Visions of Ecstasy: The Films of Nigel Wingrove

Shock value and some visual flair are at the unsacred heart of this compilation of films by British writer-director Nigel Wingrove, who specializes in material that mixes sexually explicit imagery with sacrilegious subject matter. The main feature here is Wingrove's 19-minute Visions of Ecstasy (1989)—long banned in the U.K. on grounds of blasphemy—which depicts the mystical experiences of the 16th-century Carmelite nun Teresa of Ávila as an erotic encounter between her and her “psyche” on the one hand, and with the crucified Christ on the other. Wordless (although featuring a pulsating score by Steven Severin of Siouxsie and the Banshees), it's fairly tame by contemporary standards and quickly grows tiresome despite the abbreviated running time and artsy camerawork. Visions is coupled on this disc with three other Wingrove films, two of which—Axel (7 min., 1988) and Faustine (2 min., 1990)—are similar pieces of soft-core porn with religious overtones. The third, Sacred Flesh (2000), is a full-length feature with a semblance of a plot—an abbess asks a priest to investigate goings-on at a convent where the mother superior is having erotic visions of Mary Magdalene and the nuns are said to engage in debauchery. But it soon devolves into Wingrove's familiar erotic imagery, and at 92 minutes is entirely too much of a bad thing. DVD extras include outtakes from Visions of Ecstasy, a “Hail Mary! A Brief Peek at Nunsploitation” featurette in which Wingrove discusses the odd genre in which he specializes, and an illustrated essay on the censorship case against Visions of Ecstasy. While freedom of expression is certainly important, these films simply don't merit that much attention. Not recommended. (F. Swietek)