Love Letters of a Portuguese Nun
Original title: Die Liebesbriefe einer portugiesischen Nonne
IMDb RATING
5.4/10
1.3K
YOUR RATING
16-year-old Maria is forced into Serra D'Aires convent, secretly run by Satanists.16-year-old Maria is forced into Serra D'Aires convent, secretly run by Satanists.16-year-old Maria is forced into Serra D'Aires convent, secretly run by Satanists.
Aida Vargas
- Joanna, a Nun
- (as Aida Kargas)
Vítor Mendes
- António Fernando Queiroz de Melo, the Mayor
- (as Victor Mendés)
Aida Gouveia
- Antónia, a Nun
- (as Isa Schneider)
Herman José
- Manuel Gonçalves, the Prince
- (as Hermann Krippahl)
José Viana
- The Grand Inquisitor
- (as Jose Viana)
Patrícia Leal
- Maria's Mother
- (as Patricia Da Silva)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe film was complete in 1975, but it went through a number of censorship bans (the first on 3 March 1976), appeals, rejections, and editing for release in different markets in 1977 and 1978.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Peter Baumgartner, Filmkameramann (2014)
Featured review
Slightly classier sleaze than usual from Franco.
Father Vicente (William Berger) catches pretty 15-year-old Maria (Susan Hemingway) flirting with her boyfriend, and has her sent to a convent where he can keep a closer eye on her. No sooner than she is cloistered, Maria is subjected to abuse, ultimately being forced to take part in a Satanic orgy, Vicente and the nuns all being followers of the devil (who makes a special personal appearance to take Maria's virginity!).
I admit it: sometimes—okay, quite a lot of the time—I'm just not in the mood to labour over a really in-depth and informative movie review, and am just happy to rattle off some old rubbish to get it out of the way. I imagine this is how director Jess Franco must have tackled a lot of his films just get the bloody thing in the can and start the next one. Sod the quality!
Not so, however, with Love Letters From A Portuguese Nun, which feels like the director actually tried to make something a little more stylish than his usual dross: the locations and scenery are beautiful, the cast are half decent (there's no Lina Romay, whose 'beauty' I simply cannot comprehend), and the cinematography is classier than usual (fewer rapid zooms and out of focus shots). Hell, even the title is fancy schmancy.
Unfortunately, at the end of the day, behind this semblance of style, it's business as usual for Franco, his film ultimately being another predictable slice of sleaze, with the vaguest of plots to string together the obligatory scenes of lesbianism, masturbation, orgies and torture, all of which eventually gets very boring. As Franco films go, this is far from his worst, but there are far better nunsploitation films out there (School of the Holy Beast and Sister Emanuelle spring to mind).
I admit it: sometimes—okay, quite a lot of the time—I'm just not in the mood to labour over a really in-depth and informative movie review, and am just happy to rattle off some old rubbish to get it out of the way. I imagine this is how director Jess Franco must have tackled a lot of his films just get the bloody thing in the can and start the next one. Sod the quality!
Not so, however, with Love Letters From A Portuguese Nun, which feels like the director actually tried to make something a little more stylish than his usual dross: the locations and scenery are beautiful, the cast are half decent (there's no Lina Romay, whose 'beauty' I simply cannot comprehend), and the cinematography is classier than usual (fewer rapid zooms and out of focus shots). Hell, even the title is fancy schmancy.
Unfortunately, at the end of the day, behind this semblance of style, it's business as usual for Franco, his film ultimately being another predictable slice of sleaze, with the vaguest of plots to string together the obligatory scenes of lesbianism, masturbation, orgies and torture, all of which eventually gets very boring. As Franco films go, this is far from his worst, but there are far better nunsploitation films out there (School of the Holy Beast and Sister Emanuelle spring to mind).
helpful•22
- BA_Harrison
- Nov 16, 2016
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