Gabrielle (Audrey Hepburn) is a woman from a wealthy Belgian family who decides to join a convent. Although she continually struggles with the discipline such a lifestyle entails, she excels in her studies of science and nursing and is eventually dispatched to The Belgian Congo where she assists the forthright Dr Fortunati (Peter Finch). Gabrielle becomes dedicated to her work abroad and forges a strong professional relationship with the doctor but the longer the two spend together, the more the professional begins to bleed into the personal. Before this situation has a chance to develop further, however, Gabrielle is recalled to Belgium amidst fears of escalating war and a possible Nazi occupation. It is during this period that Gabrielle's vows are tested to the limit and she must finally discover where her life's purpose truly lies.
The Nun's Story is an, at times, fascinating account of what is essentially a lifestyle of extreme discipline. Through Gabrielle's journey, we see the intense training that nuns must undergo in order to show obedience to the "Holy Rule". This includes the restriction of speech to only essential matters, the seeking of permission for the most basic of acts (such as drinking a glass of water between meals), and the cultivation of submission and humility through physical prostration and the washing of superior nuns' feet. Added to this, the nuns are required to strip themselves of personal desire and any sense of personal pride. If they fail in their duties in even the most minor manner, they are required to note their failings and confess them to the rest of the convent. Perhaps the greatest challenge, though, is that the nuns must completely separate themselves from their former lives. They no longer belong to the outside world, they belong to the Convent. In the words of one of the senior nuns, being a nun "is not a life of refuge from the world; it is a life of sacrifice. In a way, it is a life against nature. It is a never-ending struggle for self-perfection." Zinnemann's intimate framing and minimalist visual style achieves a sense of verisimilitude when capturing the day-to-day, and even moment-to-moment, struggles that the nuns must undergo. There is a neo-realist, documentary-esque approach to the film, with minimal use of music, and scene after scene of ritual and silence. Quite deliberately, the film moves along at a glacial pace, attempting to evoke a sense of the reality of convent life.
While this approach is effective to a certain degree, it does demand a lot from the audience, and if you are not particularly curious about the lifestyle of a nun, then there is every chance you will lose patience with the film. Yet, naturally, there is a trump card that the film has to play in the form of its lead actress, Audrey Hepburn, who excels in playing against type in the main role. So often famed for her delightful frivolity and Givenchy-inspired immaculate sense of fashion, Hepburn, in this film, trades her stylish dresses for a nun's habit, and instead of delivering witty repartee, delivers vows. She appears without make-up, which has the perhaps unintended effect of making her appear even more attractive, and demonstrates a seriousness of character and a stiffness of bearing that was alien to her typical cinematic persona. One senses that this was among the most demanding performances of Hepburn's career. The fact that she achieves it with such conviction and authenticity shows just how much talent she possessed as an actress.
While Hepburn excels, there is a glaring missed opportunity in the telling of her character's story. The film never makes clear what is motivating Gabrielle to go through the extreme privations and prostrations that being a nun entails. She is shown to come from a loving family, which is well-off financially, and she never shows any significant signs of underlying fanaticism or intense religious devotion that one would think undertaking such a commitment in her circumstances would require. The fact Gabrielle so often seems like a fish-out-of-water in her convent's surroundings has the benefit of making her character more relatable to the audience but it also has the disadvantage of making her decisions appear less credible.
Another issue the film possesses is with its pacing. I've previously alluded to its glacial quality but, around half-way through its run-time, the audience is transported away from the convent and into a volunteer-run hospital in the Belgian Congo. The intimacy of the interior settings of the convent and the familiarity that had been generated with its rhythms and routines is, thus, lost and, instead, we are provided with an under-cooked romantic angle in the jungle with the appearance of Dr Fortunati. There is still something compelling about the scenes, which were shot on location in central Africa, and tension is achieved in the depiction of Gabrielle being forced to balance her commitment to her vows with her commitment to her patients, but it feels as if we are watching a rather different film to that which we had been watching before and the change in location and the slightly increased pace of the film during its second half does deliver a somewhat jarring experience overall.
So, I would certainly recommend this film to both fans of Audrey Hepburn, especially those who are not yet educated as to the range of performance she was capable of, and to those who have an interest in convent life in the first half of the 20th century. But, if you fall into neither of these camps, you might struggle with this one.
The Nun's Story is an, at times, fascinating account of what is essentially a lifestyle of extreme discipline. Through Gabrielle's journey, we see the intense training that nuns must undergo in order to show obedience to the "Holy Rule". This includes the restriction of speech to only essential matters, the seeking of permission for the most basic of acts (such as drinking a glass of water between meals), and the cultivation of submission and humility through physical prostration and the washing of superior nuns' feet. Added to this, the nuns are required to strip themselves of personal desire and any sense of personal pride. If they fail in their duties in even the most minor manner, they are required to note their failings and confess them to the rest of the convent. Perhaps the greatest challenge, though, is that the nuns must completely separate themselves from their former lives. They no longer belong to the outside world, they belong to the Convent. In the words of one of the senior nuns, being a nun "is not a life of refuge from the world; it is a life of sacrifice. In a way, it is a life against nature. It is a never-ending struggle for self-perfection." Zinnemann's intimate framing and minimalist visual style achieves a sense of verisimilitude when capturing the day-to-day, and even moment-to-moment, struggles that the nuns must undergo. There is a neo-realist, documentary-esque approach to the film, with minimal use of music, and scene after scene of ritual and silence. Quite deliberately, the film moves along at a glacial pace, attempting to evoke a sense of the reality of convent life.
While this approach is effective to a certain degree, it does demand a lot from the audience, and if you are not particularly curious about the lifestyle of a nun, then there is every chance you will lose patience with the film. Yet, naturally, there is a trump card that the film has to play in the form of its lead actress, Audrey Hepburn, who excels in playing against type in the main role. So often famed for her delightful frivolity and Givenchy-inspired immaculate sense of fashion, Hepburn, in this film, trades her stylish dresses for a nun's habit, and instead of delivering witty repartee, delivers vows. She appears without make-up, which has the perhaps unintended effect of making her appear even more attractive, and demonstrates a seriousness of character and a stiffness of bearing that was alien to her typical cinematic persona. One senses that this was among the most demanding performances of Hepburn's career. The fact that she achieves it with such conviction and authenticity shows just how much talent she possessed as an actress.
While Hepburn excels, there is a glaring missed opportunity in the telling of her character's story. The film never makes clear what is motivating Gabrielle to go through the extreme privations and prostrations that being a nun entails. She is shown to come from a loving family, which is well-off financially, and she never shows any significant signs of underlying fanaticism or intense religious devotion that one would think undertaking such a commitment in her circumstances would require. The fact Gabrielle so often seems like a fish-out-of-water in her convent's surroundings has the benefit of making her character more relatable to the audience but it also has the disadvantage of making her decisions appear less credible.
Another issue the film possesses is with its pacing. I've previously alluded to its glacial quality but, around half-way through its run-time, the audience is transported away from the convent and into a volunteer-run hospital in the Belgian Congo. The intimacy of the interior settings of the convent and the familiarity that had been generated with its rhythms and routines is, thus, lost and, instead, we are provided with an under-cooked romantic angle in the jungle with the appearance of Dr Fortunati. There is still something compelling about the scenes, which were shot on location in central Africa, and tension is achieved in the depiction of Gabrielle being forced to balance her commitment to her vows with her commitment to her patients, but it feels as if we are watching a rather different film to that which we had been watching before and the change in location and the slightly increased pace of the film during its second half does deliver a somewhat jarring experience overall.
So, I would certainly recommend this film to both fans of Audrey Hepburn, especially those who are not yet educated as to the range of performance she was capable of, and to those who have an interest in convent life in the first half of the 20th century. But, if you fall into neither of these camps, you might struggle with this one.