THE NUN'S STORY: Blu-ray (Warner Bros., 1959) Warner Archive

It’s been said, where great power resides, equally rests grave risk for the abuse of it. Perhaps, never a more indicative claim than when cast upon the Catholic church. Based on Kathryn Hulme's shocking novel, director, Fred Zinnemann's The Nun's Story (1959) is an unapologetic deconstruction of the structure and strictures placed upon young noviciates as they commit their lives to God. Robert Anderson's screenplay surrenders the filmic piety of devout Catholicism (made warm-hearted in movies like 1944’s Oscar-winning, Going My Way and its follow-up, 1945’s The Bells of St. Mary's) instead, to assign much of this movie’s lengthy 152-minutes to a far more unflattering treatise on the inward sacrifices and moral rigidity of the church in its fervent quest to create ‘the perfect nun’. That, this story's heroine, Gabrielle Van der Mal (Audrey Hepburn) is born of impeccable stock, morality and social background above reproach - and thereby, seemingly ideally suited to her calling - yet, unable to attain personal enlightenment via blind obedience - strikes a particularly devastating chord. Evidently, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese agreed, and were none too pleased with Hollywood’s ambitions to scrutinize their cloistered teachings.

Our story opens with Gabrielle leaving her idyllic family life to join the convent in Rotterdam, Holland. It is Gabrielle's fervent desire the sisterhood will assign her to missionary work in the Belgian Congo upon receiving her vows. Gabrielle's father, Dr. Van der Mal (Dean Jagger) urges Gabrielle to reconsider her chosen path. At home with him, she has the love, support and devotion of two sisters, a brother, and, a fiancée. Still, Gabrielle is certain the nunnery is her true calling. She is sequestered along with other hopefuls and put to task under the most stringent conditions and house rules. A proper nun - so we are told - can never look at herself in a mirror. She does not form 'attachments' (friendships) with fellow novices. She obeys without question any and all requests from her superiors. She does not speak unless she is spoken to, and, she resigns herself to forget every last fact from memory about her own past. A little black diary is given to each noviciate into which she must daily 'accuse' herself in writing of each impure thought. The Holy Rule is supposed to attain a sense of higher purpose, to help repress all sense of self and to smite vanity in all its forms.

Rechristened Sister Luke, Gabrielle invests herself with ardent purpose, yet oddly, with a constant self-doubt her studies are being sabotaged by pride. Sister Margharita, the Mistress of Postulants (Mildred Dunnock) is Gabrielle's greatest proponent. It is through Sister Margharita's constant encouragement, Gabrielle finds the strength to persevere, even as some of her cohort recognize the life of a nun is not for them and begin to drop out. However, at the hospital where Gabrielle is stationed to care for the sick, as well as train in her medical duties, a noviciate accuses Gabrielle of being prideful in her superior mastery of medicine. The accusation reaches the ears of Mother Marcella (Ruth White) who all but demands Gabrielle deliberately fail her final examination. However, it is essential Gabrielle pass the medical portion to be considered for assignment in the Congo. Defying Mother Marcella, Gabrielle comes in fourth from the top of her class during the oral medical examination. As punishment, she is re-assigned to care for the criminally insane in a sanitarium and is nearly murdered by one of its occupants who refers to herself as the Archangel (Colleen Dewhurst).

Eventually, Gabrielle does make it to the Congo, but here too her aspirations to care for its native inhabitants are dashed by the Catholic Archdiocese when she is instead assigned to the white hospital presided over by Dr. Fortunati (Peter Finch); a no-nonsense surgeon who comes to greatly admire Gabrielle for her medical prowess. Dr. Fortunati even goes so far as to conceal Gabrielle's bout of tuberculosis from the church in order to heal her himself while keeping her close at hand as his medical assistant. After the local Chaplain, Father Andre (Stephen Murray) is injured in a bicycle accident, Gabrielle manages to reset his crushed bones without Fortunati's aid and saves Father Andre's leg. This noble deed earns Gabrielle the respect of the entire congregation - yet, she is 'punished' once again for her pride of workmanship by being recalled to convent life in Rotterdam. Once home, Gabrielle learns her father has been mercilessly gunned down with other refugees by the Nazi army. Realizing she cannot endure a life of servitude where her innate skills as a medical nurse are undervalued, Gabrielle declares she has decided to leave the nunnery once and for all. After signing her declaration, she is quietly and rather unceremoniously cast out of the convent, departing by a back door, presumably in disgrace, and, into a very bleak and uncertain future.

Thus, ends The Nun's Story on a shockingly ambiguous note. The movie is immeasurably blessed by Audrey Hepburn's poignantly understated central performance. There is real chemistry between Hepburn and Finch in their brief scenes together. In hindsight, one sincerely wishes for more of these. To Hepburn’s credit, the story - without much verbal interaction between Gabrielle or anyone else – nevertheless, is compelling. Sister Luke’s struggles to attain enlightenment beyond her own willful resolve become our own, as she navigates her way through two life-altering decisions; the first, to become a nun, the second, to surrender this vocation for an undetermined, and ostensibly daunting future alone in the wide-wide world – and, one at war, no less.

One cannot overstate the artistic pitfalls Zinnemann had to overcome to get The Nun’s Story made; not the least, appeasement of the Catholic League of Decency. Robert Anderson’s screenplay adheres faithfully to Hulme’s novel – omitting only one major plot point from the novel (a mental patient’s assault on Sister Luke). But the graver concern, at least as far as Jack Warner was concerned, was the picture’s thinly veiled critique of the trials of an actual Belgian nun, Marie Louise Habets. These could not be dismissed. As early as 1956, Warner and Columbia both approached Hollywood’s self-governing censorship board to inquire about the feasibility of making a picture while Hulme’s book was still in gallies. Warner found much support in Jack Vizzard, then head of the Production Code. But what really concerned Vizzard, as well as Warner, had more to do with the book’s publication shortly thereafter. While receiving wide critical acclaim, The Nun’s Story also proved divisive with Catholic readers and their archdiocese, the latter believing Hulme’s novel mispresented the plight of potential postulants as slightly grotesque and monumentally discouraging. Warner eventually outbid Columbia to produce it, forewarned of the movie’s potential to alienate a vast sector of the public. In Hollywood, The Nun’s Story drew hushed reticence from many who refused to partake of the exercise. Mercifully, the project gained considerable traction after Audrey Hepburn expressed her desire to appear in it.

On August 14, 1957, the studio submitted Anderson’s first draft to the Production Code Office, in conference with the National Legion of Decency’s Monsignor John Devlin.  While Devlin concurred, the script was “substantially acceptable”, he also believed it stressed all of the rigors and none of the joys of entering religious life.  As such, Devlin suggested an effort be made to show that Hepburn’s Gabrielle had entered her calling under a false ideal. The blame for her failure was therefore hers alone to bear, not through any fault of the Catholic church. Alas, the Roman Catholic church in Belgium, having already condemned Hulme’s novel as injurious to those in religious vocations, now turned their mistrust against the movie, refusing Zinnemann any allowance to shoot on location. Meanwhile, Vizzard tapped Leo Joseph Suenens, auxiliary Bishop of Mechelen to renounce his objections, using Father Leo Lunders as an interventionist. Lunder resisted Warner’s initial desire to cast either Montgomery Clift or Raf Vallone in the pivotal role of Doctor Fortunati. At this juncture, the project picked up another ally in Harold C. Gardiner who, together with Lunders, hired as the picture’s ecclesiastical advisor, and Vizzard, won over Monsignor Suenens seal of approval. Alas, nothing further could proceed without the approval of Mother General of the Sisters of Charity of Jesus and Mary in Ghent. The Sisters provided the studio with its own screenplay, taken to heart, if not imperative, with several of their ideas incorporated into Anderson’s screenplay to grease the wheels.

Interestingly, there were no objections to the largely non-denominational cast invested in telling this very Catholic story: Fred Zinnemann - Jewish; Audrey Hepburn and Edith Evans - Christian Scientists, Robert Anderson - a Protestant, and, Peggy Ashcroft – agnostic. Instead, the production was given access to observe real religious ceremonies and traditions, with Hepburn and her costars invested in a prolonged stay at Assumptionist Convents in Paris. Zinnemann also stayed in close contact with the novel’s author, Kathryn Hulme, whom Hepburn met in consultation, as well as Marie Louise Habets, on whom Hulme’s fictional counterpart was based. Hepburn and Habets bonded over their common Belgian roots and hardships endured during the Second World War. And long after the picture’s premiere, Habets would reenter Hepburn’s life again, nursing the actress back to health after her riding accident on the set of The Unforgiven (1960).

Zinnemann, a very ‘hands on’ director, held tight to Anderson, constantly consulting and collaborating on the finessing of his screenplay, as well as remaining laser focused on achieving the best performances from all of his principal cast. Discovering she was pregnant at the outset of the production, co-star, Patricia Bosworth underwent an underground abortion, resulting in severe complications that delayed production for several weeks.  In the meantime, Zinnemann hired Colleen Dewhurst, in her screen debut as Archangel Gabriel, and, Renée – his wife, as an assistant to Edith Evans (cast as Mother Superior).  Also appearing, such Hollywood stalwarts as Dean Jagger (Dr. Hubert Van Der Mal), Mildred Dunnock (Sister Margharita), Beatrice Straight (Mother Christophe), Barbara O'Neil (Mother Didyma), and Brits, Lionel Jeffries (Dr. Goovaerts), and Niall MacGinnis (Father Vermeuhlen). Along the way, Zinnemann’s ambitions for the picture morphed – scrapping plans for cinematographer, Franz Planer to shoot only the African scenes in color, counterbalanced by the relative drabness of the European sequences, initially planned for B&W. For technical reasons, Zinnemann also had to abandon a sequence meant to appear near the end of the picture in which three men are caught in quicksand and rapidly rising water. As the Catholic diocese in Belgium still would not allow Zinnemann access to their churches, the ‘Belgian’ portions were lensed in Rome at Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia and Cinecittà on sets designed by Alexandre Trauner with extras culled from Rome’s Opera company.

Shot mostly on location in the Belgian Congo, The Nun’s Story was wildly popular with audiences, not the least, as the latest feature starring the luminous, Audrey Hepburn. On a budge of only $3.5 million, it grossed $12.8 in domestic receipts alone, making it Hepburn’s most successful movie to date. Hepburn would garner one of the picture’s eight Oscar nominations, as Best Actress, losing out to Simone Signoret for Room at the Top. Critical plaudits ranged from ‘amazing’ to ‘tasteful.’ Even the National Legion of Decency was impressed, classifying The Nun’s Story as ‘morally unobjectionable for adults and adolescents’, though with the backhanded footnote, “If the film fails to capture the full meaning of religious life in terms of its spiritual joy and all-pervading charity, this must be attributed to the inherent limitations of a visual art.” Nominated for 8 Academy Awards, The Nun’s Story was virtually overlooked in 1959, the year William Wyler’s Ben-Hur cleaned up at the podium. Nevertheless, Zinnemann received ‘best director’ honors from the New York Film Critics, as well as the National Board of Review.

For decades, home video releases of The Nun’s Story have remained the bane of the industry, owing to the picture being shot on Eastman 5248 acetate-based film stock, a micro-fine grain, yielding remarkable clarity and ease of use in both indoor and outdoor photography. Initially, Eastman’s single layer technology, with its light sensitive emulsions, was regarded as an advantage to the more cumbersome, if time-honored 3-strip Technicolor process. Ironically, processing the film stock reduced the density of its emulsion significantly – the net result, over time, no viable prints could be struck from the original camera negative. And if no separation masters were made at the time of production, an entire movie could well be lost forever. Worse, and, all-too-soon, Eastman 5248 became rather notorious for its color instability and proneness to extreme color fading.

The Warner Archive’s new-to-Blu of The Nun’s Story is therefore cause for celebration, as Warner's MPI remastering facility have managed a minor miracle, lifting an incredible amount of color fidelity off the film’s original camera negative, resurrecting the luminescence of its dye transfer, originally processed at London’s Technicolor facility. Point blank: The Nun’s Story has never looked more beautiful on any home video format, herein, sporting exquisitely accurate film grain, stunningly handsome hues and superb contrast. Flesh tones that previously registered as a garishly dull orange are now returned to their creamy soft pink alure. The green foliage, always to appear muddy brown, now burst forth with a luxuriant vibrancy. It’s a revelation to revisit The Nun’s Story in hi-def, and kudos must be paid to those responsible for this reincarnation. The 2.0 DTS mono audio has been finessed and is the perfect compliment to these incredible visuals. Again, we get short-shrift in the extras. No audio commentary or ‘making of’ or even a restoration comparison reel. For shame. Oh, well. Can’t be too harsh, when WAC has spent its money correctly on delivering Zinnemann’s classic from the brink of color implosion, and, in an exemplary transfer that will surely NOT disappoint. Viewing The Nun’s Story on Blu is like seeing it for the very first time – and, arguably, on its initial theatrical release in 1959. Very highly recommended!

FILM RATING (out of 5 - 5 being the best)

4.5

VIDEO/AUDIO

5+

EXTRAS

0