La Religieuse (1966)

My memory of the film is slightly hazy now that I think about it but I'd say to no doubt that this is one of my favourites.  Anna Karina's character is forced to
join the church and become a nun because she is not her father's daughter, through no fault of her own she is forced into a position she detests but is powerless.





Through the movie we see her reject it and beg to leave but it just isn't given to her. She rotates through three mothers, one who shows her the parental love
she's longing for, one who I believe explains her upset, is a manifestation of the hatred she feels from God who she loves but isn't loved back by & the third who
loves her as a lover but still somehow doesn't let her lead the life that she wants. 

She ends up from one hopeless position to another & right as she enters the open world, she is exposed to a brothel. 

(Maybe I was happy to see this film, I liked it)

Liked the idea that prostitution was just another side of the coin. That in the end, she didn't really have any options of her own and was instead forced from one
place to the other. 

What was her sin? What was her sin that made her so viable to a life so out of control, so full of hatred that hell would really be no different?

I don't think the message is simply that religion is bad but also how a woman's life is only really valuable in the context of the men surrounding it. She could
have been married off or she could become a nun, or alternatively she could've been a prostitute. 

All of which at their head have a man. 

She has no freedom, her whole life is a testament to those that birthed her. As long as she's alive she'll always be answerable to everyone else but herself, so
what is a poor woman in her situation meant to do? 

but to die, but to seek freedom outside of life itself?






✩