Do you know this film?

patrickthomas

I have been trying to find a movie I saw several years ago about the investigation done into the events in a town where the inhabitants had suffered ergot poisoning. The central character is a priest sent from the Vatican to find out what is going on and centres n a group of nuns who are having visions and sexual experiences.

It is a foreign film and am sure it was based on a true story.

I have googled and googled this movie bit have not found it and it was I thought at the time was very good and of historical value as to the effect ergot poisning had on people of a religious persuasion.

I would appreciate anyone being able to tel me what this movie was called.

Karl Hungus

Hmm, could it be this? If not, any idea of roughly when the film had been made? Might narrow things down.

patrickthomas

Karl Hungus wrote: »

Hmm, could it be this? If not, any idea of roughly when the film had been made? Might narrow things down.

Thanks Karl, I don't think this is the movie, am going to get it and see what it's like anyway, it does seem close though, it also seems that there are several movies loosely based on this historical event.

I have also discovered a genre called nunsploitation....:D not quite what I was looking for.

I cannot for the life of me remember what year it was made but had to be before 2000. I have spent several hours trying to chase this one down on the internet with no luck, I hired the original in Chartbusters about 8-9 yrs ago but Chartbusters are no longer....

They had a foreign film section and I watched every film in it and I do have real problems finding anything I saw in it. It was an amazing section and I watched some really great movies from it.

Can you be a little more specific regarding content. I've seen a number of nunsploitation films and it does sound vaguely familiar.

tricky D

Sounds like The Devils (1971)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/B00004CUX5

patrickthomas

Deleted User wrote: »

Can you be a little more specific regarding content. I've seen a number of nunsploitation films and it does sound vaguely familiar.

I would not have put it in a nunsploitation genre, tbh did not even know one existed until today.

The story as far as I can remember did have some nudity and scenes of a sexual nature but was not pornographic. It was very well made and afaik followed the historical story with a lot of accuracy.

I am d/l "Japanese School of the holy beast" right now as the reviews really impressed me. Can be real fun to look for one movie and end up watching several that otherwise would never have seen.

patrickthomas

patrickthomas wrote: »

I would not have put it in a nunsploitation genre, tbh did not even know one existed until today.

The story as far as I can remember did have some nudity and scenes of a sexual nature but was not pornographic. It was very well made and afaik followed the historical story with a lot of accuracy.

I am d/l "Japanese School of the holy beast" right now as the reviews really impressed me. Can be real fun to look for one movie and end up watching several that otherwise would never have seen.

Nunsploitation isn't necessarily pornographic. Dark Waters is ofter classed as such and it's far from porn.

I'll have a look through my films and see if I can come across anything that may be along the lines of what you are looking for.

Don't Deliver Us from Evil is a film you may find interesting.

patrickthomas

tricky D wrote: »

Sounds like The Devils (1971)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/B00004CUX5

This is the closest to it Tricky, I have come across but it is not it, the one I saw was subtitled, and I would not forget Vanessa Redgrave and Oliver Reid.

I am thinking that there was a different version made in Italy or France maybe.

oq4v3ht0u76kf2

Could it be this: Matka Joanna od aniolów?

patrickthomas

Deleted User wrote: »

Nunsploitation isn't necessarily pornographic. Dark Waters is ofter classed as such and it's far from porn.

I'll have a look through my films and see if I can come across anything that may be along the lines of what you are looking for.

Don't Deliver Us from Evil is a film you may find interesting.

Thanks Darko, I appreciate that. Both of your mentioned movies look interesting and I will take a look at them.

patrickthomas

Kimberly Wet Tailgate wrote: »

Could it be this: Matka Joanna od aniolów?

Rob, Kawalerowicz rings a bell and the synopsis is the same as for The Devils which seems to be the story. This is B/w though and am sure the one I saw was colour. Deefinately on the right track.

patrickthomas

The 1634 case of demonic possession in Loudun, France, is arguably the most famous case of multiple or mass possession in history. This case involved the Ursuline nuns of Loudun who were allegedly visited and possessed by demons. Father Urbain Grandier, was convicted of the crimes of sorcery, evil spells, and the possessions visited upon the Ursuline nuns, based on the words of possessed nuns. Until the Aix-en-Provence possessions of 1611, the words of the possessed nuns would have failed to become evidence.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudun_possessions

This is the incident I think the film is based on the film is based on and from what I have learned in here today quite a few other movies as well.

I am pretty sure that I discovered another similar incident to this as well, sometimes fact is way stranger than fiction.

Karl Hungus

Well, the film I linked in the first reply (and again by Rob Burke) is based on the Loudun possessions, so I'm still thinking that could be the one you're after.

Karl Hungus

Love The Cock wrote: »

Not much to go by but I thought it was great.

Aussie film. Guy walked around with a dead cat wrapped in cellophane.
Did not have any interaction with the world.

Final scene his total interaction with the world resulted in him signing for a punk band about all he had seen etc (the film)

That'd be Bad Boy Bubby.

patrickthomas

Karl Hungus wrote: »

That'd be Bad Boy Bubby.

Great movie, truly amazing.

Thanks for your help on tracing that movie, you certainly know your films, i will be back in here again as I have a serious interest in movies.

I make short films and I am moving rapidly into documentary making and have a real need of people who can point me to a particular movie, archive or website where I can find footage to use.

Cheers :cool:

patrickthomas

Edmund Parish, in his book Hallucinations and Illusions (1897)

Tying the dancing to possession, Parish continues, "To this category also belongs the history of demoniacal possession. The belief of being possessed by spirits, frequently met with in isolated cases, appeared at certain periods in epidemic form. Such an epidemic broke out in Brandenburg, and in Holland and Italy in the sixteenth century, especially in the convents. In 1350-60 it attacked the convent of St. Brigitta, in Xanthen, a convent near Cologne, and others. The nuns declared that they were visited by the Devil, and had carnal conversation with him. These and other 'possessed' wretches were sometimes thrown into dungeons, sometimes burnt. The convent of the Ursulines at Aix was the scene of such a drama (1609-11) where two possessed nuns, tormented by all kinds of apparitions, accused a priest of witchcraft on which charge he was burnt to death [see Urbain Grandier ]. The famous case of the nuns of Loudun (1632-39) led to a like tragic conclusion, as well as the Louvier case (1642) in which the two chief victims found their end in life-long imprisonment and the stake."

It is believed by most authorities that a lot of these incidents were caused by Ergot poisning or Ergotism. The Salem witch trials possibly being the most famous and the most recent outbreak being Ethopia in 2001.

Ergot is a fungus that grows on rye and is ingested by eating the rye bread. It contains LSD and induces hallucinations. The victims of this poisning suffered pretty horrific deaths due to other ingredients in the fungus causing gangrene.