Mother Joan of the Angels (Kawalerowicz, 1961): Gate Cinema, 6.30pm
This is screening as part of the Poland on Screen Festival
Gate Cinema introduction: Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz’s 1946 tale transposes the historical French narrative of the 'devils of Loudun' to an 18th-century Polish convent. The writer was less interested in exorcisms than the beginnings of forbidden feelings between Joan - the possessed mother superior - and Father Suryn, who arrived to heal her, and it is this perspective on the tragedy in Loudun (here: Ludyń) to which Kawalerowicz's adaptation is faithful. Composed entirely of austere, black-and-white shots, the geometric patterns of the convent's grates and crosses mercilessly separate the two unhappy, lonely people. Winner of the Jury Prize at Cannes, the film was only beaten to the prestigious Palme d'Or by Luis Buñuel’s Viridiana.
Here is the trailer.
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