Peter Mullan seems to be willing to join Charles Laughton and Tim Roth in the select group of British actors who decided to make a film of their own, did an incredible job and never directed anything again. Please reconsider!
In the Ireland of the 60's,young girls who were found to be sexually active were rejected by their families and sent to the convent to wash away their sins.They were forced to suppress their femininity with punishmen and severe discipline. Intense and sad story of oppression based on true events,with great actresses.
A sad,historically based account of mistreatment of humanity. The story is a compilation of the way some young women were treated by those who professed morality,mercy and grace. The truth of the hypocrisy is disturbing. Similar to Ireland's Industrial schools around the same era
I found this flic very disturbing but I have heard it is a close line to how life was in these Magdalene houses. It's a sad revelation and Ireland should feel the shame of it. Powerful stuff!
A must see for Islamophobics and religious freaks to see how until recently Christian institutions were committing cruelties. The horrible demon is ignorance which can be found everywhere.
Rarely has a film ever inspired such shameful bloodlust in me. By the end of The Magdalene Sisters, I was craving Dogville-like levels of brutal retribution. I didn't get it, thankfully (or frustratingly), and this is a testiment to the film's adherence to the facts; there was no retribution against the psychotic nuns and sexually abusive priests who made life hell for these poor women. There never will be. As is true today, the Catholic church sweeps any appalling practices under the rug, simply moving some disgusting clergyman to another district, where he will inevitably rape some other little boy. The same applies to the nuns who operated the Magdalene asylums; they will never have to answer for their crimes.
This enraging fact is what drove actor-turned-director Peter Mullan to make the film. Opening with a stunning, mostly wordles 8 minute opening sequence, we are introduced to Margaret (Annie-Marie Duff), who is traumatically raped by her cousin at a wedding ceremony, and is then condemned for telling someone. Bernadette (Nora-Jane Noone, who would later go on to get torn apart by blind mutants in the also-brilliant The Descent) is sent to the asylum simply because she is too pretty, and Rose (Dorothy Duffy) is abandoned by her family when she gives birth out of wedlock. Once there, they meet the other "fallen women", including Crispina (heartbreakingly played by Eileen Walsh), a mentally challenged young woman who also had a child out of wedlock. It's impossible not to love these four characters (although Bernadette becomes increasingly cruel), and their likability only makes the vicious attacks on them by the nuns more horrifying. How ironic that this little drama more accurately and hauntingly portrays the horror of brutal, totalitarian authority than another film I recently viewed: the lame, pompously stupid V for Vendetta. As Sister Bridgette (essentially an even more evil Nurse Ratched in a nun get-up), Geraldine McEwan radiates a kinf od glacial hatred that is fascinating to watch. The other nuns are less developed, but project a palpable sense of condescending menace toward the young girls they abuse.
While all the acting is first-rate, the filmmaking more than holds its own. Mullan's script and direction are both remarkably assured, and one wonders why he doesn't quit acting altogether and become a full-time filmmaker. Based on this film alone (I have not seen his debut), he has the makings of a first-rate auteur. For such dark, girtty subject matter, the film is also astonishingly beautiful to look at --every image is meticulously composed, and the entire film itself has a muted, grainy seventies vibe that works wonderfully.
Perhaps most magnificently of all is the way the film affects the viewer; one feels a sense of emotion that steadily rises until it reaches a breaking point with the film's final, tragic shot. I managed not to shed a tear for the entire runtime -- until the last image, showing poor Crispina's fate. And then all the anger and grief that the film had built up within me exploded, and I burst into tears.
incredibly deep and moving. based on true stories of survivors of the Magdalene workshops, this movie delves into the tragedies and slaveries of women in Ireland in the 60s who may have been unwed mothers, or may have been entirely without fault yet enslaved any way. this is not an easy movie to watch, but it is one of those that stays with you.
One up for the misogynists! See for yourself how slutty women should be beaten up, slapped around and forced to do laundry. Is it time to apologise for Holy Mother Church again? Nahhh, they deserve it! Good one-sided story, spot on performance from the bitchy temptress.
This movie was soo crazy. It opened my eyes about catholic convents. It had so many horrendous moments and it made me cry. It kept me glued to the screen to see what more would happen.
This film will move you that is for sure. It is amazing to think such atrocities went on in the name of God. Well I guess it isn't really but this film lets you experience the single mindedness and hypocrisies of people who hold such fanatical beliefs
A great drama! Favorite quote; You are not a man of God! , which still repeats in my mind. Excellent film, showing cruel corruption in the "faith world" extremely well portrayed by all the characters. People are people! anywhere even in the Church abusing others' weaknesses and exploiting them by even turning it into "God business"!
Somewhere in the modern world, Medieval interpretation of Christainity still rules! Good cast, good direction, good subject in a sentimenyal tour-de-force!
I "love" the catholic church, especially after seeing this movie. the movie could have been set in the middle-ages, but it was Ireland in the 1960's. unbelievable.
Originally I pegged this as not being interested, but I don't know why as I freely chose to watch it, even over something more 'my thing'. It was far better than I could have imagined, and all I can say is that I'm glad those places don't exist anymore.
this one's about the mistreatment of young women in the catholic community in ireland. kinda gives ya the urge to stab nuns indiscriminately. ah, hell, i'd of done that before i saw the film! the acting is spot on and it had plenty of actresses in it i'd never heard of before. will be keeping an eye out for nora-jane noone now. she's a very good lookin' bit of skirt. loved the scene where she was chasing the nun around like a madwoman. shows the hocus pocus-brainwashing-business that is religion for what it is. a scam
From the late 19th century until 1996, there were convent schools/charity homes throughout Ireland known as the "The Magdalene Asylums". In reality, they were for profit, forced labor camps/prisons owned and operated by the Roman Catholic church and staffed by extremely sadistic nuns (as well as a randy priest or two). A must see for anyone, especially those inclined to believe that the God business was ever about love, compassion or helping people.
Despite the very lighthearted "chick flick" persona that the cover gives, the film is actually very sadistic. It's simply about teenage girls in the 1960s who have fallen pregnent out of wedlock and thus condemned to a Catholic Asylum in Ireland... and as you might of already guess from some of the words I've used the Asylum is horrific. All the nuns (notably the head) gives excellent portrayals of brutal corruption and mental/physical torture brought about when you combine authority with weakness. This film isn't out to bash Catholics, but just the characters since the girls are traditional women of faith. A rather unimaginative ending and the all female cast (I'm not being sexist) gets dull to an extent but in some way due to the time period it makes all of the events even more stomach turning.
MCT:August 30, 2008
MCT:August 23, 2008
MCT:August 3, 2008
MCT:June 20, 2008
MCT:June 26, 2007
