Anchoress

1993

Drama

3
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 74% · 3 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 74% · 250 ratings
IMDb Rating 6.4/10 10 545 545

vision virgin mary 14th century

Plot summary

A 14th-century peasant becomes transfixed by a statue of the Virgin Mary, and petitions to be walled into a cell attached to the church as a religious hermit.

Director

Chris Newby Photo
Chris Newby

Top cast

Annette Badland Photo
Annette Badland as Mary
Natalie Morse Photo
Natalie Morse as Christine Carpenter
Toyah Willcox Photo
Toyah Willcox as Pauline Carpenter
Tim Barlow Photo
Tim Barlow as Old Pilgrim
720p.BluRay
999.68 MB
1280*752
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 48 min
Seeds 6

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by futures-1

God wants you to live in the wall...

"Anchoress" (English/Dutch): I've watched this one over and over. I don't own it yet, but I will. It is fascinating, beautiful, strange, and insightful. "Anchoress" takes place during the European Medieval period, when humans survived at the mud level. This story is about one young woman who tries to find comfort and beauty inside the church,with the 'Mother Mary'...or at least a poorly made icon. She hasn't the capability of deciphering her motives, and soon offers herself to the church as an "Anchoress" - a person devoted to God, relinquishing all worldly connections, and being voluntarily cemented into a small crawl space of her church's wall (!) - for the rest of her life. Strange times, those...except we see that the priest considers this a good marketing move for the church (to have such an "attraction"). Yet, things don't go the way anyone predicted... "Anchoress" is shot in some of the most powerful black & white film I've ever seen (equal to Bergman or Lynch), has an incredibly sensitive sound track (not music) attuned to the daily life of Earth, and, a camera that loves to be thoughtful and intimate. Each shot is a composed, artful image worthy of Rembrandt. If Rembrandt had used a movie camera, with b/w film, this could've been one of his films. Despite, or because of, the near total lack of dialog, there are scenes you will never forget. This is a very grounded film, while being mystical at the same time. Perhaps that's part of the attraction. It deals with our dual urges to rise above daily life, yet revel in it at the same time. I understand more upon each viewing of "Anchoress".
Reviewed by ye_river_xiv 4 / 10

Not bad... just not good.

A while back, there was a glowing review about this movie, saying that the choice of a soundtrack was brilliant, and every time whoever wrote the review watched the movie, he, or she learned something new.Well, I'll admit that it does have a sort of addicting pull about it, but I haven't learned anything new really. Maybe I'm just stupid, but I think the real reason is that the movie is not as great as that particular post made it out to be.I like the film, but mainly, I like it for it's peculiar sexual themes. The acting is pretty good, but without much soundtrack, there's a lot of dead air where you expect something fantastically important to happen... Then the actors do something totally inexplicable, like move a bunch of rocks, or apples, or kiss a statue.All said, it looks more like a work in progress than a movie, but there's something about that unfinished quality that really catches my attention, and sucks me in, whether I like it or not.
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