Harockerce
What a beautiful movie!
Kidskycom
It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.
Tobias Burrows
It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.
Sam Panico
Loosely based on the Parker–Hulme murder case of 1954 (which also inspired Heavenly Creatures), Don't Deliver Us from Evil is about Anne de Boissy and Lore Fournier, two post-pubescent Catholic schoolgirls that come from rich, conservative families. They're both growing up to be maniacs, thanks to a love of death poetry, mocking people, pranks, petty theft and one another.They believe that when they are together, they are special and beyond the law, which allows them to escape punishment. Anne's parents go on vacation and leave her at home, which allows Lore to move in and their love affair to grow. Their pranks also grow, including setting fire to a perverted farmer's house, killing all of the birds of the school's groundskeeper and stealing the Eucharist and performing a Black Mass where they marry themselves to Satan.There's a really off juxtaposition in the film where the girls use their sexuality to be adults and when men take it too far, they instantly appear to be what they are — really young girls. It's disquieting and upsetting in a way that no movie I've ever seen has pictured — before or since.For example, when the girls attempt to seduce a motorist, he takes it as an invitation to rape Lore. Anna saves her and murders the man, who they dump in the river. A detective begins asking questions and the girls are sure they will be discovered, so they enter into a suicide pact. They know that when they go to Hell, Satan will reward them for their service.In front of their entire school, they read a Baudelaire poem to a cheering crowd before lighting themselves on fire.This film was known as "the French movie banned in France." It lives up to its controversial reputation — one assumes that the film was near incendiary when it was originally released. Yet it's not strictly an exploitation film. It's quite beautifully shot and has a definite message against the censorship of the Catholic Church and unfairness of the French class system.Read more at http://bit.ly/2joGhNV
sunznc
I don't know if I can actually add anymore to what has already been said. The film is raw and amateurish at times. It certainly is no polished piece of work. The editing is abrupt at times which to me says the editor didn't have a lot to work with. This is not a cerebral piece of work that will linger with you for days or weeks after you've seen it. Certainly won't change your life much. However, there were moments when I felt really uneasy about what was happening on the screen. It's understandable when you are watching a scary thriller or horror flick that you might not want to watch. This isn't a scary movie. It's just disturbing. When it comes to harming animals or babies most people won't want to watch. It's a bit troubling that someone on the set didn't draw the line at some point but this was 1971.Does the film make a point? The girls here don't have much love in their lives. All they know are rules and the adult world is ugly indeed. They create their own fantasy world but when that turns ugly there is only one way out.Hard to recommend but there are some moments of curiosity.
MARIO GAUCI
I recently made a binge of DVD purchases, and among these were 6 Mondo Macabro releases I had been eyeing for some time. This is the first one I checked out, and it's a stunner - for several reasons! I had never heard of the film before its DVD announcement - but now I feel that it's been seriously neglected and, hopefully, Mondo Macabro's wonderful "Special Edition" can give this title a new lease of life.Inspired by the same events which were eventually treated directly in Peter Jackson's HEAVENLY CREATURES (1994), the film is a perverse little item with rampant anti-Catholicism at its fore and which, unsurprisingly, was banned when it emerged; with this in mind, I love the way Mondo Macabro ended their description of it on the back cover: "It's a film that should be viewed only by those with very open minds"! Concerning two teenage girls' rebellion against their repressed upbringing by making a Satanic pact, in which they dedicate their lives to committing evil, it reminded me of other notorious "Chick Flicks" from the same era such as ALUCARDA (1975) and TO BE TWENTY (1978). The film doesn't have much of a plot and is deliberately paced, but it's held firmly together by the deliciously malevolent performances of the two leads (and particularly the untrained Jeanne Goupil, from whose viewpoint the events are related, and who subsequently hitched up with first-time director and former actor Seria!).It seems to me that the reason the film is so obscure is that, when new, it was ahead of its time but, even now, it would be almost impossible to make (despite the ostensibly graphic nature of French cinema today) - featuring any number of shocking and potentially offensive images, which I won't spoil here for the uninitiated! Still, I have to mention the disturbing double rape inflicted - or, rather, invited - upon Catherine Wagener (though playing under-aged, the actress was actually 19 at the time) and the incredible finale, set inside a crowded school auditorium, which is sparked {sic} by the two girls' recital on stage of a strange poem by Baudelaire. The simple yet haunting music - performed on the organ or as a cantata - is highly effective, and the DVD extras (featuring, among others, separate interviews with Seria and Goupil) complement the film very nicely indeed.
dbdumonteil
The title is borrowed from a Christian prayer "Pater Noster" (Our Father) ,the last line of which is put into the negative form.That speaks volumes about the anti-Christian atmosphere of the whole movie. Something like Luis Bunuel on electric shock treatment.Two girls ,students in a severe Catholic school,rebel and do very nasty things .Stunning ending when,after reciting a Beaudelaire poem ,the two girlies set fire to themselves.The movie was theatrically released in 1972,but never never broadcast on TV,so I had never the opportunity to see it again.Its subjects (lesbianism,murders,sacrileges)were too much for the time and I wonder if the movie has worn well.Joel Seria 's other movies were watchable ("Charlie et ses deux nénettes")but none of them was as outrageous as his first one.