The Nun's Story

Name: The Nun's Story
Genre: Drama
Released: July 18, 1959
Duration: 149 min
Rating: 78
Cast: Audrey Hepburn, Beatrice Straight, Dean Jagger, Edith Evans, Mildred Dunnock

1959

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 6 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 7 Ratings

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7.3

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7.3	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 7 Ratings

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The Nun's Story

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Movie Details & Credits

Warner Bros. | Release Date: July 18, 1959 | Approved

Starring: Audrey Hepburn, Beatrice Straight, Dean Jagger, Edith Evans, Mildred Dunnock, Patricia Collinge, Peggy Ashcroft, Peter Finch, Rosalie Crutchley, Ruth White

Summary: After leaving a wealthy Belgian family to become a nun, Sister Luke struggles with her devotion to her vows during crisis, disappointment, and World War II.

Director: Fred Zinnemann

Genre(s): Drama

Rating: Approved

Runtime: 149 min

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Critic Reviews

100

TV Guide Magazine Staff (Not Credited)

A superbly restrained piece of filmmaking, with Zinnemann directing in simple, unadorned style and Hepburn giving a truly radiant performance. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

Fred Zinnemann's production is a soaring and luminous film. Audrey Hepburn has her most demanding film role, and she gives her finest performance. Despite the seriousness of the underlying theme, The Nun's Story [from the book by Kathryn C. Hulme] has the elements of absorbing drama, pathos, humor, and a gallery of memorable scenes and characters. Read full review

Bosley Crowther

From Kathryn Hulme's novel The Nun's Story, which gives an amazing account of a young Belgian woman's experiences in becoming and being a nursing nun, screen writer Robert Anderson and director Fred Zinnemann have derived an equally amazing motion picture of an extraordinary dedicated life. Read full review

The Telegraph Staff (Not Credited)

Hepburn's sensitive and eloquent performance makes it one of her finest films. [03 Dec 2016]

Michael Wilmington

The film has a marvelous first half. All of Zinnemann's best qualities -- tact, taste, integrity, quiet intellect and idealism -- shine through in the convent scenes, as does the acting. However, good as Peter Finch is (as an agnostic doctor), the second half seems hurried, over-reticent. [25 Mar 1988, p.22]

Staff (Not Credited)

Not as awful as you might expect, since the nun's training is shown in fascinating detail and the later doubts are quite subtly expressed. Solid performances, too, but 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. Read full review

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User Reviews

JP32

Jul 31, 2023

The Nun's Story works much like Fred Zinnemann's A Man For All Seasons in the way it absorbs you in ideas. Anyone inclined to give faith a fair chance spends this film feeling immersed in an important and demanding intellectual discussion.

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KelvinSelimor

Aug 8, 2023

The Nun's Story. People or God? It was this question "man or God" that the main character Gabrielle (or Sister Luke) was asked in her soul, which was superbly played by the amazing Audrey Hepburn. She was able to convey all the pain of her character throughout the film and at the same time,The Nun's Story. People or God? It was this question "man or God" that the main character Gabrielle (or Sister Luke) was asked in her soul, which was superbly played by the amazing Audrey Hepburn. She was able to convey all the pain of her character throughout the film and at the same time, practically without saying a word, in other words, an amazing game with her eyes and facial expressions, but more of course, with her eyes. Although the film seemed to me a little heavy and drawn out when watching, I could not watch it in one day and returned to it for almost a week, and yet The Nun's Story leaves behind a pleasant feeling that you did not waste your time watching.… Expand

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codyz

Jul 24, 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 ofAudrey 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.… Expand

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