THE NUN'S STORY
A film review by Ralph Benner
Copyright 1996 Ralph Benner
THE NUN'S STORY is Audrey Hepburn's one genuine triumph as actress. You never get passed that it's Hepburn as Sister Luke, but you never not accept her either; she could be playing the first "recovering" Catholic, of which there are now millions. You don't really need to be a Catholic to recognize that Sister Luke had to rebel the way she did, but it helps. Fred Zinnemann has made from Kathryn Hulme's best seller a movie that puts some sting into Catholic-slanted tests aimed at destroying pride.
Hepburn's portrayal of Hulme starts out with naive hopes for a vocation in nursing but she soon discovers that she's made to pay the price for her advantages -- having come from a father renowned in the field of medicine -- and she has to be humbled into obedience by her order's hierarchy which decrees that no single star shine more than the collective mission of the Church. (This before the days of Sister Teresa and Mother Angelica.) Hepburn accepts the subservience at first, trying hopelessly to gain false humility and bow to compliance. Soon enough it becomes too much to endure: she can't fulfill vows that subjugate personal worth; her "I accuse myself" notebook of culpas fills up fast. Then she's asked as test of "humility without hooks" to fail her medical exams to appease a jealous, incompetent nun. At this critical juncture, Hepburn's decision -- a clerical lese majeste -- is sparked by several converging factors: her own ego and expertise, her father's reputation, and, though never overtly expressed, her fears that anything less than her personal best would be giving in to demands made by a nun who sees no damage in stifling potential for the sake of rules and regulations that border on infantilism. (Hulme never explicitly condemned this in her book, either, but she very powerfully suggested it.)
Hepburn's success in the part is based partly on downplaying the Givenchy image. She doesn't have any fall back positions to rest on, like those svelty, classy "gamine" qualities people go gaga over; even the inimitable Audrey smile has been downsized so as not to fall too deeply in love with her. (But like Peter Finch's Dr. Fortunati, we all do anyway.) The real strength of the performance, though, is that it's all in the face: showcased in helpful habits, Hepburn has to emote from within and bring it all out through her eyes and voice. Her Sister Luke is amongst the best things going for the Congo -- and Catholicism -- but she's made an unwilling victim of her own intelligence and success. The pride and vulnerability and mounting irritations with her situations and dilemmas are all right there to be empathized with -- especially by conflicted hearts of Catholics who see the Church today as a collapsing haven for totalitarians and pedophiles, not the promise of ecumenical charity. There's a painful understanding of regret mixed with relief when watching Sister Luke shed her religious garb and reenter the secular world; the very kingdom of goodwill became an isolation ward of perversity she had to escape. Yet a ward she committed herself to by making an unsuitable choice.
Zinnemann's THE NUN'S STORY and Otto Preminger's THE CARDINAL could be defended as companion pieces: Catholicism the central theme and target, with both handling very respectfully their criticisms; both are episodic in format, with travelogue-like transitions between periods; both have solid supporting work by some very fine actors who know what to do with Catholic Churchspeak -- that intoned, arched lingo as reverential superiority. Catholics world-wide who were educated by nuns have it in their systems like a virus, and performers almost always have the greatest time getting infected by it, as Edith Evans, Peggy Ashcroft and Mildred Dunnock confirm in THE NUN'S STORY and as Burgess Meredith, Joseph Meinrad and especially John Huston do in THE CARDINAL. The one crucial difference between the movies is the central star: Hepburn has been lovingly coached by Zinnemann, and you can see how it blooms in just about every detail of her performance, but Tom Tyron as the Cardinal has been browbeaten by Preminger -- he's been humiliated into submission, into what some of the nuns wanted to make of Sister Luke. The director's tirades against Tyron are well-documented and you can see the affects in just about every detail of his performance. It's tormenting to watch him in some scenes -- you can feel his real agony; his pocky facial scar could be stigmata. (And you wonder about Tyron's quota for abuse: he worked with Preminger a few years later in the black & white IN HARM'S WAY.) A decent print of THE CARDINAL is hard to come by, so it's time for it to be restored, not as a sterling example of movie making -- though Otto won a Papal medal for it -- but as a general view of the conflicts caused by celibates in expensive robes who, with presumed carnal-free experience in matters of sex and marriage, oughtn't be advising anyone about such matters. (And Australia's "Brides of Christ" would tackle the Church's positions on birth control and the Vietnam War.)
That's fundamental to the on-going subversive pleasure of movies about Catholicism: its extraordinary grandeur, panoply, artistry and seething sensuality contradict more than augment its catechism. It's the only religion that asks its adherents to defy the enjoyment of all its built-in sensations. THE NUN'S STORY isn't exactly about sensations, except for Hepburn's performance and Finch's handling of her. But they're not the sole reasons the movie, which doesn't lose much on TV, is a classic. A friend once wrote that "getting hooked on Zinnemann's method of movie making is similar to getting hooked on actor George Montgomery's carpentry -- you get high on their craftsmanship."
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