On Friday, Nov. 21, "The Nun’s Story, " a classic film starring Audrey Hepburn that was nominated for eight Academy Awards, will be shown at 7 p.m. in the auditorium of the Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young University. Admission is free, but early arrival is recommended because seating is limited. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
No food or drink is permitted in the auditorium. Children ages 8 and over are welcome. BYU dress standards apply. James D’Arc, curator of the BYU Motion Picture Archive, will introduce the film.
Taken from the best-selling novel by Kathryn Hulme, "The Nun’s Story" is based on the true story of a young Belgian girl who enters a convent and then struggles with her conscience over the commitment that she made.
Director Fred Zinnemann ("High Noon," "Oklahoma!") said that the story is about "an individual who is trying to follow his own, personal conscience against all kinds of odds; it applies equally to a purely interior dilemma, where the conflict of conscience is not directed against an opponent, but rages within the soul of the individual himself."
"Through the radiant-eyed Miss Hepburn, ‘The Nun’s Story’ firmly details and reveals the effects of this rigorous education on one sensitive young body and soul," wrote critic Bosley Crowther in the New York Times. "In the role of the nun, Miss Hepburn is fluid and luminous. From her eyes and her eloquent expressions emerge a character that is warm and involved."
Audrey Hepburn, in preparing for her role, was coached by Marie Louise-Habets, on whose life "The Nun’s Story" was based. Hepburn received an Academy Award nomination for her performance, and both Zinnemann and the picture were nominated as well. The supporting cast includes Dean Jagger, Peter Finch, Peggy Ashcroft and Edith Evans. "The Nun’s Story" was filmed on location by Warner Bros. in Belgium and in the Belgian Congo.
"The Nuns’s Story" is from the permanent collection of classic motion pictures in the BYU Motion Picture Archive, housed in the L. Tom Perry Special Collections at Brigham Young University’s Harold B. Lee Library. The screening is co-sponsored by L. Tom Perry Special Collections, the Friends of the Harold B. Lee Library and Dennis & Linda Gibson.
