Dark Habits
Entre Tinieblas
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| Poster Origin : | Spain |
| Poster Size : | Spanish 1 Sheet / 70 x 100cm |
| Poster Artist : | Iván Zulueta |
| Poster Year : | 1983 |
| Poster Version : | First Release |
| Film Origin : | Spain |
| Film Director : | Pedro Almódovar |
| Film Year : | 1983 |
Another surrealist poster from Ivan Zulueta, who was no stranger to addiction. The English title, a pun referencing convent attire and shady clandestine obsessions, nicely alludes to the ironic mise-en-scene and innate hypocrisy of institutional religion. The original title translates more simply as ‘In Darkness’, as these women surely are.
Incidental and diegetic music plays a significant role, so the border is surrounded by crotchets and quavers; from the strains of Lucho Gatica’s Encadenados, from Yolanda’s cabaret and from the bongos played by Sister Damned to soothe her surrogate son, a pet tiger.
The tiger is used as an overall metaphor for Mother Superior (indeed all of the nuns), snarling and salivating with passion and unable to control their innermost desires. The claws shred the white linen guimpe as if to confirm Freud’s model; the animalistic id cannot be suppressed, and will easily destroy any wilful but artificially contrived temperance.
The tiny figure of Yolanda drapes herself impassively yet seductively over the claws like a stage prop. Her microphone wire ensnares Mother Superior like a lasso, enslaving her emotionally like her own diamorphine. Mother Superior appears large like the devourer but falls hard; hypodermic needles represent her cruel and unrequited love and pierce the heart of her sacred emblem; the ultimate suffering and anguish.