The Nun's Story

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The Nun's Story

1959

2h 31m

Drama

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

85%

Tomatometer

20 Reviews

81%

Popcornmeter

5,000+ Ratings

Willful and outspoken Gabrielle van der Mal (Audrey Hepburn), the daughter of a prominent Belgian surgeon (Dean Jagger), leaves her upper-class existence to become a nun. As Sister Luke, she is eventually sent to the Belgian Congo, where she excels as a nurse working with a skilled doctor (Peter Finch). However, her willingness to continue as a nun is challenged when her father is killed by the Nazis, and she no longer feels that she can maintain the neutrality of her order.

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Variety Staff

Variety

11/01/2007

Fred Zinnemann's production is a soaring and luminous film.

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Tom Milne

Time Out

06/24/2006

It's still a long haul (made no lighter by Franz Waxman's abominably insistent score) for anyone not committed to theological problems of faith, conscience and obedience.

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Steven D. Greydanus

Decent Films

04/12/2006

B

Certainly doesn't offer the positive depiction of religious life common in 1950s Hollywood, but it's not an anti-religious or anti-Catholic depiction either.

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Matt Brunson

Film Frenzy

05/27/2024

3.5/4

Sister Luke’s crisis of conscience dovetails neatly with her blood-sweat-and-tears ordeals to produce a truly fascinating film.

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Moira Walsh

The Catholic World

11/28/2023

[Conveys] a profound and moving insight into the total self-sacrifice and tough-fibred holiness of convent life. Moreover it clothes these insights in striking dramatic terms which can hardly fail to absorb and edify the believer and the unbeliever alike.

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Manny Farber

The New Leader

09/14/2021

When the plot turns up, Zinnemann reduces each heroism to kernel size and then resumes his tasteful but rather insipid documentation.

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CL

05/14/2023

Very well written and acted.

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CodyZamboni

05/03/2023

Audrey Hepburn's strong, understated performance holds this movie together, despite the overlength and plodding pace, especially during the first half. Movie picks up once Audrey is sent to Africa. The themes of religious faith, and the human capacity for forgiveness in the face of increasingly unspeakable evil in the world, are laid bare for Audrey's character to decide, and for the audience

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Sue C

02/03/2023

I've seen every movie Audrey Hepburn made and - as a child - was extremely moved by the struggles of Sister Luke in "The Nun's Story," based on a true account of convent life by Kathry Hulme which was a best seller. If you want to see Catholic devotion in action pre-Vatican II, watch "The Nun's Story." True, the movie is very long but a sad and powerful testament to true devotion and the often impossible demands made behind convent walls.

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Mark A

12/20/2022

Audrey Hepburn is awesome.

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06/24/2022

Didn't mean to watch it but couldn't stop until the end. I thought it was a love story but it was a struggle with sexuality but so subtly done you don't notice until the end

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@BrentAprill 05/24/2022

10% rating. Really struggled to find anything entertaining in the film.

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Fred Zinnemann

Director

Audrey Hepburn

Sister Luke (Gabrielle van der Mal)

Peter Finch

Dr. Fortunati

Edith Evans

Rev. Mother Emmanuel (Belgium)

Peggy Ashcroft

Mother Mathilde (Africa)

Dean Jagger

Dr. Van Der Mal

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Synopsis

Willful and outspoken Gabrielle van der Mal (Audrey Hepburn), the daughter of a prominent Belgian surgeon (Dean Jagger), leaves her upper-class existence to become a nun. As Sister Luke, she is eventually sent to the Belgian Congo, where she excels as a nurse working with a skilled doctor (Peter Finch). However, her willingness to continue as a nun is challenged when her father is killed by the Nazis, and she no longer feels that she can maintain the neutrality of her order.

Director: Fred Zinnemann
Producer: Henry Blanke
Screenwriter: Robert Anderson, Kathryn Hulme
Distributor: MGM/UA Home Entertainment Inc., Warner Home Vídeo, Warner Bros.
Production Co: Warner Bros.
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jul 18, 1959, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Nov 21, 2016
Runtime: 2h 31m
Sound Mix: Mono

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