No wonder that in old communist Yugoslavia where I saw this film for the first time exactly this scene or more precisely the song which follows this strange hedonist, if you want, advice from the mother superior. Go back. Seduce the guy. Follow this path. Do not betray your desire.

Namely the song which begins with ‘Climb Every Mountain’; the song which is almost an embarrassing display and affirmation of desire. These three minutes were censored.

I think the censor was very intelligent. He knew as probably an atheist communist where the power of attraction of catholic religion resides. If you read intelligent catholic propagandists and if you really try to discern what deal are they offering you. It’s not to prohibit, in this case, sexual pleasures. It’s a much more cynical contract as it were, between the church as an institution and the believer troubled with, in this case, sexual desires. It is this hidden, obscene permission that you get. You are covered by the divine being, you can do whatever you want, enjoy.

This obscene contract does not belong to Christianity as such. It belongs to Catholic Church as an institution. It is the logic of institution at it’s purest. This is a gain a key to the functioning of ideology. Not only the explicit message: renounce, suffer and so on, but the true hidden message: pretend to renounce and you can get it all.

My psychoanalytic friends are telling me that typically today patients who come to the analyst to resolve their problems feel guilty not because of excessive pleasures. Not because they indulged in pleasures which go against their sense of duty and morality or whatsoever. On the contrary, they feel guilty for not enjoying enough. For not being able to enjoy.