Novitiate (2017) on Netflix
Cathleen, seventeen, leaves an unstable home in rural Tennessee for the Sisters of the Beloved Rose. A cold Mother Superior rules the postulants as the Catholic Church begins to change.
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- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb6.7/105,994 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes85%
Trailer
Plot summary
Cathleen comes of age in 1950s rural Tennessee in a family that keeps falling apart. Her mother, Nora, struggles, and the Catholic girls' school Cathleen attends draws her toward the faith; at seventeen she joins the Sisters of the Beloved Rose. At the convent the Mother Superior is cold and traditional, imposing strict punishments on the postulants in their first months, while Sister Mary Grace, who oversees their education, is warm and allows them small freedoms. Cathleen studies the Bible in her free time instead of joining the other girls. The Catholic Church is then moving toward Vatican II, and the Archbishop writes asking that the more liberal practices be adopted. The Mother Superior ignores those letters.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Novitiate (2017)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
SPOILER
Novitiate ends with a note relating that after Vatican II a mass exodus of nuns took place, with 90,000 renouncing their vocation and leaving convents, a scale of departure never seen before.- Novitiate was the film-scoring debut of composer Christopher Stark, an assistant professor of music at Washington University in St. Louis. Stark said he had "about a week" to compose the score, a process that "happen[ed] really fast".
