The Magdalene Laundries, run by the Catholic Church in Ireland have been written about in the papers in the last decade and there has been a scandal at the way young women have been treated for 150 years. What is even more frightening is that the last of these instuitutions only closed down ... Read review
Based on the true accounts of the Magdalene laundries in Ireland which eventually closed ... more
in 1996 after an estimated 30 000 women had been detained 'The Magdalene Sisters' follows the story of three of these young women in Dublin 1964. Margaret (A...
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Winner of the Golden Lion at the 2002 Venice Film Festival, The Magdalene Sisters is the ... more
moving story about the triumph of the human spirit over all.Margaret, Rose and Bernadette arrive together at the Magdalene Laundries, an institution for 'fallen' w...
This powerful film, winner of the prestigious Gold Lion BestPicture Award at the Venice ... more
Film Festival, the Discovery Award atthe 2002 Toronto Film Festival and a Best Film nominee at theprestigious 2003 British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards(BAFTA), is based on actual events at the now infamous MagdaleneLaundries in Ireland.
Production Year: 2004 - Drama - Director: Nick Cassavetes - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over, 12 years and over - Starring: Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling, Gena Rowlands
Production Year: 2000 - Drama - Director: Giuseppe Tornatore - Original Language: Italian - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Monica Bellucci, Giuseppe Sulfaro, Luciano Federico, Matilde Piana
Advantages: Its honesty Disadvantages: Its embarrassing that people were treated like that
The Magdalene Laundries, run by the Catholic Church in Ireland have been written about in the papers in the last decade and there has been a scandal at the way young women have been treated for 150 years. What is even more frightening is that the last of these instuitutions only closed down eight years ago. Young girls who had perhaps slept with boys, or just flirted, or maybe got pregnant, or even those who had learning difficulties were sent off ... ...to have been abused at the hands of these Sisters.
The Magdalane Sisters is set in 1964 County Dublin. In the prologue we meet the three main characters; three teenage girls from different backgrounds in Ireland. Margaret Maguire is raped at a family wedding, yet this brings shame on the family and she is sent to the convent. She comes from a poor background, sharing a bed and bedrooms with several of her siblings.
The Magdalene Laundries, run by the Catholic Church in Ireland have been written about in the papers in the last decade and there has been a scandal at the way young women have been treated for 150 years. What is even more frightening is that the last of these instuitutions only closed down eight years ago. Young girls who had perhaps slept with boys, or just flirted, or maybe got pregnant, or even those who had learning difficulties were sent off to the laundries where they were treated terribly and forced to work for no pay and little food. They were humiliated and given numbers instead of their names. Thirty-thousand girls are reported to have been abused at the hands of these Sisters.
The Magdalane Sisters is set in 1964 County Dublin. In the prologue we meet the three main characters; three teenage girls from different backgrounds in Ireland. Margaret Maguire is raped at a family wedding, yet this brings shame on the family and she is sent to the convent. She comes from a poor background, sharing a bed and bedrooms with several of her siblings.
Rose gets pregnant and has a baby which her parents won’t even acknowledge or look at and they get their local priest to force her to give the baby up for adoption so he doesn’t have to suffer for her sin. The priest threatens her into signing the adoption papers, saying the baby will be a bastard because she is unmarried, and it’s the only way. The baby is taken from her when he is hours old, and even when she pleads with her Dad to let him keep the child.
Bernadette lives in an orphanage, and is a good looking girl who flirts with the boys, but she has never experimented sexually before she is sent off to the convent.
All three girls arrive at the Magdalene Laundry at the same time and the film is shocking as it shows us the kind of treatment they were subjected to. This film had me on the edge of my seat, and I felt a lump in my throat from the very start to the very end. It isn’t even a weepy film, but it just shocks you to the core with every scene.
The sister takes delight in humiliating the girls at every opportunity. Even on her first day, Rose is stripped of her Christian name because they already have a Rose in the convent. The other girls are humiliated and referred to as simple, when they are not. Rose is in agony on her first night because she has just had a baby and her breasts are sore with her baby milk. But she is told by one of the other girls to shut up and not draw attention to it, because the sisters despise that most of all.
There are some really really shocking scenes in this film. In one particular one, a young girl escapes during the night and is missed in the morning by the nuns. Later she arrives back, having ran home to her parents, and her Dad brought her back. It is her Dad that beats her to a pulp in the dormitory while the sister and the rest of the girls look on. How can a parent do that to their child no matter what she did? Even worse, after the beating, the Sister then shaves all her hair off so she won’t be able to escape because she is so disgusted by her own looks.
And Bernadette, whose only sin was to flirt with boys over the school railings manages to persuade a young errand boy who they do the laundry for to come back one evening and use his key to let her escape. Except she has to use her body anyway to pursuade him to do that; and that is exactly the "sin" for what she is supposed to be in the convent for.
What comes across very strongly in this film all the time is about the power of the Catholic Church and how sins must be repented. There are older women in the convent who arrived their as young girls. They are not nuns, though they are more senior. They live in absolute fear of the church and the sisters and believe that a lifetime of penance is needed for the sins they committed.
In another scene, the girls are forced to strip naked and they are then humiliated by the sister as to who has the biggest breasts, the smallest breasts etc. She continues this game picking at different parts of their naked bodies until she forces them to cry.
At mealtimes, they are fed measly portions while the Sisters gorge on loads of delicious fresh food. And the girls receive no pay for their slave labour, while the companies they do laundry for continue to pay the convent.
There is some sexual abuse too. The girls are terrified of what will happen to them, and will do whatever they are asked to do, because of the way they are made to feel, and because they know they will get a beating anyway.
We witness an attempted suicide of another girl in the convent, who has learning difficulties and is in there because she mothered a young boy, who is still looked after by her family. The suicide attempt is foiled by the other girls, but Bernadette, who is quite pragmatic questions why because there is nothing to live for anyway.
Yet to the outside world, the girls are forced to play games such as sack racing while being filmed to give off the pretence that all is normal within the four walls.
I don’t want to give away too much of the plot, and the scenes I have described to you are only a small part of this film. It’s a really shocking film. It’s left me a bit dumbstruck, numb and shocked, and it probably will for a few days more. I had read a little bit about the Magdalene Laundries in the paper ages ago now, but it’s hard to believe that this happened in this part of Europe just 40 years ago, and was still happening to up to 8 years ago. The absolute fear for the church and what happens to sinners comes across right the way through the film. I wasn’t sure until the very end, how dramatised it was, and if the three girls in the story were real or not, but in fact this movie was based on real young girls, as we find out what happened to them in later years.
I don’t recognise any of the names of the actors and actress in this film, but that doesn’t make it a B-grade movie at all. It’s a truly gripping and shocking story of a part of life in the convents of Ireland in the 20th century.
I have wanted to see this movie for a while, since I read about it in the papers, but my Dad brought it back from blockbusters tonight by chance; and referred to it as a “chick flick”. But he was absolutely gripped and silent like I was all the way through and has definitely changed his mind as to the type of movie this actually is.
The film has an 18 certificate, because of the sexual content, nudity, cruelty and swearing. It runs for 119 minutes. It was released in 2002 and directed by Peter Mullan.
I am Catholic, and I know that the god-fearing side of Catholicism still exists in places and in some people, but this film makes me thoroughly ashamed and I am sure the Catholic Church are ashamed and embarrassed too.
Advantages: Superb acting, thought provoking true story Disadvantages: somewhat harrowing
...Magdalene Sisters" was winner of the Golden Lion Award in Venice last year despite the protestations of the Catholic Church who understandably did not rate it's qualities so highly. The film is set in Ireland (but actually filmed in Scotland) in the 1960s and is based upon true events first brought to light in a 1998 Channel 4 documentary called "Sex in a Cold Climate". The documentary caused uproar when it revealed the horrific truth about the Magdalene ... ...the last one only being closed down in 1996. The Magdalene laundries were institutions run by the Catholic church and were used for the correction of young women who were thought to be a moral danger to themselves or others. The women were made to work in these asylums for no pay in imitation of Mary Magdalene. In these laundries the women were exploited and abused and often served their entire lives paying for their 'sins'. During their existence ...
buzios 08.09.2003
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Magdalene Sisters (DVD)
Advantages: An uncompromising portrayal of events that went on in the Magdalene Launderies Disadvantages: The Vatican won't admit that these sort of things happened
For many young women the concept of becoming pregnant is fairly daunting even today, but Peter Mullen's 'Magdalene Sisters' shows that the repercussions are somewhat easier now than during the 1960s, in Ireland. (you'll be shocked when you discover exactly when this practice finished.) In fact, you didn't actually need to have become pregnant to get yourself in 'trouble'... The story begins in 1964 when Margaret (Anne-Marie Duff) attends a wedding. ... ...friend entices her from the main gathering. With the celebrations continuing below, he rapes her. Shocked, she makes her first mistake - telling her father. In a hospital Rose (dorothy duffy) attempts to encourage her mother to look at her newly born son, until her father and a priest shame her into giving up her child for adoption to a 'good Catholic family'. Bernadette (Nora-Jane Noone) is a stunning young girl living in an orphanage. Her only ...
ickkate 29.12.2003
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Magdalene Sisters (DVD)
Advantages: Well acted, thought provoking Disadvantages: disturbing, not for everyone
...old ladies being burnt at the stake as witches, or what about women being stoned to death or murdered in honour killings in the Muslim wolrd, it is horrenous. Now think about the Catholic Church in Ireland. They ran a system of corrective institutions called the Magdalene Laundries to send temptresses, jezebels, rape victims an unmarried mothers to pay for their wicked sins by hard work. These institutions little known about and talked about were ... ...were the subject of a small independent British film directed by the Scottish director Peter Mullen entitled the Magdalene Sisters. This film released in 2003 detailed he true life experiences of a number of women who were locked away in these cruel institutionis in the 1960s. It is a film like Schindler's List that I was glad I had seen but could not say I enjoyed it due to the subject matter being so harrowing and emotive. I actually saw it in ...
duskmaiden 25.06.2003 (01.12.2006)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Magdalene Sisters (DVD)
Advantages: very educative Disadvantages: bit gloomy
...d'Or, he won 1998, in the film "My name is Joe" where he acted brilliantly a jobless treated alcoholic. It is indeed, that Peter Mullan is not just an actor, but that he is the film director with the potential. But Peter is not just an actor. He is er very good actor. "The Magdalene sisters" has the special appearance of Mullan, acting raving mad father of the young woman, sent viciously to a nun convent in Ireland. For the people who doesn't know ... ...That's why he has got the award for playing treated alcoholic in "My name is Joe". In this film, his Northern England English, the characteristic appearance and look paints perfectly one ordinary, but very likeable Scottish. In "The Magdalene Sisters" Mullan is portraying the miserable life of young and rejected by society women, put "on- treat- and- under- the- care" of Catholic Church and their Magdalene's "Sisters- of- Mercy". "Just as actors ...
barefoot777 28.07.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Magdalene Sisters (DVD)
Advantages: is an eye opening vision of how catholic girls have been treated. Very moving. Disadvantages: disturbing, tear jerker and makes you angry
...kindness.....
I had heard of the Magdelene laundries, but I was not prepared for what I saw in the film. The nuns are in the main horrible-and the nun in charge is truly a monster. She was played very well by Geraldine McEwan...we really hated her in this film!
The beginning of the film starts off innocently enough, outlining the lives of three girls from different backgrounds. Margaret, Rose and Bernadette are all the victims of the male dominated ... ...they abandoned their daughters to the laundries because their menfolk had seduced them or even worse, raped them- and then blamed them for leading them on. This film is frighteningly strong and honest enough to portray these incidents- made me very angry on behalf of these girls. How could we do this to our girls? The institution is more than a prison because the girls are stripped of not only their freedom, but their dignity is removed by the nuns ...
ginger59 14.06.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Magdalene Sisters (DVD)
Set in Ireland in 1964, in the Magdalene Convent for supposedly 'fallen' women run by the Catholic Church. The story centres around four girls, Crispina and Rose who are unwed mothers, Bernadette who was accused of flirting with boys and Margaret who was raped by her cousin at a family wedding. The girls are incarcerated at the institution and are forced to work long hours and endure humiliation and abuse on a regular basis.
Release details
DVD Region
DVD
Studio(s)
MOMENTUM PICTURES; TECHNICOLOR DISTRIBUTION SERVICES
Audio Commentary - 1. Peter Mullen - Director, Trailers, Bonus Short Films - 1. FRIDGE, 2. CLOSE
Professional reviews
Review
"...Fearless and powerful....THE MAGDALENE SISTERS is the rare movie that turns cruelty into art..." (Entertainment Weekly, p.51, 08/08/2003)
"...Graced with performers who bring a purity of emotion to their work, the film is always dramatically convincing..." (Los Angeles Times, p.C1, 01/08/2003)
"...Grim, powerful..." (New York Times, p.E10, 01/08/2003)
"...The film gets to you; it's a powerhouse..." (Rolling Stone, p.82, 21/08/2003)
"...It is an unsettling tale told simply and chillingly by director Peter Mullan, with stand-out performances, an evocative soundtrack and spare, haunting visuals..." (USA Today, p.4E, 01/08/2003)
DVD Description
Peter Mullen's shocking drama THE MAGDALENE SISTERS is based on real events that took place in Ireland from the 1960s until 1996 when an estimated 30,000 young women, considered by their families to have committed sexual sins, were sent away from their homes to earn penitence working in profit-making laundries run by the Sisters of Magdalene Order. However, the "acts" that lead to the girls miserable imprisonment were clearly not punishable. What's worse, the nuns were cruel money grabbers who worked the girls to the point of exhaustion, and used poor living conditions and psychological abuse to break and brainwash the girls into subservience. The awful treatment the nuns gave these innocent young women was terrifying and utterly disturbing. Mullen designed the fictional characters in the film based on interviews with actual survivors of the laundries, working their stories into his plot. Margaret (Anne-Marie Duff) is a shy girl who is raped by her cousin at a wedding shaming her family, Patricia/Rose (Dorothy Duff) gets pregnant and her parents take her baby away from her, Bernadette (Nora-Jane Noone) is a pretty girl who is deemed "too flirtatious," and Crispina (Eileen Walsh) is a loving young mum whose children are forbidden to see her and are being raised by her sister. The imposing Sister Bridget (Geraldine McEwan) is pure evil, and will strike fear into the souls of MAGDALENE viewers. This expertly crafted, haunting film, presents Mullen's second feature film, following 1999's ORPHANS.
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