Simply A Masterpiece

Great Film overall

As Good As It Gets

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Years ago, before the CD era, I bought the soundtrack record of "The Nun's Story" by Franz Waxman. One of the best of the old school film composers, Waxman outdid himself with this score - at once intimate and soaring. The grooves are well worn now, but it's still a favourite.The music was just one of the beautifully crafted elements that made "The Nun's Story" such an extraordinary experience.You don't have to be Catholic to feel the power of this film about Sister Luke (Audrey Hepburn), a nun just before WW2 who desires to help others in a troubled world despite inner struggles with her faith. She belongs to an austere order that abhors the sin of vanity above all others. An interesting concept these days when you'd be forgiven for thinking it had actually become a virtue.Fred Zinnemann was a classy filmmaker who believed in filming in real locations, Belgium and the Belgian Congo in this case. The film also has a tremendous sense of spirituality with fascinating sequences of convent and church ritual.Although the crisis of faith suffered by Audrey Hepburn's character forces her out of the order, the sense of people living life on a higher plane comes through with denial of self and service to others their driving motivation.Audrey Hepburn lives and breathes Sister Luke. She looks stunning in her various nuns' habits; clothing it must be said that is designed to do anything but flatter female beauty. She was one of the most radiant stars ever and this is her most luminous role. It was her personal favourite among her movies, and isn't it good to learn that she was such a nice person, considerate to her fellow actors and the crew; just a charmer with everyone. Peter Finch, another star with presence, nails his role as the challenging Doctor Fortunati.I always thought the story was true, but now know that although it is a work of fiction, it was based on the life a woman who did experience the things depicted in the film."The Nun's Story" has a number of scenes that leave a lump in the throat: Sister Luke on the train leaving the Congo, and that deafening silence as she walks away from the convent finally broken by a couple of notes of Waxman's inspired score and the tolling of a bell.The film came out decades before we became aware that some in the clergy had betrayed their positions of trust. One may be tempted to view "The Nun's Story" a little more cynically these days, but I think it simply shows the other side of the coin; those unpublicised members of the church who guided by faith quietly spend their lives helping others.

Gabrielle van der Mal, the daughter of a famous surgeon, enters a convent in Brussels with the aim of eventually becoming a nursing sister in the Congo, at that time (the 1930s) still a Belgian colony. The film follows her progress as a postulant and a novice until she takes her vows and eventually achieves her ambition of working in the Congo. She is happy for a time but eventually has to return to Belgium shortly before the outbreak of war. When the country is invaded by the Nazis, Gabrielle is faced with a crisis of conscience. (As a nun she is known as Sister Luke, but for ease of reference I will call her "Gabrielle" throughout). During the 1950s, Hollywood was generally very respectful when it came to religion, but around 1960 it began to take more a critical look at some aspects of the subject; two examples are "Elmer Gantry", whose main character is a dishonest evangelist, and "Inherit the Wind", a fictionalised account of a real-life case in which a Tennessee schoolteacher was put on trial for teaching his class about Darwin's theory of evolution. "The Nun's Story" is a slightly earlier example of the same phenomenon, although its critique of the Catholic Church, or at least of the conservative form of Catholicism exemplified by the unnamed Order to which Sister Luke belongs, is a subtle one, relying upon neither the standard Protestant arguments against Catholicism nor the standard atheist arguments against Christianity. Gabrielle's Order places a very high premium upon "obedience", and her struggles with this concept are a constant theme throughout the movie. Even before she enters the Order her father, who has misgivings about her becoming a nun, says, referring to the three vows she will have to take, "I can see you poor, I can see you chaste but I cannot see you obedient". Her close friend Simone decides that the religious life is not for her and leaves without taking her vows. A similar theme is taken up by Dr Fortunati, the surgeon with whom Gabrielle works in the Congo. Although an unbeliever, Fortunati has a keen insight into the Catholic mind and realises that Gabrielle, who has a compassionate nature and excellent medical knowledge, has what it takes to make a great nurse, but lacks what it takes to make a nun. Indeed, in her heart Gabrielle realises this herself, although her Mother Superior tries to assure her that her spiritual struggles will become easier with the passing of time. Unfortunately for her, they do not. For the Order "obedience" means obedience to one's superiors and to the Church hierarchy. For Gabrielle it means obedience to one's own conscience, and it is this disagreement which lies at the root of her two spiritual crises. The first comes when she defies an order that she should deliberately fail an examination in tropical medicine, something the Mother Superior has ordered her to do in order to demonstrate humility and to ease the tension which has grown up between her and another nun. The second comes during the war when Gabrielle believes that the church authorities are being too even-handed between the suffering people of Belgium and their Nazi oppressors, who have murdered her father. "We should not obey the gods if we did not believe them to be just" said the Ancient Greek philosophers, and the argument remains good even if one substitutes "God" for "the gods". Morality cannot be based upon authority, even Divine authority, because obedience to God is dependent upon our believing Him to be good. We can only attribute goodness to God if we have a conception of "goodness" which is quite independent of the idea of obedience to a higher power, there being no power higher than God. The film is therefore a critique of those forms of religion which place authority above reason and conscience and an exploration of a complex philosophical subject. Had I been the producer I would not necessarily have chosen Audrey Hepburn as the leading lady for a film on such an ambitious subject. In 1959 Hepburn was best known for romantic comedies like "Sabrina", "Roman Holiday" and "Funny Face". Her previous attempts to tackle more serious subjects, as in the so-so "War and Peace" and the rather odd "Green Mansions" had not always been successful. Yet had I turned her down I would have been completely wrong to have done so. This is one of her greatest performances and the one in which she first showed triumphantly that she could be as good in drama as in comedy. Another very fine performance comes from Peter Finch as Fortunati. Fred Zinnemann shows his directorial skills in the contrasts between the Belgian scenes and the Congolese ones. The scenes set in Belgium are, if not drab, certainly austere, dominated by browns, greys, black and white, with the action nearly all taking place indoors and a powerful sense of constraint and restriction. In the Congo, by contrast, there is a much greater sense of life and freedom, with more vivid colours and a more equal balance between interior and exterior settings. The very look of the film would tell you, even if the dialogue did not, that this is where Gabrielle is happiest.Zinnemann is one of my favourite directors, largely because he made what I consider to be two of the greatest films ever, "High Noon" and "A Man for All Seasons", two other movies which take as their theme obedience to one's conscience. Some of his other films are not far behind these in terms of quality, and among these I would class "From Here to Eternity" and "The Nun's Story". 9/10

I'm giving this eight out of ten for Audrey Hepburn who is note perfect as a young woman struggling with her desire to be a nun yet human enough to be fully unable to conquer her vanity, pride, and question the God who demands she suppresses these traits. At the time it was made (shortly after Kathryn Hume published her autobiographical account of her years as a nun) there was no one who could have come within a mile of capturing all the facets of Gabrielle as well as Hepburn or, indeed, could express so many emotions using just her eyes. This isn't to say the support was chopped liver; two Dames were on hand playing sympathetic Mother Superiors - Edith Evans in Belgium, Peggy Ashcroft in the Congo - with the likes of Beatrice Straight and Colleen Dewhirst weighing in with fine cameos and Peter Finch and Dean Jagger well up to snuff as the atheist surgeon in the Congo and the renowned Belgian surgeon who is also Gabrielle's father, respectively. Yet another feather in Hepburn's cap.

THE NUN'S STORYI am still going through my quest to watch the classic old films… and that includes as many Audrey Hepburn movies as possible. This is one that I had not heard much about, but knew she was in it.The story is about the daughter of a famous surgeon who becomes a nun and leaves home to enter a convent. Her wish is to go to the Congo and become a surgeon there as she has the same amazing skill as her father. The movie just follows her life as she enters the convent and the problems she has on the way to becoming a nun.The story was good, but it was very slow going. There was not a lot happening as the film concentrated on Sister Luke and her struggles. She makes all the promises to become a nun and becomes well respected, but she is finding it very hard to stick to her vows. There are a few things she is not allowed to do that she is finding hard giving up. On top of all of that, she is put into a few very awkward situations and she doesn't know what is the correct thing to do.The acting was amazing all round. Audrey really played Sister Luke perfectly. I believed she was a nun and through the film even forgot it was Audrey. Peter Finch played Dr. Fortunati, the doctor that Sister Luke works with in the Congo. Peter did a great job and was one of my favourite character Other cast members were Edith Evans, Peggy Ashcroft & Dean Jagger. I can't say anything negative about anybodies performance.There were a couple of moments in the movie that surprised me. The whole film runs along slowly, but smoothly. But then something will happen every now and then that shocked me. It just was not expected, but well received. It shook the film up a bit and made it gripping.This is nowhere near Audrey best movie. She acts as if it was an Oscar performance… but I just don't think the film was anywhere near as good as some of her previous work. This movie was nice, sad and moving. Worth watching, but I don't think I would watch it again.I will give this film 6 out of 10."Dear Lord, forgive me, I cannot obey anymore. What I do from now on is between You and me alone."For more reviews, please like my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ordinary-Person-Movie- Reviews/456572047728204?ref=hl