The Nun's Story (1959)

 Fred Zinnemann's "The Nun's Story"


To be perfectly honest, I wasn't expecting much out of "The Nun's Story" when I first put it on. It is a Fred Zinnemann film released by the Hollywood studio system in 1959 and features Audrey Hepburn in the lead. This wasn't exactly screaming 'Tarkovsky.' However, this quasi-commercial film really surprised me.

The film centers on Gaby, a surgeon's daughter who enters the postulancy as a novitiate in the early 1920s. The film tracks her experiences in becoming a nun, receiving the name Sister Luke, and her travels to the Belgian Congo for scientific research and to assist in surgery. However, after World War II breaks out, she contemplates her place in the order and whether she should be out protecting her homeland from invaders.

While the film isn't exactly dripping with existential spiritualism like "Diary of a Country Priest," for Hollywood standards, it is something far more existential than anything that would have been on the commercial market. For me, the true thematic point of the film is the continued 'coming to grips' with the disappointments of life for our protagonist. Her expectations are always let down by her own sense of pride. And yet, that pride is what propels her forward and illicit her sense of duty. 

The film allows the viewer to dissect the emotional and existential components of the concept of struggle. Our protagonist desires a sense of perfection and yet continuously finds herself exhausted by this devotional pursuit. Through her journey, she uncovers her true sense of purpose and finds in herself the true calling of God and spirituality. 

I believe "The Nun's Story" to be a great Hollywood film. I don't think this film compares to the same architype of film that would be have been coming out of Europe at the time, but I think that its themes, its dramatic internality and its amazing performance by Audrey Hepburn establish it as one of America's greatest outputs from the year 1959. 



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