Satanico pandemonium

Billed by Mondo Macabro as "one of the most subversive, violent and shocking films ever made about the religious life," Satanico Pandemonium (1973) by Mexican director Gilberto Martinez Solares (1906-1997), certainly pushes many buttons. But, to use football terminology, whereas other religiously subversive filmmakers like Ken Russell and Alejandro Jodorowsky would risk a Hail Mary play to push things as far as they can in their bid to finish the game, Solares plays it safe. This is not too say spectators will be disappointed, and the filmmakers can hardly be faulted for wanting to avoid the same fate of Luis Bunuel (1900-1983) - who was denounced by the Catholic Church for Viridiana (1961) and whose work was banned in many countries. But what a difference a decade makes; Satanico Pandemonium was somehow able to get past the church and censors despite showing a nun in full frontal nudity molest a peasant boy - and then kill him. "La Sexorcista" (that's the saucier byline for the film, inexplicably eclipsed) gets points for providing plenty of taboo-pushing moments for the highlight reel and it also delivers many wardrobe malfunctions for viewers with a penchant for bad habits. The setting takes us to a bygone era where an active cloister finds Sister Maria (Cecilia Pezet) being stalked by visions of Satan (Enrique Rocha). From here on out it's Sister Maria's show as she fights a tug of war from both ends, with her conscience on one side, and a myriad of temptations on the other. Before it's all over, other people get stuck in the middle and dragged along for the ride through the mud, and worse. Tarantino references this film in From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) by naming Salma Hayek's character "Santanico Pandemonium," and, facially, there is even some resemblance between Pezet and Hayek. The script for Satanico Pandemonium was written by Solares' son, Adolfo Martinez Solares, who expanded on the producers original three-page idea, and was one of the first projects the father-and-son team worked on together. In an interview on one of the dvd extras, the son recalls his father as having worked on almost 200 films and as "the most prolific director in Mexico, and I think Latin America too." In relation to Satanico Pandemonium, he also recalls how everyone associated with making the film discussed the risks of taking on the church and censors, but how they got around it by using an ending that left an "open door" for a couple different interpretations. The other risk for Adolfo Martinez Solares can be divined by his confession that "I believe in God, and I believe in the Devil as well," and so he was careful to distance himself a bit from anything that might be too damning. But nobody, apparently, distanced themselves too much from the prostitutes they hired to act out the parts of possessed nuns and offset, according to the commentary, they could play wicked games of chess. Mondo Macabro's dvd of Satanico Pandemonium features the film in its original widescreen (1.85:1) ratio, in Spanish, with English subtitles. Extra features include: a 15-minute interview with Adolfo Martinez Solares filmed in Mexico City, February 2005, an 11-minute interview with the Managing Director of Redemption Films, Nigel Wingrove, whose own work as an art director and filmmaker show a clear fascination with "nunsploitation," a Stills Galleries & Text Pages: Mexican Lobby Cards, Italian Release Artwork, and "A Brief History of Naughty Nun Cinema" (courtesy of Anthony Hartman and nunsploitation.net). This last entry provides a concise and informative overview, and notes that Satanico Pandemonium "has the dubious honor of being the first Mexican film to cash in on the Devils-induced nunsploitation craze of the era." The extra features continue with a "Filmography of Mexican Nunsploitation Cinema" (excerpted from the book AntiCristo: The Bible of Nasty Nun Sinema & Culture and covering the years 1934 -1990), "About the Director," which offers up how "the Festival of Three Continents, in Nantes in France, created the special Gilberto Martinez Solares prize which is awarded every year to the director of the best first feature presented at the festival." Lastly, for anyone interested in current and upcoming releases from the dvd makers there is a medley of trailers for "More from Mondo Macabro." For more information about Satanico Pandemonium, visit Mondo Macabro. To order Satanico Pandemonium, go to TCM Shopping. by Pablo Kjolseth