Good 50's Films: The Nun's Story

1959 Drama
From Warner Bros.
Directed by Fred Zinnemann

Starring
Audrey Hepburn
Peter Finch
Edith Evans
Peggy Ashcroft
Dean Jagger
Mildred Dunnock
Beatrice Straight
Patricia Collinge
Ruth White
Barbara O'Neil
Colleen Dewhurst

From the time I first saw it and knowing little about the inner workings of the Catholic church, I found it a totally fascinating learning experience, illuminating, sometimes frustrating and impossible to turn away from.  But what got me to the film in the first place is quite simple... the undeniable star power of Audrey Hepburn.  I just didn't miss her movies.

The Nun's Story, based on a best-selling novel by Kathryn Hulme,  was a controversial piece because it dealt with a nun who broke her vows.  The church said the film exaggerated the harshness of convent life.

We meet Belgian Gabrielle van der Mal, the daughter of a wealthy surgeon (Jagger), as she is preparing to leave her family to enter a convent.  Her father feels uncertain for her future, knowing especially that he has such a spirited daughter.  One of her sisters is so upset by her leaving that she won't come to say goodbye.

As father and daughter are standing outside the convent, he lovingly says to her I can see you poor, I can see you chaste but I cannot see you, a strong-willed girl, obedient to those bells (heard ringing).  Their faces seem to be etched in doubt.  Your personal wishes cease to exist when you enter that door. 

He seems unable to get out all he wants to say or perhaps he is trying to show respect for her choices.  Nonetheless, please remember this, Gaby.  If you ever decide this is not right for you, there's no sense of failure in coming back home.

Soon she is in the anteroom of a cloister as a fresh batch of young girls are put through their paces by donning hooded black capes.  They are advised they will be postulates for six months and novices for one year.  They must learn to dress without mirrors.  They will learn to practice silence, not just an exterior manifestation but also an internal one.  I have never forgotten the visceral feeling I had at hearing that.     

Their lives, they are informed, will center around poverty, chastity and obedience and they are told how difficult that will be.  Gaby, no doubt, hears her father's words of only a short time earlier.  The young women are told it will be a life of sacrifice which is also a life against nature, a never-ending struggle for self-perfection.  The perfect nun is the one, for the love of God, who is obedient in all things unto death.  A rather serious-looking nun offers that some of them will have more trouble than others.

We see Gaby doing a bit of struggling in her life as a postulant.  She shows up late, speaks without necessity, is at odds with dismissing her memories and may have difficulty adjusting to those bells (which signal an immediate adherence to a new task).  Most troubling, perhaps, is that she has certain ideas of what she'd like to do as a nun... like being involved in nursing in the Congo.  As she graduates to becoming a novice, she is given a new name... Sister Luke.

I loved the construction of this movie.  I was so engaged in the first part... around an hour.  That ritualistic feel to learning the ropes along with the ever-creeping doubts she has constantly made me wonder what that kind of life would be like and what kind of person would choose to do it.  

It seems as though it's God's will for her to work in an insane asylum.  It's a far cry from the Congo but it does allow her to practice nursing skills which she no doubt picked up working alongside her father.  She makes a mistake in unlocking the cell door of a particularly dangerous patient (Dewhurst, in her film debut) and is viciously attacked.  Finally, one day, most unexpectedly, she is told she will be leaving for the Congo to work as the head nurse for the respected Dr. Fortunati (Finch).  She has been trained that pride has no place in her chosen life but she's working on keeping her elation under wraps.  

My other interest in seeing the movie was its African locations.  The long 2-hour and 29-minute film changes its appearance at this point.  From interior sets and learning her faith to outdoor sequences and practicing what she's been trained for brings about a  colorful drama.  Within no time we are convinced this is a woman who was destined to be a nurse rather than a nun.  

She is dedicated to the doctor and to their work.  Her basic goodness illuminates all within her reach.  She is Mama Luke to the adoring local people.  She is determined to master the many diseases that plaque the villages.  She devours all the learning she's able to, engages in chemical experiments and coaxes as much information out of Dr. Fortunati as possible.  She is reminded by the kind Mother Superior (Ashcroft) that she is a nun first, then a nurse.  It's clear to us all that Sister Luke is having some struggles while Gaby is another story.  

Sister Luke is honored in print for some inventions and discoveries she has brought to jungle medicine but a bishop chastises her for singularizing herself.  That, a bout with TB and the outbreak of war are further turning Sister Luke's head.  At the same time she is sent back to the states, dispirited and disillusioned in her calling.  She comes to the conclusion she can serve God more effectively as a nurse.

There is a largely silent ending to the film that always impressed me.  I felt invisible... right there in Gaby's room, observing her preparing to leave the convent.   We see her hair for the first time since the opening.  She's in her own clothes.  Her one suitcase is nearly ready to leave the white, spartan little room forever.  We learn she has lost her beloved father to war.  We hope she will return to Africa somehow.  I hope maybe she and Dr. Fortunati might allow their wonderful professional relationship to become more personal.

A epic film of spiritual angst, it managed to fill me up with gladness by its ending.  It simply had to end the way it did.  It is a wholly engaging film that never forgets to maintain one's interest. In my view it is most respectful all along the way.

Sister Luke is at the top of Audrey Hepburn's best-fitting roles.  This is an incandescent performance not to be missed.  I just watched the film, of course, and was impressed all over again.  She has either said this was first favorite role or one of her (few) favorites.  She was justly nominated for an Oscar.

It was also a role that was close to her heart, if for no other reason than she was also Belgian.  She also was part of the war effort that brought out a humanitarian side to her personality that she shared with Sister Luke.  What the actress saw while filming in Africa stayed with her forever and helped foster her involvement with UNICEF.       

The Nun's Story also contains a virtual who's who of highly-respected and heavily-lauded veteran character actresses.  Did you note those names above?  Every one of them is letter-perfect.  The same could be said about the largest male roles played by Finch and Jagger.

Director Fred Zinnemann is the best guide for this journey.  He latched onto projects that had scripts that he couldn't put down.  He made some wonderful choices and The Nun's Story is one of his best films.  He loved films with vivid characters whom he treated with dignity.  And of course casting was always extremely important to him.  That is most apparent here.

Along with Hepburn, Zinnemann and the film itself, five more Oscar nominations were bestowed.

For your trivia files:  The following year Hepburn made her only western, The Unforgiven.  During filming she broke her back in a near-fatal horseback riding accident.  She was nursed back to health by a new friend, the nurse upon whom Sister Luke was based.

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