Dark Habits

Almodovar's third feature. Yolanda, a cabaret singer played by Cristina S. Pascual, takes refuge in a convent after her lover dies. The nuns there are not ordinary: the mother superior uses heroin, one keeps a tiger, one writes pulp romances, and they have all given themselves names like Sister Rat and Sister Damned. Julieta Serrano, Marisa Paredes, Carmen Maura and Chus Lampreave fill out the convent. Cannes rejected the film over its treatment of religion. It premiered instead at Venice on 9 September 1983, where some of the organisers found it blasphemous and anti-Catholic and kept it out of the official section. The Venetian press split: Il Gazzettino called it scandalous, while Corriere della Sera declared Almodovar a true heir to Pasolini. It became a modest success and consolidated Almodovar's standing as the enfant terrible of Spanish cinema. Who it is for: viewers who like early Almodovar and black comedy at the expense of the sacred. Who it is not for: anyone uncomfortable with religious imagery being played with, which the film does from beginning to end.