The Nun

In eighteenth century France, Suzanne, forced into a convent by her family, refuses her vows and pursues legal means to get out. That request turns her life inside the institution into hell: first systematic punishment, then, in another convent, pressure from the mother superior. Jacques Rivette adapted Diderot's novel and keeps the camera cold; no scene raises the emotion and the cruelty operates like a bureaucratic order. Anna Karina plays Suzanne. After it was made the ministry banned it in France, and it could only be shown after more than a year of argument, a fight that changed the censorship regime of the period. Who it is for: viewers who like the French new wave and period films that attack institutions. Who it is not for: anyone expecting emotional deliverance, which the film does not supply.