WHAT UNSPEAKABLE CRIME TOOK PLACE  BEHIND THE THIRD FLOOR WINDOW? ONLY AGNES KNOWS. AND DR. MARTHA LIVINGSTON IS THE ONE PERSON WHO CAN UNRAVEL THE MYSTERY.

John Pielmeier’s play turned into a powerful movie with the help of Sven Nykvist’s stark cinematography and the three leading ladies. Meg Tilly plays a very tortured soul, a young nun who is completely immersed in her religion. She gave birth to a child and apparently strangled it; how could she end up pregnant if she doesn’t even know what sex is? Anne Bancroft is perfect as the seemingly open-minded mother superior, and so is Jane Fonda as the psychiatrist with an old grudge against the church. The film works like a good crime story, but there are times when it comes across as a lightweight whodunit when it should be profound. 

1985-U.S. 98 min. Color. Produced by Patrick Palmer, Norman Jewison. Directed by Norman Jewison. Screenplay, Play: John Pielmeier. Cinematography: Sven Nykvist. Music: Georges Delerue. Cast: Jane Fonda (Martha Livingston), Anne Bancroft (Miriam Ruth), Meg Tilly (Agnes), Anne Pitoniak.

Golden Globe: Best Supporting Actress (Tilly).

Last word: “Anne Bancroft swept in, pulled up a chair, sat down, leaned across, looked me in the eye, and said, ‘So this is Mrs. Robinson? Look at these lines. Look at me.’ She wore no makeup, she was pale, there were dark half-moons under her eyes. So there we were, five minutes later [after Jewison asked Bancroft to put on a nun’s habit costume], Anne in the wimple and veil, both of us staring into the meanly lighted mirror, her hair and lovely hands covered by the nun’s habit, and I realized she would be a superb Mother Miriam Ruth in ‘Agnes of God’.” (Jewison on his initial doubts that “Mrs. Robinson” could play a nun, TCM)

IMDb