Veils on the Silver Screen: Nuns in Films Quiz

Answer: Black Narcissus

Released in 1947, at the time that India became independent from British rule, "Black Narcissus" spins a tale in which the elements, the political climate and emotional issues work against the mission of a group of nuns commissioned to minister to poverty-ridden mountain inhabitants. Deborah Kerr and Kathleen Byron, respectively, portray the Sister Superior and the most difficult nun in her charge.

Answer: In This House of Brede

The fictional Brede Abbey, based on Stanbrook Abbey in Sussex, is a contemplative Benedictine abbey. The strong and capable Philippa, widowed and with no living children, follows her vocation and does it well, but not without coming to terms with the pain of having lost her child...a grief which strikes her anew because of a young woman who enters the convent a few years behind Philippa.

Note: This quiz author highly recommends both the film and the book of the same title--but don't compare them; both can be enjoyed on their own merit. The book's main story was greatly simplified to fit into movie format and not all of the many subplots of the book made it onto the screen.

Answer: Lilies of the Field

"A-a-men, amen, amen! (Sing it over....)" The song is taught to the nuns by guitar-playing Baptist handyman Homer Smith (or, as the nuns call him, Schmidt). In spite of his initial hesitation, he builds the chapel for the nuns, who have undergone tremendous adversity to reach their destination and believe that he and his abilities are the answer to their prayers. The title is taken from the Sermon on the Mount.
Lilia Skala plays the Mother Superior, and Poitier's performance as Homer Smith is legendary.

Answer: Her priest

"Song of Bernadette" follows St. Bernadette's story with some accuracy, plus just a wee bit of Hollywood romanticism peppered in here and there. In the film, Bernadette tells her priest that she has always expected a simple life as a wife and mother. The priest kindly explains to her that, having been the vehicle not only for a famous Marian apparition but also for the founding of a prominent site of divine healing, Bernadette has a destiny of religious life. Bernadette departs for the convent and takes religious orders, in which she remains until her death at a fairly young age (which was indeed true of the real Bernadette). Jennifer Jones won an Oscar for her portrayal of Bernadette.

Answer: Her father is killed by the Nazis.

Audrey Hepburn is riveting in her portrayal of Sister Luc, born Gabrielle, who joins the convent at a young age with the full encouragement and support of her loving family. She serves in a hospital for those suffering with psychiatric disorders in her native Belgium, then later at mission hospitals in the Belgian Congo.

She is eventually recalled to the mother house following a near-fatal brush with tuberculosis. Her psychological and spiritual survival abilities are powerful, but her commitment to religious life cannot quite withstand the realities of the senseless brutality of the Nazi regime, especially when it strikes close to home via death of her father. (She was already disillusioned by her initial assignment to the "white hospital" in Africa, since she felt that her call was to give medical treatment to the native people.)

Answer: She is under witness protection.

Whisked away by an imaginative detective to her new hideout, Deloris is appalled by the food, the work routine and the fact that she "looks like a penguin." But friendships with the Sisters and a new position as the choir director give Deloris AKA "Sister Mary Clarence" a new lease and perspective on life. She in return gives the choir an amazing vocal turnaround--a'la Motown (not to mention that she ultimately saves the convent from closing its doors)!
In addition to the phenomenal Whoopi Goldberg, his film also features the incredible Dame Maggie Smith as the Reverend Mother.

Note: This quiz author has been on retreat in a number of convents--Episcopal, Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox--and despite Deloris' reaction to the soup, attests that convent food overall is actually quite good and nutritious.

Answer: She's late for every meal.

"She climbs a tree and scrapes her knee!/Her dress has got a tear/She waltzes on her way to Mass and whistles on the stair..." "She's always late to Chapel, but her penitence is real/She's always late for everything!...except for every meal..." Who can forget Julie Andrews as the convent postulant-turned-governess-turned-matriarch (of the musical Von Trapp family)? In the film, Maria is married at the convent chapel and the nuns shelter Maria, her husband and her seven stepchildren as they prepare to escape Nazi Austria into Switzerland.
Descendants of the Von Trapp family sing to this day.

Answer: Dominique

"Dominique, nique, nique
S'en allait tout simplement
Routier, pauvre et chantant"

(Dominic goes about simply, travelling in poverty and singing)

Born Jeanine Deckers, Sister Luc-Gabrielle was the guitar-playing and socially activist Dominican sister from Belgium who inspired the Debbie Reynolds film, and she stated unequivocally that the movie was more fiction than fact. Jeanine Deckers remained a musician but did not remain a nun. Her life ended tragically by suicide in 1985.

Answer: Francis of Assisi

A year after starring in the cult classic "Where the Boys Are," Dolores Hart portrayed St. Clare in "Francis of Assisi." Two years later, in 1963, after making several more movies, the woman who would become Reverend Mother Dolores Hart entered Regina Laudis Abbey in Connecticut, eventually becoming prioress of the contemplative Abbey.

She expressed that she was glad for her time in Hollywood, but embraced her vocation for life (she left behind an engagement as well as an acting career). She is the only nun to be a voting member of the "Academy". The real St. Clare was abbess of a women's order (the Poor Ladies, later called the Poor Clares) with the support of St. Francis, who wrote a Rule of Life for them and gave them ongoing spiritual advice.

Answer: A volcanic eruption

Specifically, it is Mount Vesuvius that erupts; in true silent-film fashion, the terrible event spurs various characters to rise heroically to the occasion, repent of their misdeeds, and so forth. The audience knows what is going to happen, since a scientific invention that can decipher volcanic activity figures largely into the story. Amid all the melodrama (swooning scenes included), Lillian Gish's character is compelling as she holds true to her monastic vows.

There is a later version of this film (in the 1930s with Helen Hayes) retaining the story but minus that quaint charm that can only be experienced with silent movies.