The Nun
Born to a bourgeois family in 1760s France, Suzanne is a beautiful young girl with a natural talent for music. Inexplicably, her parents abruptly decide to send young Suzanne off to a convent, where she resists structure at every turn until she discovers that she is an illegitimate child. Left with no other option, she pronounces her vows and suffers the consequences of her mother’s sin. Still uncertain of her path and wishing to revoke her vows, Suzanne’s only ally, the Mother Superior, dies and is succeeded by Sister Christine, a sadistic and cruel woman who inflicts the worst forms of humiliation imaginable upon the young nun. Suzanne is finally transferred to another convent, only to discover another kind of Mother Superior, a woman who develops an inappropriately affectionate bond with her new charge. Ultimately, The Nun, based on the classic French novel by Diderot, is the story of a woman trying to resist imposed religious values and the dehumanizing effect of cloistered life.
Cast
- Pauline Etienne
- Isabelle Huppert
- Louise Bourgoin
- "Etienne as the heroine is a harmonising centre, believable, luminous, quiet-spoken, poignant."
- "[An] atmospheric adaptation...driven onwards by a powerful central female performance."
- "Strong performances are abetted by superb technical contributions, including...a series of gorgeous period costumes."
Awards & Recognition
Berlin Int'l Film Festival
Boston French Film Festival
Haifa Int'l Film Festival
Chicago Int'l Film Festival
Mumbail Int'l Film Festival
Seattle Int'l Film Festival
Brisbane Int'l Film Festival
Camerimage Film Festiva
Stockholm Int'l Film Festival