UNCONVENTIONAL: I couldn’t sleep after Black Caesar, so I decided to just throw on The Nun’s Story and watch until I decided to go to bed. I ended up watching, totally engrossed, until the entire huge long movie was over.

Audrey Hepburn plays a Belgian girl who enters a religious order, hoping to be sent to the Congo as a nurse. The movie follows her deep spiritual struggles, mostly but not entirely revolving around questions of pride and obedience. The harshness of the religious regime under which she lives isn’t prettified, but this story goes far beyond easy “individualism vs. repression” conflicts. This comes out most clearly when World War II breaks out–the nun’s obedience is tested even more deeply, but at the same time she’s also struggling with vengefulness and refusal to forgive her enemies.

The major flaw of the movie is that the racism of the Belgian Catholics isn’t just portrayed, but basically embedded in the movie’s narrative. The easiest example is the way in which all of the supporting characters are vivid and memorable except the one Congolese character with a speaking role, who is a pious cartoon. But that example is just the most obvious sign of a problem which really runs throughout the Congo sequence, even though the culture of the people is presented with quite a bit of affection and some respect.

Hepburn is fantastic. Like I said, I’d assumed that I would watch maybe an hour and then hit pause. I just couldn’t. I couldn’t stop watching her. Many of the supporting actors are as vivid as their characters, but this is really a one-woman show.