Flavia the Heretic

1977 "She launched a river of blood"
5.7| 1h42m| R| en
Details

Puglia, southern Italy, around 1400. A convent is invaded by the Tarantula cult, whose fanatical and crazed members desecrate the sacred place by committing obscene and bloody acts.

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Reviews

Wordiezett So much average
Teringer An Exercise In Nonsense
Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!
Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.
Bezenby Whoops, it happened again! I was all set to watch the harmless sounding Violent Bloodbath when my finger slipped off the keyboard, grabbed this DVD and accidentally put in the in the DVD player. Fathers of teenage daughters during the early 15th century: When you notice that your teenage daughter is taking a bit of a shine to the last surviving muslim invader on a bloody battlefield, it's probably not a good idea to capture that invader, behead him, then stick his head on a pike right in front of her. That kind of things makes a lasting impression, and throwing your daughter into a convent shortly afterwards isn't going to help the situation. Flavia the Heretic is a grim document of what occurs when this happens.Years later Flavia is still a sexually repressed nun who is about to learn a lesson that all men are bastards. The hard way. Not only does her father continually berate her, she also witnesses an arrogant Duke raping a farm girl and get away with it, and her nun friend tortured to death for letting her sexual urges get the better of her. Flavia begins to question why the world is male dominated, from religion to war to God himself, and bitter rage wells up inside. Seeing your best friend's nipple sliced off by your father's cronies will do that to you. Of course, this being a film by Gianfranco Mingozzi, who thought it was okay to have someone drive a car into a herd of sheep in the film Island of Crime, we also get to see a horse getting castrated while Flavia watches. As Ralf Wiggum would say in the Simpsons: the castration stands for obviousness. With the encouragement of a grizzled old nun, Flavia begins to break free from her male-dominated shackles and seeks to destroy the convent and the all the men who have supressed her all her life, except good guy Claudio Cassanelli, who plays her friendly Jew sidekick. Flavia achieves this by doing what every woman does: by joining forces with an invading muslim army and hitting it off with their leader, then using his army to kill everyone. Whilst having a very serious point to make about male dominance and the various ways male society has crushed and controlled women in various ways (and the sad fact it seems to happen in most cultures), the film still has plenty of exploitation elements that go way beyond the boundaries of taste. For every angry speech about female power you have the rape-happy Duke getting revenge bummed by a mob of Islamic soldiers. The part that takes the biscuit for me is when Flavia drugs the entire convent and everything breaks down into a surreal orgy where one woman jumps into, that's into, the empty carcass of a bull hanging from a ceiling. When she jumps back out again and hits her head on the still attached knackers of the bull, I really did start to wonder why I watch these things.That said, beyond all the symbolism, naked women, and suspicious absence of lesbian activity there's a good, serious film. Florinda Bolkan is no trash actress, and Claudio Cassanelli, moody as usual, supports her well. So there you go. Flava Flav: The Movie.
Claudio Carvalho In 1400, in Puglia, Southern Italy, the nobleman father of Flavia (Florinda Bolkan) beheads her lover and locks her away in a seaside convent. Flavia questions the submissive treatment of women and is submitted to the repressive Catholic system in the convent. When Flavia has the chance, she flees from the convent with the Jew friend Abraham (Claudio Cassinelli). However, they are captured by her father and Flavia is whipped and Abraham is imprisoned in the dungeons. During the Musulman invasion of Italy, Flavia becomes the lover of their Muslin leader Ahmed (Anthony Corlan) and uses him to revenge against the nuns that have humiliated her and her father. I was curious to see this 1978 movie of nunsploitation, not because I am fan of this subgenre of exploitation film, but because of the Brazilian Florinda Bolkan. "Flavia, la Monaca Musulmana" is a brutal nunsploitation, associating the usual themes of sexual repression and religious oppression with revenge. There is no historical background and most of the situations are only pretext for nudity, torture and violence. Now I am satisfied but this film is only recommended to very specific audiences since it is very offensive specially for religious viewers. In the Extras of the DVD, there is an interview with Florinda Bolkan. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "Flávia, a Freira Muçulmana" ("Flavia, the Muslin Nun")
EVOL666 FLAVIA THE HERETIC is a strange entry in the nunsploit genre - equal parts sleaze, feministic journey, and "history" as we follow Flavia on her strange trip.We start off with Flavia in a convent...she ain't too happy there cuz she doesn't believe in all the male-dominated "rules" and macho-ism of the world around her and escapes from the convent with her Jewish pal, Abraham. They are both eventually caught and Flavia is brought back to the convent where she joins another "non-believing" nun in hastening a Moslem invasion. Flavia hangs out with the Moslems who take over the convent and get "busy" with the nuns in a strange set of scenes. Eventually the Moslems roll-out and Flavia is punished as a traitor to Christianity in another singularly brutal scene...This one has pretty much all the stuff that I like to see in a 70's era exploit film - some good gore, including nipple-removal, and a nice leg-skinning scene, some decent nudity - including the requisite full-frontal, and a decent storyline as well. I will say that it sorta dragged in a few points, but not enough to get truly bored with it. I would definitely recommend this one to nunsploit/70's exploit fans...8/10
lazarillo This is the most notorious of the "nunsploitation" movies but it's also very atypical of the genre (if "nunsploitation" can be called a genre). For one thing it is serious, believable, and fairly historically accurate. For another thing it generally avoids being merely crass exploitation. There is sex and nudity but it is all in the context of the film. There is also A LOT of violence, but it is truly unpleasant and ugly violence--it is obviously not meant to simply titillate the audience. (I actually saw the edited version but I doubt it is any less powerful--what you picture in your mind when you realize what is happening on screen is at least as terrible as anything that could have been achieved with cheesy 1970's special effects). This film could also be considered part of the "rape-revenge" genre except that after the rape and revenge there is in turn yet more revenge against the avenging woman, and each time the violence escalates a little more until all the characters are tainted and the movie ends up being a wholesale condemnation of human cruelty and a powerful statement on the ultimate futility of violence. I'm sure many people will find this movie tasteless or offensive but when you consider how many movies--especially mainstream Hollywood movies--glorify and romanticize violence, presenting it as a valid way to resolve any problem, you truly realize how courageous and refreshing a movie like this is.