In This House of Brede (1975) (TV)

User Rating:

8.0/10   

Director:

George Schaefer

Writers:

James Costigan (writer)
Rumer Godden (novel)

Release Date:

27 February 1975 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A well-to-do London businesswoman gives up her comfortable life, including the man who loves her, to become a cloistered Benedictine nun. |

Plot Keywords:

Nun | Female Nudity | Catholicism | Loss Of Child | Convent

Awards:

Nominated for Primetime Emmy.

Cast

Diana Rigg	...	Dame Phillipa
Pamela Brown	...	Dame Agnes
Gwen Watford	...	Dame Catherine
Denis Quilley	...	Sir Richard
Judi Bowker	...	Joanna
Nicholas Clay	...	David
Gladys Spencer	...	Dame Emily
Julia Blalock	...	Penny
Charlotte Mitchell	...	Mrs. Fraser
Elizabeth Bradley	...	Dame Margaret
Ann Rye	...	Sister Jane
Frances Rowe	...	Miss Bowman
Peter Sproule	...	Jeremy
Margaret Heery	...	Cynthia
Catherine Willmer	...	Sister Renata

Runtime:

USA:105 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

London, England, UK

Company:

Tomorrow Entertainment

"To try my vocation as a Benedictine...

in this House of Brede". Thirty-two years after I first saw this movie as a 15 year old, I still remember Philippa's answer to the old nun's question, "what do you seek here?" as she first enters her novitiate.

Although not Catholic and just barely Protestant, I've always been fascinated in a romantic way with nun stories. Song of Bernadette, Black Narcissus, Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison, A Change of Habit, The Trouble with Angels. (Oddly enough, I've never even been curious about A Nun's Story.) Although I don't remember this movie well, I do remember certain scenes very clearly: Dame Philippa's entrance to the order, her having to avert her eyes while bathing, the young nun singing as she dusts the choir loft, Dame Philippa absent-mindedly expressing out-loud her desire for a cigarette, and her saying good-bye to the man that loved her prior to her embracing the order.

I did attempt to read the book, years later, and found myself, as another person wrote above, "waiting for the movie to start." I've not seen this on TV in years, if ever, since the first showing back in the 70s. But I will see it again some day...So I guess I do recommend it.