DARK HABITS

Seeing the early Almodovars for the first time is like finding lost treasure. "Dark Habits"
has everything the later masterpieces have except, perhaps, real depth. In its place we have real feeling and a great deal of great comedy, all done in the worst possible taste. As you might guess, this is set in a convent run by the Sisters of the Humiliated Redeemer and they have names like Sister Rat, Sister Manure etc. The Mother Superior is a lesbian with a heroin habit, another drops acid and has visions, another keeps a pet tiger while another writes trashy novels under a pseudonym. Men are noticeably absent in this wild world and we can see the Almodovar stock company of actresses already being assembled. They are all wonderful and not a Sister Ingrid or Audrey amongst them. Glorious, surreal nonsense; I loved it.