils (1971).

Blu-ray Verdict: There are some really scandalous nunsploitation films available for those who want to indulge their fantasies or prurient interests. This is not one of them. Before you go running away, however, you should know that this film is well worth watching for the quality of the film.

It is all about the machinations that go on in and out of a convent after the Mother Superior dies. Three nuns: Mother Giulia (Anne Heywood), Mother Chiara (Martine Brochard), and Mother Livinia (Maria Cumani Quasimodo) are vying for the position of Mother Superior.

The latter two have very wealthy and influential connections on the outside. Sister Giulia uses poison to get rid of one rival, and is going to expose the other’s immorality with a man. This is easy for her as her rival is bisexual and her lesbian lover. No, we don’t get to see Heywood in the buff, but we do see Brochard!

Another player in this game is a young, virginal novitiate, that also happens to be the niece of Mother Giula. Isabella (Ornella Muti) was put in the convent to get her away from her boyfriend. Mother Giula is using her to get a nobleman on her side. What she doesn’t know is that Isabella and her boyfriend have been secretly meeting at the convent, and now they will have a chance to be together.

The sets are exquisite and the story is compelling. There is some nudity, but it is just the right amount for the story, not exploitative. Oh, and there is a torture scene, including water-boarding at an inquisition to discover the truth behind the campaign. Indeed, Cardinal d’Arezzo (Claudio Gora) screams for more torture for he is a symbol of the evil and corruption in the church at the time.

Justice is meted out for some sinners, but certainly not for all.