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Agnes of God
When a dead newborn is found, wrapped in bloody sheets, in the bedroom wastebasket of a young novice, psychiatrist Martha Livingston is called in to determine if the seemingly innocent novice, who knows nothing of sex or birth, is competent enough to stand trial for the murder of the baby.
1985 · Directed by Norman Jewison · 98 min · Drama · Mystery · Screenplay in the scene database · 5 frames
Tagline
That night, murder wasn't the only sin.
Plot
In a Roman Catholic convent in Montreal, Quebec, the nuns are awakened by screams coming from the room of Sister Agnes, a young novice. Agnes is found in her room bleeding profusely, and in a basket, Mother Superior Miriam finds a dead infant.
Sister Agnes is charged with manslaughter, so court psychiatrist Martha Livingston is assigned to determine if she is competent to stand trial. In an interview, Agnes claims she does not remember being pregnant or giving birth, and shows a lack of understanding of how babies are conceived. Mother Miriam tells Livingston that Agnes is an "innocent" who was kept at home by her mother and knows nothing about the world. She is desperate to keep Agnes naive and declares that she could not have known what pregnancy was or remember the father.
Mother Miriam tells Livingston about the time Agnes stopped eating in the belief she was getting fat and then exhibited stigmata in her hand that healed itself within a day. Agnes tells Livingston of her friendship with Sister Marie-Paul, the oldest nun, who showed her a "secret place" – a bell tower, which she then shows Livingston. They argue about Agnes' mother and birth and how much Agnes knows about sex and pregnancy.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Screenplay: John Pielmeier
- Cinematography: Sven Nykvist
- Edited by: Antony Gibbs
- Music: Georges Delerue
- Production design: Ken Adam
- Produced by: Norman Jewison, Patrick J. Palmer
Cast
- Jane Fonda as Dr. Martha Louise Livingston
- Meg Tilly as Sister Agnes
- Anne Bancroft as Mother Miriam Ruth
- Anne Pitoniak as Dr. Livingston's Mother
- Winston Rekert as Det. Larry Langevin
- Gratien Gélinas as Father Martineau
- Guy Hoffmann as Justice Joseph Leveau
- Gabriel Arcand as Monsignor
- Françoise Faucher as Eve LeClaire
- Jacques Tourangeau as Eugene Lyon
Production
- Country: United States of America
- Language: Latin, English, French
- Studios: Columbia Pictures
- Themes: court, nun, quebec, hypnosis, montreal, canada, based on play or musical, trial, chain smoking, psychiatrist, mother superior
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