The Nun’s Story
Composite Score: 86.27
Starring: Audrey Hepburn, Peter Finch, Edith Evans, Peggy Ashcroft, Dean Jagger, Mildred Dunnock, Rosalie Crutchley, Patricia Bosworth, Dorothy Alison, Niall MacGinnis, and Errol John
Director: Fred Zinnemann
Writer: Robert Anderson
Genres: Drama, History
MPAA Rating: Approved
Box Office: $12.80 million worldwide
Why should you Watch This Film?
The Nun’s Story is the film adaptation of Kathryn Hulme’s novel of the same name about a woman who becomes a nun in order to serve as a nurse in Belgian Congo but finds her vows tested by her interactions there and her obligations in Europe after the breakout of World War II. The film stars Audrey Hepburn in the leading role of Sister Luke (formerly Gabrielle van der Mal), supported by Peter Finch as the atheist Doctor Fortunati, Edith Evans as Reverend Mother Emmanuel, Peggy Ashcroft as Mother Mathilde, Dean Jagger as Gabrielle’s father Dr. Hubert van der Mal, and Dorothy Alison as the idealistic Sister Aurelie. The film received eight Oscar nominations including Best Score, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director, Best Actress (Hepburn), and Best Picture, losing out to Ben-Hur and Room at the Top in all of its races. The film was a critical and commercial success for the time and continues to receive recognition for its cinematography, story, and Hepburn’s performance against her typical type.
Why shouldn’t you Watch This Film?
Where the film falls short is the unfortunate product of its time. It’s a mainstream American-produced film of the 1950s, and as a result, it steers clear of any potentially controversial topics, like the condemnation of the colonial system (especially Belgian Congo, c’mon!) and ends up feeling somewhat hollow as a result. Even the story of Sister Luke’s struggle to cut it as a nun ends up being framed more around her being a bad fit for the cloth rather than any kind of examination of whether the requirements of her station might have been outdated and/or problematic. That lack of depth could be forgiven if the film’s pseudo-white-savior plot about her working to integrate the African workers into the segregated hospital didn’t also include some pretty charged and, now, problematic moments. For one, all the white hospital workers refer to the African men who work with them as “boys” and “the boys”, which had already been recognized in the mainstream as a racially charged term, as evidenced by a watch of 1958’s The Defiant Ones. Compound that with the problematic portrayal of the Africans, in general, as non-Christian, less civilized, and generally uneducated, and you can begin to see how the film’s messaging might get a bit mixed up in a modern context.
So wait, why should you Watch This Film?
Visually, the film presents several frames and shots that showcase the starkness of nun life juxtaposed against the vibrancy of life in the Congo and even the dark chaos of life during World War II. Franz Planer (Roman Holiday and The Caine Mutiny) has done a great job here of capturing that side of the film’s themes, exploring the differences between European and African lifestyles, between Catholic and pagan, between cloistered and secular, with simple shots. He makes scenes of nuns in church feel like the prelude to a horror film with their scale and focus while making crowded Congolese markets look like happening celebrations of human life. It’s some of the better work from that era, which helps the film’s excessive runtime never feel overlong because of the variety of shots and feelings that he’s able to capture with them.
Likewise, Hepburn herself puts on a show, carrying the film’s character study of a woman never really cut out to be a nun, yet who wants nothing more than to serve those less fortunate than herself. This is not the flighty, flirtatious, and dreamy Audrey Hepburn of Roman Holiday and Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Here we have her struggling internally without the added breaks of romance and comedy to relieve her of the pressure, and still, she revels in the spotlight, drawing the audience into every sequence, questioning how her life will eventually end up, never making us doubt her conviction even as she begins to doubt her decision. It’s a strong performance that reminds the audience of just how skilled the actress truly was in her time.
Between Audrey Hepburn’s strong leading character study and the thematically appropriate cinematography, The Nun’s Story captures something about an era of film that deserves a place among the greats. Some portions of the film and its subject matter haven’t aged incredibly well, so it’s not immune to criticism, but it does feel original and somehow epic even now, sixty-five years later. You can currently rent this movie on most streaming platforms if you’d like to check it out in the coming days.
