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'{{Infobox film | name = The Nun's Story | image = Nun_story.jpg | caption = Original film poster | director = [[Fred Zinnemann]] | producer = [[Henry Blanke]] | based on = {{based on|''[[The Nun's Story]]''<br>1956 novel|[[Kathryn Hulme]]}} | screenplay = [[Robert Anderson (playwright)|Robert Anderson]] | starring = {{ubl |[[Audrey Hepburn]] |[[Peter Finch]] |[[Edith Evans]] |[[Peggy Ashcroft]] }} | music = [[Franz Waxman]] | cinematography = [[Franz Planer]] | editing = [[Walter A. Thompson|Walter Thompson]] | distributor = [[Warner Bros.]] | released = {{Film date|1959|07|18}} | runtime = 149 minutes | country = United States | language = English | budget = $3.5 million<ref name="numbers"/> | gross = $12.8 million<ref name="numbers">[http://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Nuns-Story,-The#tab=summary Box Office Information for ''The Nun's Story''.] [[The Numbers (website)|The Numbers]]. Retrieved December 16, 2013.</ref> }}horror '''''The Nun's Story''''' is a 1959 American [[Drama (film and television)|drama]] film directed by [[Fred Zinnemann]] and starring [[Audrey Hepburn]], [[Peter Finch]], [[Edith Evans]], and [[Peggy Ashcroft]]. The screenplay was written by [[Robert Anderson (playwright)|Robert Anderson]], based upon the [[The Nun's Story|1956 novel of the same name]] by [[Kathryn Hulme]]. The film tells the life of Sister Luke (Hepburn), a young [[Belgians|Belgian]] woman who decides to enter a [[convent]] and make the many sacrifices required by her choice. The book was based upon the life of [[Marie Louise Habets]], a Belgian nurse who similarly spent time as a nun. The film follows the book fairly closely, although some critics believe the film shows sexual tension in the relationship between Dr. Fortunati ([[Peter Finch]]) and Sister Luke that is absent from the novel. A major portion of the film takes place in the [[Belgian Congo]], site of location shooting,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/16107/The-Nun-s-Story/articles.html |title=The Nun's Story (1959) |publisher=Turner Classic Movies |accessdate=October 15, 2011}}</ref> where Sister Luke assists Dr. Fortunati in surgical procedures at a mission hospital. The location was [[Yakusu]], a center of missionary and medical activity in the Belgian Congo.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.leprosyhistory.org/cgi-bin/showdetails.pl?ID=91&type=Archive |title=Wellcome Library for the History of Medicine & Understanding |publisher=Leprosy History |accessdate=2011-10-25}}</ref> It marked [[Colleen Dewhurst]]'s film debut.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/16107/The-Nun-s-Story/notes.html |title=The Nun's Story (1959) - Notes |publisher=Turner Classic Movies |accessdate=October 15, 2011}}</ref> ==Plot summary== Gabrielle "Gaby" Van Der Mal ([[Audrey Hepburn]]), whose father Hubert ([[Dean Jagger]]) is a famous surgeon in Belgium, enters a convent of nursing sisters in the late 1920s in the hopes of eventually becoming a missionary nursing sister in the Belgian Congo. After being given the [[religious name]] of Sister Luke and undergoing a [[postulant|postulancy]] and [[novitiate]] which foreshadow her future difficulties with the vow of obedience, she takes her first vows and is sent to a school of tropical medicine. After passing high in her class but not without some spiritual conflict, after struggling with a request by Mother Superior to purposely fail her exam as a proof of her humility, she discovers to her disappointment that she has been assigned to go not to the Congo but instead to a mental hospital, where she assists with the most difficult and violent cases though resenting her tropical medicine knowledge going to waste there. One of these patients, a particularly violent schizophrenic ([[Colleen Dewhurst]]) who believes herself to be the Archangel Gabriel, tricks her into opening the cell door in violation of the rules and warnings given, and Sister Luke barely escapes from her to face the shame of her disobedience once again. Nevertheless, she is eventually permitted to take her [[solemn vow]]s and sent to her long-desired posting in the Congo. Once there, she is disappointed to learn that she will not be nursing the natives, but instead will be the operating nurse for the segregated whites/European patient hospital. She develops a strained but professional relationship with the brilliant, [[atheist]]ic surgeon there, Dr. Fortunati ([[Peter Finch]]). Eventually, the strains of her work and spiritual struggle cause her to succumb to tuberculosis. Fortunati, not wanting to lose the ideal nurse that Sister Luke is and sympathetic with her desire to stay in the Congo, engineers an amazing cure for the TB, a condition which otherwise always requires being sent to medical care (in Sister Luke's case, back to convalesce in Europe). Some time after Sister Luke's return to health and work, Fortunati is forced nevertheless to send her back to Belgium as the only nurse qualified to accompany a VIP who has become mentally unstable. She spends an outwardly quiet but inwardly restless period of time at the motherhouse in [[Brussels]] before the superior general finally gives her a new assignment. Because it is clear that there is going to be a war, she cannot return to the Congo, but instead becomes a surgical nurse at a local hospital. While at her new assignment, Sister Luke's long struggle with obedience becomes impossible for her to sustain, as she is forced into repeated compromises to deal with the reality of the Nazi occupation, including the fact that they have killed her father. She asks for and with difficulty is granted a [[Dispensation (canon law)|dispensation]] from her vows. She is last seen changing into lay garb and quietly leaving the convent by a back door. ==Cast== [[File:Brugge Sint-Annarei 22 R01.jpg|thumb|This house on the {{Interlanguage link multi|Sint-Annarei|nl}} in [[Bruges]] was a backdrop of the movie]] {{div col}} * [[Audrey Hepburn]] as Sister Luke (Gabrielle "Gaby" Van Der Mal) * [[Peter Finch]] as Dr. Fortunati * [[Edith Evans]] as Rev. Mother Emmanuel * [[Peggy Ashcroft]] as Mother Mathilde * [[Dean Jagger]] as Dr. Hubert Van Der Mal * [[Mildred Dunnock]] as Sister Margharita * [[Beatrice Straight]] as Mother Christophe * [[Patricia Collinge]] as Sister William * [[Rosalie Crutchley]] as Sister Eleanor * [[Ruth White (actress)|Ruth White]] as Mother Marcella * [[Barbara O'Neil]] as Mother Didyma * [[Margaret Phillips]] as Sister Pauline * [[Patricia Bosworth]] as Simone * [[Colleen Dewhurst]] as "Archangel Gabriel" * [[Stephen Murray (actor)|Stephen Murray]] as Chaplain (Father Andre) * [[Lionel Jeffries]] as Dr. Goovaerts * [[Niall MacGinnis]] as Father Vermeuhlen * [[Eva Kotthaus]] as Sister Marie * [[Molly Urquhart]] as Sister Augustine * [[Dorothy Alison]] as Sister Aurelie * [[Richard O'Sullivan]] as Pierre Van Der Mal. * [[Jeanette Sterke]] as Louise Van Der Mal * [[Errol John]] as Illunga * [[Orlando Martins]] as Kalulu {{div col end}} ==Awards and honors== The film was nominated for eight [[Academy Awards]] including [[Academy Award for Best Actress|Best Actress in a Leading Role]] (Audrey Hepburn), [[Academy Award for Best Cinematography|Best Cinematography, Color]], [[Academy Award for Best Director|Best Director]], [[Academy Award for Best Film Editing|Best Film Editing]], [[Academy Award for Best Original Score|Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture]], [[Academy Award for Best Picture|Best Picture]], [[Academy Award for Best Sound Mixing|Best Sound]] ([[George Groves (sound engineer)|George Groves]]) and [[Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay|Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium]].<ref name="Oscars1960">{{Cite web |url=http://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1960 |title=The 32nd Academy Awards (1960) Nominees and Winners |accessdate=2011-08-21 |work=oscars.org}}</ref> ''The Nun's Story'' was a major box office success in its day. Produced on a budget of $3.5 million, it grossed $12.8 million at the domestic box office,<ref name="numbers"/> earning $6.3 million in US [[Gross rental|theatrical rentals]].<ref>"1959: Probable Domestic Take", ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'', January 6, 1960 p 34.</ref> ''The Nun's Story'' was considered, for a time, to be the most financially successful of Hepburn's films and the one the actress often cited as her favourite. Hepburn met Marie-Louise Habets while preparing for the role, and Habets later helped nurse Hepburn back to health following her near-fatal horse-riding accident on the set of the 1960 film, ''[[The Unforgiven (1960 film)|The Unforgiven]]''. ''The Nun's Story'' received its first official North American DVD release on April 4, 2006. The story behind the book and film was the subject of ''The Belgian Nurse'', a radio play by Zoe Fairbairns, broadcast on [[BBC Radio 4]] on January 13, 2007. The film is recognized by [[American Film Institute]] in these lists: * 2005: [[AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores]] – Nominated<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.afi.com/Docs/100Years/scores250.pdf |title=AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores Nominees |format=PDF |date= |accessdate=2016-08-14}}</ref> * 2006: [[AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers]] – Nominated<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.afi.com/Docs/100Years/cheers300.pdf |title=AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers Nominees |format=PDF |date= |accessdate=2016-08-14}}</ref> ==Reception== ''The Nun's Story'' currently (2018) carried a 93% favorable rating on review aggregator [[Rotten Tomatoes]], based on 15 reviews. ==References== {{reflist}} ==External links== * {{IMDb title|id=0053131|title=The Nun's Story}} * {{rotten-tomatoes|id=nuns_story|title=The Nun's Story}} * {{Amg movie|35819|The Nun's Story}} * {{tcmdb title|id=16107}} * {{AFI film|id=52977|title=The Nun's Story}} * [http://www.audrey1.com/films/nun.html Critics' reviews and background about the film] {{Fred Zinnemann}} {{Golden Shell}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Nun's Story, The}} [[Category:1959 films]] [[Category:1950s drama films]] [[Category:American films]] [[Category:American drama films]] [[Category:English-language films]] [[Category:Films about Catholic nuns]] [[Category:Films based on American novels]] [[Category:Films set in 1930]] [[Category:Films set in Belgium]] [[Category:Films set in Belgian Congo]] [[Category:Films shot in Bruges]] [[Category:Warner Bros. films]] [[Category:Films directed by Fred Zinnemann]] [[Category:Films scored by Franz Waxman]] [[Category:Nuns in fiction]]'