Madonna of the Seven Moons (DVD)

Madonna of the Seven Moons is a British film starring Phyllis Calvert, Stewart Granger and Patricia Roc. A respectable, convent-raised woman is haunted by the memory of being raped as a teenager. But when her grown daughter returns from school, her life begins to unravel in monumentally surprising ways. A buried trauma from the past holds the key to the disappearance of a respectable married woman. Maddalena (Phyllis Calvert) has a dual personality which leads her to forsake her husband and daughter and flee the house of the Seven Moons in Florence as the mistress of a jewel thief. The academic, Sue Harper wrote an analysis of the film where she attributed R.J. Minney, the producer, as being the creative force behind the film. The story is supposed to be based on real case histories and begins with a rather explicit suggestion of interference or indecent assault on a devout, convert-educated young woman which causes her to develop split personalities. This is an exceptional movie which examines the trauma women face in a world filled with haunting acts of violence upon women and the consequences of such acts.

• drama
• romance