The Magdalene Sisters

The Magdalene Sisters
Movie poster
Directed by	Peter Mullan
Written by	Peter Mullan
Produced by	Frances Higson
Starring	Anne-Marie Duff Nora Jane Noone Dorothy Duffy Geraldine McEwan Eileen Walsh
Cinematography	Nigel Willoughby
Music by	Craig Armstrong
Distributed by	Magna Pacific
Release dates	30 August, 2002 (premiere at VFF) 25 October, 2002 21 February, 2003 21 April, 2003 1 August, 2003
Running time	119 min.
Country	U.K. / Ireland
Language	English

The Magdalene Sisters is a 2002 film written and directed by Peter Mullan about teenage girls who were sent to Magdalene Asylums, otherwise known as the 'Magdalen Laundries': homes for women who were labeled as "fallen" by their families or society (though the film itself questions this). The homes were maintained by individual religious orders in the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland. Peter Mullan has remarked that the film was initially made because victims of Magdalene Asylums had received no closure in the form of recognition, compensation, or apology, and many remained lifelong devout Catholics. Former Magdalen inmate Mary-Jo McDonagh told Mullan that the reality of the Magdalene Asylums was much worse than depicted in the film.

Plot

In Ireland at the time the film is set, 'fallen women' were considered sinners who needed to be redeemed. The film follows the stories of four young women - Margaret, Rose, Bernadette and Crispina - who are all forced by their families or caretakers to go to the Magdalene Asylum.

The film details the disastrous lives of the four girls whilst they are inmates of the laundries, portraying their harsh daily regimen, their squalid living conditions and the oppressive nature of the Catholic faith at the time.

Each woman suffers unspeakable cruelty and violence from the Mother Superior, Sister Bridget, despite her appearance and outward demeanour. She is characterized as sadistic and almost inhuman at times, as conveyed through her merciless beating of Rose in full view of Bernadette, or when she mockingly laughs at Una as she hopelessly clutches at her fallen hair locks. It is never made explicit whether Sister Bridget needlessly behaves tyrannically or if she earnestly believes her actions necessary in the eyes of God.

The film also criticises the hypocrisy and corruption within the staff of the laundries. Sister Bridget relishes the money the business receives and it is suggested that little of it is distributed appropriately. Those who liken themselves to Mary Magdalene, who deprived herself of all pleasures of the flesh, even food and drink, eat hearty breakfasts of buttered toast and bacon while the working women subsist on oatmeal. In one particularly humiliating scene, the women are forced to strip while the nuns laugh and jeer at their exposed bodies. The corruption of the resident priest is made very clear through his fornication with Crispina.

Three of the girls are shown, to some extent, to triumph over their situation and their captors. Margaret, although she is allowed to leave by the intervention of her younger brother, does not leave the asylum without leaving her mark. When she deliberately asks Sister Bridget to step aside for her to freely pass, and being sharply shot down, Margaret falls her knees in prayer. The Mother Superior is so surprised, she lets Margaret pass by. Bernadette and Rose finally decide to escape together, trashing Sister Bridget's study in search for the key to the asylum door and engaging her in a suspenseful confrontation. The two girls escape her clutches and are helped to return to the real world by a sympathetic relative. Crispina's end, however, is not a happy one; she spends the rest of her days in a mental institution.

The epilogue to the film gives a brief description of the lives of four of the inmates after the girls leave the asylum by the late 1960s but according to one source these "biographical details" are fictitious.[1] They are actually details of actual women interviewed who "inspired" the characters in the film, even though the stories in the film were fictionalized and varied substantially from the true stories (for example, the real women did not all know each other, and one worked in the orphanage rather than being a Magdalene). It is noted that the last Magdalene asylum closed in 1996.

Critical Response

The film received critical acclaim when it was premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2002, culminating with Peter Mullan taking home the festival's highest prize the Golden Lion.

Characters

• Margaret (Anne-Marie Duff): Margaret is sent to the laundry after being raped by her cousin at a family wedding. She takes Crispina under her wing, despite Crispina being the longer-serving inmate, and tries to ensure Crispina's safety, although her efforts cause several harsh consequences for Crispina. Margaret cares very much for her friend and promises to find Crispina's holy St Christopher pendant after it goes missing. After catching a glimpse Father Fitzroy having Crispina fellate him, she mixes stinging nettles in with his personal laundry as an act of revenge. She is eventually freed when her younger brother comes to collect her.
  
• Bernadette (Nora Jane Noone): Bernadette is a beautiful teenage orphan who is sent to the Magdalen Laundry because she is flirtatious with the boys at the orphanage. She is also extremely attractive and engages the boys in conversation while being coy. Bernadette, unlike the other three girls, is still a virgin. Bernadette makes a disastrous attempt to escape from the asylum shortly after she arrives and has her hair cut off in punishment.
  
• Rose/Patricia (Dorothy Duffy): Sent away by her parents and forced to give up her son for adoption, Rose finds herself in the laundry and is prepared to work hard for the sins she has committed so she may see her son again one day. Sister Bridget renames her 'Patricia' because the laundry already has a girl named Rose. Rose becomes increasingly resentful of her lack of freedom after Sister Bridget denies her the chance to send her son a birthday card. After she is severely beaten by Sister Bridget for talking to Crispina's sister and son, she agrees to escape with Bernadette. She symbolically regains her identity by reverting to her birth name - "My name is Rose."
  
• Harriet/Crispina (Eileen Walsh): Crispina's real name is revealed to be Harriet. She was sent to the laundry after giving birth to a child out of wedlock. She is also mentally challenged and poorly educated. Crispina believes she is a sinner and never complains about her situation. She puts her faith in a St Christopher pendant she believes is a 'holy telephone', through which she can communicate with her sister and her son.[2].
  
• Una O'Connor (Mary Murray): We first see Una being dragged back into the dormitory by her hair by her father, who angrily thrashes her and warns her never to come home. We next see Una as her hair is being clipped away by Sister Bridget to discourage her from escaping again. After this episode, Una is quickly broken down by the Nuns and it is revealed that she has petitioned to take Holy Orders and become a nun herself.
  
• Sister Bridget, Mother Superior: (Geraldine McEwan) plays the sadistic Sister Bridget, a soft-spoken, gentle-faced old woman, who commits acts of unbelievable cruelty. Money-hungry, she relishes counting the profits from the laundry--profits that never get distributed to the girls and women who do all the work. She often punishes the girls through humiliating acts; in one scene Sister Bridget is cutting off Una's hair nonchalantly as she disciplines Bernadette and Crispina for talking out of turn. In another scene the Sister violently attacks Rose despite Bernadette being in the room.
  
• Sister Jude (Frances Healy), Sister Clementine (Eithne McGuinness) and Sister Augusta (Phyllis MacMahon) also abuse and humiliate their charges, frequently forcing them to submit to sexual humiliation.
  
• Father Fitzroy (Daniel Costello) sexually abuses Crispina and she is subsequently committed to an insane asylum to silence her accusations.

See also

• Magdalene Asylum
• Misery lit

External links

• Official Site
• The Magdalene Sisters at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Magdalene Sisters at IMDb

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