- The Magdalene Sisters
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The Magdalene Sisters 
Movie posterDirected by Peter Mullan Produced by Frances Higson Written by Peter Mullan Starring Anne-Marie Duff
Nora Jane Noone
Dorothy Duffy
Geraldine McEwan
Eileen WalshMusic by Craig Armstrong Cinematography Nigel Willoughby Distributed by Magna Pacific Release date(s) 30 August 2002 (Venice)
25 October 2002 Ireland)
21 February 2003
(United Kingdom)Running time 119 minutes Country United Kingdom
IrelandLanguage English Box office $20,957,001[1] 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 'Magdalene Laundries': homes for women who were labeled as "fallen" by their families or society (though the film 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.[2] Former Magdalene inmate Mary-Jo McDonagh told Mullan that the reality of the Magdalene Asylums was much worse than depicted in the film.[3]
Though set in Ireland, it was shot entirely on location in the Dumfries and Galloway area, South-West Scotland.
Contents
Cast
- Geraldine McEwan : Sister Bridget
- Anne-Marie Duff : Margaret McGuire
- Nora Jane Noone : Bernadette Harvey
- Dorothy Duffy : Rose/Patricia Dunne
- Eileen Walsh : Harriet/Crispina
- Mary Murray : Una O'Connor
- Britta Smith : Katy
- Frances Healy : Sister Jude
- Eithne McGuinness : Sister Clementine
- Phyllis MacMahon : Sister Augusta
- Rebecca Walsh : Josephine
- Eamonn Owens : Eamonn, Margaret's brother
- Chris Patrick-Simpson : Brendan
- Sean Colgan : Seamus
- Daniel Costello : Father Fitzroy
Critical reception
The film received very positive reviews from critics. As of 25 October 2008, the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 90% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 144 reviews.[4] Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 83 out of 100, based on 38 reviews — indicating "universal acclaim".[5] This made it the twentieth best reviewed film of the year.[6] The film appeared on several US critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2003.[7]
- 3rd: Ty Burr, The Boston Globe
- 6th: Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune
- 6th: Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly
- 7th: Jack Mathews, Daily News (New York)
- 8th: Carla Meyer, San Francisco Chronicle
- 9th: V.A. Musetto, New York Post
- 10th: Claudia Puig, USA Today
The film also 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.
See also
References
- ^ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=magdalenesisters.htm
- ^ "Interview with Peter Mullan". Movie Chicks. http://www.themoviechicks.com/summer2003/mctmagdalene.html. Retrieved 2008-03-07. "It was initially because it was unfinished. They hadn't received any recognition, they hadn't received any compensation, and they hadn't been given an apology. And they remained devout Catholics. So initially, it was as a means to get their story in the public domain."
- ^ Gibbons, Fiachra (7 February 2003). "In God's Name". London: The Guardian. http://film.guardian.co.uk/features/featurepages/0,4120,890489,00.html. Retrieved 2008-03-07. ""It was worse in the Magdalenes, much worse than what you see. I don't like to say it, but the film is soft on the nuns," says McDonagh, who spent five years in one in Galway after being molested by a neighbour. She was spirited away early one morning by a priest and told she had "brought shame on her family"."
- ^ "The Magdalene Sisters - Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes. http://uk.rottentomatoes.com/m/magdalene_sisters/. Retrieved 2008-10-25.
- ^ "The Magdalene Sisters (2003): Reviews". Metacritic. http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/magdalenesisters/. Retrieved 2008-10-25.
- ^ "The Best-Reviewed Movies of 2003". Metacritic. http://www.metacritic.com/film/awards. Retrieved 2008-10-25.
- ^ "Metacritic: 2003 Film Critic Top Ten Lists". Metacritic. Archived from the original on 2008-08-04. http://web.archive.org/web/20080804044822/http://www.metacritic.com/film/awards/2003/toptens.shtml. Retrieved 2008-10-25.
External links
- The Magdalene Sisters at Rotten Tomatoes
- The Magdalene Sisters at the Internet Movie Database
- The Magdalene Sisters at Box Office Mojo
Golden Lion-winning films (1990–2009) Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1990) · Urga (1991) · The Story of Qiu Ju (1992) · Short Cuts / Three Colors: Blue (1993) · Vive L'Amour / Before the Rain (1994) · Cyclo (1995) · Michael Collins (1996) · Fireworks (1997) · The Way We Laughed (1998) · Not One Less (1999) · The Circle (2000) · Monsoon Wedding (2001) · The Magdalene Sisters (2002) · The Return (2003) · Vera Drake (2004) · Brokeback Mountain (2005) · Still Life (2006) · Lust, Caution (2007) · The Wrestler (2008) · Lebanon (2009)
selected = Child sexual Roman Catholic}}
Categories:- English-language films
- 2002 films
- 2000s drama films
- British drama films
- Irish films
- Films critical of Roman Catholicism and Catholics
- Films based on actual events
- Leone d'Oro winners
- Catholic sexual abuse scandal in Ireland
- Media coverage of Catholic sex abuse cases
- Feminism and the arts
- Feminism and history
- Feminism and spirituality
- Films set in Ireland
- Films set in the 1960s
- Christian feminism
- Films about priests
- 2002 in religion
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