The unlikely premise of this black Emanuelle entry is that our tawny heroine needs to join a convent in order to "realise" that celibacy is not for her. The set-up has Emanuelle a nun who is sent (with a older sister) to collect rebellious teenager Monica and bring her back to the convent which operates as a home for wayward girls. Emanuelle, a supposedly reformed sexaholic, sees the girl sharing a rather Sapphic kiss with her nubile young mother-in-law, then a plot ensues which has the girl wreaking mischief and encourages sexual mania at the convent.
Thrown into the blender, we get incontinence, violent criminals, teenage lesbianism, rough fabric bloomers and a haughty Mother Superior. The film does have a fairly linear plot, with the teenage temptress wearing down Emanuelle's vow of chastity; Emanuelle finally throws off her habit and leaps into the arms of the criminal, turning into a vengeful fury to threatens to burn out the nymphet teenager's bush! But then it is revealed that the entire film is a dream that Emanuelle has on the train on the way to the convent with Monica, and that dream has told her that the life of the cloisters is not for her, and heads back to her more usual life of vice.
The dream scenario is nicely developed, with Monica operating as a kind of erotic anima in Emanuelle's psyche, continually pushing her towards rejecting celibacy and embracing sexual liberation. The dynamic of the film is pretty simplistic, simply promiscuity (which is seen as pretty harmless) versus abstinence. None of the dark areas which D'Amato uncovered in his black Emanuelle films are explored, so the film feels a little less striking than them. It is, however, never less than immaculately made and is enlivened by a genuinely funny sense of cheeky, camp humour, which is often laugh-out-loud. Some of the minor characters, like the cystitis-suffering old nun and the crapulent, dumb gardener, are delightfully entertaining.
The film is unusual as well in that it actually shows that Laura Gemser could act – she gives a nuanced and nicely drawn performance, constantly modulating her reactions to events, other characters and the temptations of the flesh. D'Amato deliberately kept his black Emanuelle affectless, the more to emphasise her compulsive, consumerist behaviour; it's nice that this film exists to show that Gemser could work with a wider range if the script or director required it.
Thrown into the blender, we get incontinence, violent criminals, teenage lesbianism, rough fabric bloomers and a haughty Mother Superior. The film does have a fairly linear plot, with the teenage temptress wearing down Emanuelle's vow of chastity; Emanuelle finally throws off her habit and leaps into the arms of the criminal, turning into a vengeful fury to threatens to burn out the nymphet teenager's bush! But then it is revealed that the entire film is a dream that Emanuelle has on the train on the way to the convent with Monica, and that dream has told her that the life of the cloisters is not for her, and heads back to her more usual life of vice.
The dream scenario is nicely developed, with Monica operating as a kind of erotic anima in Emanuelle's psyche, continually pushing her towards rejecting celibacy and embracing sexual liberation. The dynamic of the film is pretty simplistic, simply promiscuity (which is seen as pretty harmless) versus abstinence. None of the dark areas which D'Amato uncovered in his black Emanuelle films are explored, so the film feels a little less striking than them. It is, however, never less than immaculately made and is enlivened by a genuinely funny sense of cheeky, camp humour, which is often laugh-out-loud. Some of the minor characters, like the cystitis-suffering old nun and the crapulent, dumb gardener, are delightfully entertaining.
The film is unusual as well in that it actually shows that Laura Gemser could act – she gives a nuanced and nicely drawn performance, constantly modulating her reactions to events, other characters and the temptations of the flesh. D'Amato deliberately kept his black Emanuelle affectless, the more to emphasise her compulsive, consumerist behaviour; it's nice that this film exists to show that Gemser could work with a wider range if the script or director required it.