The Nun's Story
Short description
The Nun's Story follows Gabrielle van der Mal, the daughter of a well-known Belgian doctor, who leaves her comfortable bourgeois life to enter a convent. Taking the name Sister Luke, she trains as a nurse with the aim of serving in the Congo, and her studies in tropical medicine earn her a posting there. The assignment does not match her expectations, and her strong-willed character keeps coming into conflict with the obedience her vows demand. She later faces a further test of her vocation amid the upheaval of the Second World War. The film is based on the life of a real Belgian nun.
Fred Zinnemann directed and produced the film, working from a screenplay by Robert Anderson. It came in the middle of a run of major Zinnemann pictures that began with High Noon in 1952 and continued through From Here to Eternity and Oklahoma!, ahead of A Man for All Seasons in 1966. Audrey Hepburn plays Sister Luke, with Peter Finch as Dr. Fortunati and Edith Evans, Peggy Ashcroft, Dean Jagger and Mildred Dunnock among the credited cast of thirty-four.
The film runs 151 minutes and was made for about 4 million dollars, returning roughly 13 million worldwide. On IMDb it holds a critics' rating of 7.5 out of 10 from 19 reviews, while on TMDB it scores 7.2 out of 10 from 205 votes, a narrower gap than is typical between professional and general opinion.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film is based on the novel of the same name by Katherine Halm.
- The fate of the main character is based on real facts from the life of a former nun, with whom Audrey Hepburn consulted before filming.
- There is a legend that Hepburn demanded a bidet be provided for her during filming in Congo. The actress always denied this, wondering how such an extravagant item could have ended up in that poor African country.
- Artists from the ballet company of the Rome Opera portrayed the nuns in the film. Choreography for complex monastic rituals was specifically created for them.
- One of the assistant directors on this project was Sergio Leone. He spoke almost no English, but was quite fluent in French, and his directing experience and fame made Leone one of the highest-paid assistant directors in cinema history.
- After buying the film rights to Catherine Hull's 1956 novel, director Fred Zinnemann found that no one in Hollywood was eager to adapt the novel for the screen, citing a complete lack of so-called 'action' as the reason. This changed instantly once Audrey Hepburn showed interest in the project. The adaptation was eventually undertaken by Warner Bros., and the film was nominated for numerous awards and became the studio's biggest financial success of the year.
- The role of Sister Luke was offered to Ingrid Bergman, but she decided that her age would prevent her from playing the part convincingly and suggested Audrey Hepburn instead.
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