Visions of Ecstasy (1989)

  Issue 16 of Diabolique Magazine May/Jume 2013, which I will happily give it away, after this project is done.The 3rd article in the issue, Visions Quest, is an interview by Max Weinstein with Nigel Wingroves about his short film Visions of Ecstacy. The film was the only film ever banned under the British law against blasphemy, a film the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) refused to allow distribution of finding it to offensive. This ban lasted two decades before Wingrove won a 18-certificate in 1996 after taking his argument for free expression to the European Court of Human Rights.  In 2008 the Blasphemy law was repealed and so now you too can have a short film that will probably be offensive if you are Christain.

  More a collection of imagery the short film is lurid depictions of the writings of Saint Teresa of Avila. Teresa lived in the 1500s and was a significant player in the Counter Reformation a concerted effort to embrace Catholism after the Protestant Reformation, and was initiated at the Council of Trent between 1545 and 1563. In her autobiography, The Life of Teresa of Jesus, and her books The Interior Castle and The Way of Perfection are prominent works on Christian mysticism. She writes "in her autobiography, written as a defense of her ecstatic mystical experiences, she discerns four stages in the ascent of the soul to God: mental prayer and meditation; the prayer of quiet; absorption-in-God; ecstatic consciousness." - wikipedia. Building off this idea of ecstatic conciousness the Wingrove's short film delves into the writings of the Saint as he says in the article in Diabolique "Her writings have a real intensity and passion, and I would want to make the film visually and narritively reflect that." 

Watching the film: Wingrove is one of the founders of Redemption video has now a dvd you can own of Visions of Ecstacy. You can find the exploitation creator and distributor un the Salvation Group and as wikipedia says "Redemption showcases the best in European horror and sleaze cinema, with such titles as Killer Nun, Profondo Rosso and films by Jess Franco, Jean Rollin, Dario Argento, Mario Bava, Bruno Mattei, Lucio Fulci among others. They also release classics such as Nosferatu, Vampyr, The Phantom Carriage, M and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari."

Images of blood and forced stigmata by Teresa of Avila set to the synth , drum kit beats of Steven Severin bassist for Siouxsie and the Banshees as she in her ecstacy rubs her breasts and pulses against a crucifix. Another woman crawls is limited blue tinged light each arm movement excencuated towards a bound Teresa in full habit. Her desire to pull the clothes off the Nun caressing and gently kissing as Tereasa feels the ecstacy and imgaines her own caressing of the body of Christ still nailed to the cross. The cutting back and forth is effective the lighting with use of primary colors exalts the passions of the scenes.  The duality highlighting exteranal sexual act as a meditation of the internal spirit is portrayed through this lense.  Teresa needing to tough Christ's wounds while at the same time being touched by an unidentified woman. 

Not being a religious person and thus in no way offended by the short film. I am hard pressed to understand what all the fuss was about. The 18 minute short is soft porn and not designed to bring the viewer to a porn ending. It is more an interpretation of Teresa's ecstacies that sure you could find offensive but you could just as easily brush off as artistic interpretation.

So if you are interested in a magazine with this content, read updates here soresportmovies.blogspot.com, or on Letterboxd.com to learn how my magazine giveaway is going but follow me on Letterboxd if you want to read my movie reviews and comment on the films. I still have a mail connected to my blog movies@edhovey.com where you can write me or comment on blog entries.

My Letterboxd.com handle is @Hovey1127, when I am done with the Issue of the magazine I will offer it up and we can work out the details of me getting it to you. I am not really looking for money just someone who also would love to read it. If no one wants it well it will probably end up on a magazine rack at the library or something.

Chatting with me is difficult, I have stopped my social media account years ago because time… it’s ticking at my age and I would rather spend it doing other things like this for example. Or chatting with my friends at the Zombiegrrlz.com podcasts on their discord. I am a fan of the podcasts they publish The More Deadly Podcast and the Zombiegrrlz podcast and as a Patron for very little $ I get access to the discord. So if you want to good horror content and a great horror community check them out.