The Convent (film) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The Convent (1995), by Portugal’s Manoel de Oliveira, is a Christian film set in a locus of angels and gargoyles, but is, alas, rather tedious and burdened with a confused plot.
It has a monastery, a statue of Mary Magdalene, a statue of a crucified monk, a demonic figure in human form, a devout, purehearted girl who tells the demonic figure, “I miss God”, before dashing away from him, a woman with a gift for “ubiquity,” etc. But it doesn’t have a good story. Oliveira got some noteworthy shots, but held his camera on most of them for too long. Shots of the sky are meant to make us think of God, as is the image of sunlight slowly ridding that crucified monk statue of the dim shade over it and bringing illumination. A pleasant sight, this.
