If the life of women at that time was already difficult, imagine the cloistered, beautiful film, but a little slow ...

(This is a French Canadian movie with English subtitles. It is currently an Amazon Prime Video and you have to manually turn on the subtitles, unless you are fluent in French and don't need them.)

Mother Augustine runs a small convent school in Quebec that emphasizes music instruction, particularly piano. It's the 1960s and the world is rapidly changing. Vatican II has shaken the Catholic world like a major earthquake, Quebec's Quiet Revolution is threatening to take away the control of the schools from the Catholic Church, and there is not enough money to keep all the convent schools open.

Mother Augustine is confident, though, her school will not be closed, and it will continue to provide a superior education to the girls both in academics and music. Parents who have more money than others subsidize the education of the less fortunate students. One student, whose mother cannot currently pay tuition, is Mother Augustine's niece. Her sister suddenly shows up one day and drops her off, giving a reason that was not true.

Her niece Alice does not want to be there and has some problems adjusting. This is not a nun movie about the hijinks of convent school girls, however, and there are no "mean girls". It's also not the type of nun movie where the viewer is likely to feel any intense feelings for the nuns, good or bad. It was hard not to be deeply moved, though, by the fears and tears of the nuns when they had to remove their habits, and put on the more modern clothes now required of them. Without the veil and coif, the difference in their appearances was astounding.

The film also briefly touches on the topics of lower pay for women in Quebec, including nuns, and on reproduction rights. Times were truly changing in the 1960s. Would Mother Augustine's school survive? Would she and the other nuns be able to adjust to all the changes dictated by Vatican II? Would music and the other liberal arts still be considered important when all was said and done? Lots of questions and lots of beautiful scenery in this movie.

Just had the huge pleasure of seeing this amazingly underrated film at an art cinema in Christchurch, NZ. No publicity or fanfare, it was simply there. Other reviewers have outlined the story, but the major motifs of faith, cultural and generational clashes, feminism, and above all the music - oh! the music! - make this a film not to be missed at any price. I liked every aspect of this French Canadian film. The acting, the script, the costuming, the classical music, the hauntingly beautiful winter landscapes of frozen river and fields. The shadow of change and the pathos and heartbreak on one hand, coupled with the promises and possibilities of new life and growth on the other, left me pondering the eternal questions of life and death. Don't miss it! Please don't miss it!