La Papesse / A Woman Possessed 1975 (Facts, Review of Mario Mercier's Film)

In this article I will tell you what's interesting about "La Papesse (1975)" by Mario Mercier: what it feels like and interesting facts about this mysterious film that I could collect.

Let's get down to business.

 

General Information

La Papesse (A Woman Possessed / I riti erotici della papessa Jesial) is one of the lesser-known cult classic films exploiting the topics of witchcraft, violence and eroticism. It's the third and the last film of a French director Mario Mercier.

Despite being comparatively obscure, it's, nevertheless, better-kown than his previous works: La Goulve (Erotic Witchcraft), 1972 and Les dieux en colère, thanks to having been released on DVD by the subdivision of Pathfinder Pictures - Asterix Home Entertainment in 2003.  

La Papesse is the only film of Mario Mercier that has ever been officially released to home video (at least as for now), and just like La Goulve, it was banned (but this time only partially) in France and in Canada upon its release.

 

Plot Summary

A young married couple lives in the woods. Laurent, the husband (Jean-François Delacour) has a profession that lies in an artistic domain. Searching for inspiration, he is going through a series of violent tests in order to be accepted as a member of a creepy religious sect.

His wife Aline (Lisa Livane) is unhappy with their life in the woods, far away from modern amenities and society. She asks her husband to return to normal life, but he refuses, and moreover, he wants her to become a member of the sect together with him. The wife is scared to stay alone, so she has no choice but to agree, which also means for her going through much physical suffering and humiliation.

Trailer in French:

Lisa Livane (Aline)

 

What to Expect from the Film

La Papesse gave me mixed feelings. Unlike most Euro sleaze movies, this film doesn't feel as something funny. Neither it feels as mesmerizing and relaxing as La Goulve. I watched it twice, and after the first attempt, around three years ago, I couldn't really say that I liked it. 

But after discovering La Goulve and loving it, I decided to give La Papesse another try. It hasn't become one of my favorite films, but it hasn't left me indifferent either.

The film has an intriguing beginning, giving a mysterious feel and expectation of something magical. But closer to the middle of the story, it becomes difficult to watch because of the numerous scenes of physical and emotional humiliation. 

Unlike in other films about devil and pagan cults, where adepts, despite being evil, are still portrayed in a somewhat attractive manner, in this film the members of the sect look nasty. 

Especially this guy:

Apart from looking like psychopaths, they also perform quite disgusting rituals. Throughout the whole story you can track an explicit use of dominance and submission fetish elements. Rude commanding tone, kissing boots, whipping, numerous rape and other sadistic scenes felt to me overall creepy, and even outrageous. 

During almost the whole film, I was mostly thinking about what other sufferings the poor woman is doomed to endure, wishing to see her having a revenge on her offenders. I wonder what Mario Mercier himself was thinking while filming all this cruelty. Whether he was trying to evoke compassion in viewers, or the film was just an outlet for his own dark desires and fantasies. The latter is quite probable, considering the type of stories he used to write along with being a film director and an artist. 

In this article you can read about his writing more in detail and take a look at a few samples from his books, demonstrating his weird leaning to portray the sickest and the most exquisite perversity one can imagine.

Apart from sadism, some supernatural events also take place in the film. There are a couple of scenes of possession and inhuman ecstasy during the naked convulsive ritual dancing near a bonfire on the sabbath night. And, of course, a plenty of nudity.

After asking myself why I actually finally liked this film, despite all the nasty scenes in it, I decided that it's for the same reason people enjoy the tragedy genre. The film made me feel compassion to the main character - Aline, who was hoping to be protected by her husband, but instead found herself betrayed by him and mistreated by villains. And it's still a mysterious magic story about something that is happening beyond the reality.

Erika Maaz - Iltra

Facts About "La Papesse"

Real Occult Personalities

Geziale

The most interesting fact, or maybe just a legend, is that the actress who played the Papesse (High Priest of the cult) - Geziale - was a member of a religious sect in real life, as well as a few other actors. According to this article, this was her only role in cinema, after which she went to the USA and became a medium there. She is credited as Geziale (without a surname) - the same name her character has. Apart from these details, I couldn't find any information about her.

 

Moreover, according to rumors, the scenes of possession were real: the actors, being members of a real esoteric cult, were really performing a ritual, experiencing some sort of trance. Indeed, their convulsive shaking looks quite convincing. However, it's probably explained by the fact that La Papesse was filmed in winter, as the director says in one of his interviews, so that was actually the cold that stimulated the actors to move at such a frenetic pace, in order to warm themselves quicker.

Claude Déplace

The opening titles mention Claude Déplace as the occultism advisor (as well as in Mario Mercier's previous film - "La Goulve / Erotic Witchcraft"). After an online research I found out that Claude Déplace was a cult personality in France - the head of an occult sect (as I assume, the same sect that took part in the filming). He ran a radio program "Voyance en direct" (Clairvoyance Live) during twenty five years, until the late 2015, on the French national radio station Skyrock whose audience mostly consists of teenagers and people in their early 20s.

At present, Claude's official site no longer works, I couldn't find him anywhere on social media. There are only old postings on forums and other sites that advertise him as an esoteric guru and medium. He also has a plenty of books on occultism still available for sale online. In this video you can see fragments from an old interview with him shot in 1979. It's in French, but it also shows fragments of his sect's rituals that involved naked people doing weird ritual things stereotypical occultists like to do such as forming a circle around a bonfire and searing their skin with a smoldering stick.

Another part of the video shows some man promoting his entire book about Claude Déplace that he wrote to tell the world why he thought Claude's practices were a fraud. His main point is that every ritual of the sect ended with an orgy which, according to him, made it clear that everyone involved was looking more for sexual adventures rather than something spiritual.

Ban

Upon completion, the film was (indirectly) banned in France, and then in Canada. The official comment of the censorship institution is characterising the film as  "... nothing but an uninterrupted succession of scenes of sadism, torture and violence, and a total and permanent disregard for humanity, displayed in a crude and revolting fashion".

However, it was running in the theaters of Paris for six days. Here is what Alexandre Mathis, the cult cinema expert and witness of that epoque, told me about it:

I saw it in the Latin Quarter. At Studio Cujas, an art-house theater. It was allowed for people who were at least 18-years old and released on April 23, 1975. It was only running for 6 days exclusively, so apparently, there were very few viewers. It was rated X, retrospectively, like numerous other films (just like Lorna the Exorcist, after being released), by the order dated January 9, 1976.

 

In his interview (unfortunately, without English subtitles), Mario Mercier is saying that the film was rated as X (pornographic) by censors. But as it wasn't really a pornographic film, it couldn't be accepted even by theaters specializing on X-rated films. As a result, La Papesse was prevented from being shown anywhere.

In the same interview he is telling a funny story about trying to present this film on a festival of science fiction cinema (he is not saying when - only "many years ago"). During the demonstration, the visitors became furious, and started looking for him. I'm not sure what they could have done to him, but, obviously, the result of this meeting would have been regrettable. 

One of the viewers found Mario and asked if he was the director. Mario lied, saying he was an assistant of the mechanic. Then he had to pretend to be with the crowd looking for himself. At a convenient moment, he managed to grab his film and escape.

Geziale - La Papesse (The High Priestess)

 

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