Saintly Cadavers (Intinction Objection)
Synopsis
Commissioned to investigate reports of paranormal activity and increasingly aggressive acts of civil disobedience by the nuns at a secluded convent, a pious young exorcist’s mission is derailed when the nuns establish an astonishing way to receive Holy Communion.
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1 review
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The Flesh Has the Last Word
Intinction Objection is the austere, black-and-white sibling of Nora Geist’s “Saintly Cadavers”. Transplanting its collision of sexuality and sacred imagery into a convent, Nora Geist turns the male body into the territory upon which holiness, desire and institutional control fight it out. Monochrome is crucial. It strips away the decadent sensuality of Saintly Cadavers, giving the images something colder: part ecclesiastical photograph, part surveillance, part forbidden document. The Saint becomes increasingly exposed while the women surrounding him seem simultaneously participants, witnesses and agents of the transgression. Yet the film is mischievous rather than merely bleak. Its title alone turns sacramental language into a joke with serious theological teeth. Christianity proclaims Incarnation and resurrection while often remaining profoundly anxious about actual flesh; Geist presses relentlessly upon that contradiction. Provocative, funny and unexpectedly theological, Intinction Objection finally asks a beautifully awkward question: if flesh can be holy, what exactly are we objecting to?
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