A scene occurring
rather late in The Magdalene Sisters shows a group of female inmates of a peculiar Irish Catholic institution known
as a Magdalene Asylum, along with the nuns who supervise them, gathered on
Christmas Day to watch a movie effusively introduced by the mother superior.
The movie of course is The Bells of St.
Mary’s, probably the greatest nun flick of them all, in which Ingrid
Bergman, as a sort of ideal sister, starred opposite Bing Crosby, everybody’s
favorite Irish priest, and, in the scene in question, delivers an emotional
speech on the demands, rewards, and beauty of her vocation.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย The moment may transform its heavy
irony into something more closely resembling lead, but that otherwise entirely
appropriate “quotation” reminds us that The
Magdalene Sisters is decidedly not one of those traditional Hollywood nun
movies. The contrast between the lovely, loving Bergman and the dour nuns who
cruelly oppress the inmates of their asylum underlines both the distressing
content and the single-minded obviousness of the picture.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Something of a docudrama, The Magdalene Sisters fictionalizes some
of the actual experiences of several generations of women in a history of
oppression that ended only as recently as 1996. Although the movie provides
little in the way of context or background, it chronicles some horrible
practices of a priest-ridden society infused with odd notions of sin and
apparently impervious to anything so unusual as health, normality, and
innocence. The film’s treatment of that irresistible combination of Roman
Catholicism and sex should guarantee solid profits in any Protestant country,
of course, but its subjects also bear a certain relevance to the ongoing
scandals, trumpeted daily in the news media, that currently trouble the Church
in America and elsewhere.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย The movie concentrates on three
young women victimized by a horrible trinity of family, faith, and official
authority, a coalition cemented by some twisted mutual belief in the sinfulness
of sexuality in any form. All of them suffer punishment for sex, even Margaret
(Anne-Marie Duff), raped by a cousin at a wedding, whose family bundles her off
to the asylum. Rose (Dorothy Duffy), like many other inmates, bears an
illegitimate child, an act that motivates her parents to disown her and put her
in the harsh care of the nuns; Bernadette (Nora-Jane Noone) is taken from an
orphanage and sent to the asylum because, though entirely innocent, she is
mildly flirtatious and simply too pretty for her own good.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย As soon as the three major
characters enter the asylum, The
Magdalene Sisters turns into one of those women’s prison movies, in the
same genre as Caged, Caged Heat, and Slammer Sluts, though almost entirely devoid of the usual sexual
titillation. In a wonderfully formulaic speech, full of the usual plangent
clichรฉs about the fires of Hell and the glories of Heaven, the superior tells
the women that they will redeem themselves for their terrible sins by working
hard at menial tasks, especially in the asylum’s laundry, and possibly
eventually attain salvation. As usual with such grandiloquent statements,
salvation and eternal happiness sound a good deal less attractive than a
simple, ordinary life without the dubious benefits of fanatical religiosity.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย The film
settles into repeated sequences of the daily routine of the inmates — the
awful food (even for Irish cuisine), the exhausting labor, the rigid
regimentation, the corporal punishment, the cruelty and hypocrisy of the nuns.
Most prison films suggest the universality of the institution, its metaphor for
the nation in general, which means that in this case, even in our lifetime,
Ireland, amazingly, seems as oppressive and unjust as any theocratic
dictatorship anywhere. Like other societies governed or at least powerfully
influenced by fundamentalist religion — most countries where Islam is the
main religion, and certain Jewish and Christian communities in the West — the
mere fact of female sexuality appears to inspire some strange combination of
fear, hatred, and desire, which often results in strict rules about dress and
behavior, sexual segregation, and in extreme cases, such horrors as the actions
of the Taliban in Afghanistan of the Magdalene Sisters in Ireland.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Although the writer-director, Peter
Mullan, employs a number of purely visual narrative devices, especially in the
opening sequences and in a series of lap dissolves that comprehend the daily
dreariness of life in the asylum, he also allows the repetitive nature of his
subject to overwhelm the progress of his plot. The story necessarily falls into
the regular rhythm of the prison flick, but despite its attention to
authenticity, never attempts to probe the most important problems of government
complicity in this foul business, its obvious illegality, the Church’s power to
impose what appears to be life sentences on innocent women, and the sheep-like
acquiescence of the populace, a behavior apparently not restricted to our
citizenry. At the same time, like any good socially committed picture, The Magdalene Sisters generates shock
and outrage, along with astonishment that the practices and conditions it
depicts could occur in a civilized country in our time.
The Magdalene Sisters, starring Geraldine McEwan, Anne-Marie Duff, Nora-Jane
Noone, Dorothy Duffy, Eileen Walsh, Mary Murray, Britta Smith, Eithne
McGuinness, Phyllis McMahon, Rebecca Walsh, Donal Costello, Eamon Owens, Sean
Colgan; written and directed by Peter Mullan. The Little; Pittsford Plaza
Cinema.
You can hear George and his movie reviews on WXXI-FM 91.5
Fridays at 7:20 a.m., rerun on Saturdays at 8:50 a.m.
This article appears in Sep 24-30, 2003.
