Unlimitedia Sick Product of a Sick System

Maidexpl Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

SnoopyStyle Around 1930 in Belgium, Gabrielle Van Der Mal (Audrey Hepburn) leaves her wealthy family to join the convent. Her surgeon father tries to dissuade her but she aims to be a healer in the Congo. She is given the name Sister Luke as she faces the challenges of her faith in the real world. Her nemesis is her pride. First, she's denied the Congo but eventually, she is assigned there to work under Dr. Fortunati (Peter Finch).Based upon the life of Marie Louise Habets, it was nominated for 8 Oscars winning none. It is certainly detailed in its portrayal of a nun's life. It's the film debut of Colleen Dewhurst in a minor role. Each part is interesting but the movie needs a driving force through the entire story. That is supposed to be her pride but it comes and goes at times. That idea needs some repetitive clarity as a lens to focus her character development. It is sometimes colored with a suggested love story with Fortunati. Her obsession with the Congo needs to be given voice. It would be great if she actually says out loud that she is better than the other nuns. Her struggles with her obedience is generally good. The most compelling scene is the leper colony with real lepers. The Nazi occupation could have been more dramatic although this movie treats it more as an interior struggle. It stops her story short. I understand the concept of stopping at that point but I need to see her life afterwards.

tomsview 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.

Filipe Neto This film shows the life of a Belgian nun, from the moment she enter to the convent and through successive crises of vocation and a mission in Belgian Congo. Directed by Fred Zinnemann, the film has a screenplay by Robert Anderson, based on a fictional novel by Kathryn Hulme. The cast is led by Audrey Hepburn, in the lead role.Despite having been nominated for eight Oscars (Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Sound, Best Cinematography Color, Best Soundtrack and Best Editing), this film has been ignored by people over the last few decades, which makes it probably one of the most unknown movies in Hepburn's career. Of course, many people think, reading the title, this film is pure Catholic propaganda, and maybe that's why its not widely spoken. But its far from propaganda, despite showing, with accuracy, the modus vivendi of the nuns in the beginning of the last century. Keep track of time is very important to understand the film, which passes through in the end of World War II, and also helps to understand one thing that the film doesn't say but any person will notice quickly: the way of life that the nuns of this film lead fell into disuse for decades ago, due to the massive modernization that the Catholic Church suffered.The script is excellent, though not (as some people think) a true story. Much of the film is fiction inspired by real facts, but fiction. Its a history of sacrifice, overcoming, love to a vocation and a profession: medicine, that the young nun exercises as religious. But its also a film about doubts, inner conflicts and people trying to be better by facing their failures and humanity. Audrey Hepburn shone as Gabrielle/Sister Luke, her beautiful face gave her an almost angelic appearance and a truly powerful presence on screen. The way she counter-acts with Peter Finch, who played a doctor in Congo, with very specific ideas and almost devoid of faith, its delicious. The scenarios are very good, recreating well the religious ambiance and the almost savage Africa, that Europeans pioneered in those years.The end of the film is one of the most amazing I've seen, mainly for two reasons: First, its absolutely silent, having no music; second, after seeing this nun suffer so much by her dreams, its impossible for her not to win the public's affection, so the end becomes difficult to accept for the public.Decidedly, this film is worthy and deserves to be seen more often by the current public.

MarieGabrielle I agree with another reviewer in that people who may have seen that series ("The Flying Nun"), or "The Singing Nun" with Deborah Kerr, may not initially want to give this film a chance because of the premise. That being said, it is not just about the nuns and their order, it is a complex study about political issues in the Congo at that time, the effects of World War II, and a young woman in Brussels, Sister Luke who is raised by her esteemed surgeon father, but wants more and takes it upon herself to join a convent in service for the Congo.The photography when she first visits the convent are beautiful. I have not seen this region of Africa filmed so beautifully, the people native to the area, the children, the crisp white hospital and lush tropical backyard. Sister Luke at first hopes she is to work at the native hospital, but the mother superior informs her she is to work with the surgeon, Peter Finch at the "white hospital" it took a moment for me to realize what the mother superior meant.Eventually Sister Luke becomes rebellious, she gets TB and is quarantined for a few months, where the doctor gives her Belgian beer. There are some enchanting scenes, her companion in hospital with a squirrel monkey....the animals and wildlife alone in this film interested me as well.Overall a beautiful film, the end is reflective and Hepburn barely speaks, her emotions and facial reactions convey her new hope, this is truly beautiful and rare acting, which we will never see today, except maybe in theater. 9/10.