alr

Mother Joan of the Angels

Directed by Jerzy Kawalerowicz

Thérèse

Directed by Alain Cavalier
Screening on Film
  • Mother Joan of the Angels (Matka Joanna od Aniolów)

    Directed by Jerzy Kawalerowicz.
    With Lucyna Winnicka, Mieczyslaw Voit, Anna Ciepielewska.
    Poland, 1961, 35mm, black & white, 105 min.
    Polish with English subtitles.
    Print source: HFA

A Marxist study of the supernatural, filled with austere, sharply photographed black-and-white images, Kawalerowicz's best known film abroad is based on the actual events which occurred at a monastery near Loudun, where a group of nuns experienced a Satanic possession. Through dense dramatic conflicts, expressionistic settings, and powerful performances, Kawalerowicz created a psychologically and philosophically complex allegory of good versus evil and chastity versus eroticism.

  • Thérèse

    Directed by Alain Cavalier.
    With Catherine Mouchet, Hélène Alexandridis, Aurore Prieto.
    France, 1986, 35mm, color, 94 min.
    French with English subtitles.
    Print source: HFA

Based on the life of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, a Carmelite nun who died at a young age and was later canonized, Alain Cavalier's film offers an observational portrait of a woman driven by divine inspiration. Catherine Mouchet portrays the young nun who devoted her life to her beliefs, only to succumb to tuberculosis at age twenty-four. Cavalier's visual style recalls late Bresson with his use of minimalist props, costumes, and settings, which bring life to this transcendental figure.

Part of film series

Read more

Treasures From The Harvard Film Archive

Current and upcoming film series

Read more

Melville et Cie.

Read more

Psychedelic Cinema

Read more

Fragments of a Faith Forgotten: The Art of Harry Smith

Read more

The Shochiku Centennial Collection

Read more

António Campos and the Promise of Cinema Novo

Read more
sepia photo of Artie Freedman in silhouette with a video camera at show

Boston Punk Rewound / Unbound. The Arthur Freedman Collection

Read more

The Yugoslav Junction: Film and Internationalism in the SFRY, 1957 – 1988

Read more

From the Jenni Olson Queer Film Collection

Read more
a mausoleum that looks like a miniature Spanish cathedral, next to a variety of others, against an evening sky

The Night Watchman by Natalia Almada