Sort by Popularity - Most Popular Movies and TV Shows tagged with keyword "abbess"
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1. The Sound of Music (1965)
G | 172 min | Biography, Drama, Family
A young novice is sent by her convent in 1930s Austria to become a governess to the seven children of a widowed naval officer.
Director: Robert Wise | Stars: Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, Eleanor Parker, Richard Haydn
Votes: 261,983 | Gross: $163.21M
2. Benedetta (2021)
Unrated | 131 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
A 17th-century nun in Italy suffers from disturbing religious and erotic visions. She is assisted by a companion, and the relationship between the two women develops into a romantic love affair.
Director: Paul Verhoeven | Stars: Virginie Efira, Charlotte Rampling, Daphné Patakia, Lambert Wilson
Votes: 25,666
3. The Devils (1971)
R | 111 min | Biography, Drama, History
In 17th-century France, Father Urbain Grandier's protection of the city of Loudun from the corrupt Cardinal Richelieu is undermined by a sexually repressed nun's accusation of witchcraft.
Director: Ken Russell | Stars: Vanessa Redgrave, Oliver Reed, Dudley Sutton, Max Adrian
Votes: 18,776 | Gross: $1.13M
4. Black Narcissus (1947)
Not Rated | 101 min | Drama
A group of nuns struggle to establish a convent in the Himalayas, while isolation, extreme weather, altitude, and culture clashes all conspire to drive the well-intentioned missionaries mad.
Directors: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger | Stars: Deborah Kerr, David Farrar, Flora Robson, Jenny Laird
Votes: 27,827
5. Tulip Fever (2017)
R | 105 min | Drama, History, Romance
An artist falls for a young married woman while he's commissioned to paint her portrait during the Tulip mania of seventeenth century Amsterdam.
Director: Justin Chadwick | Stars: Alicia Vikander, Dane DeHaan, Jack O'Connell, Holliday Grainger
Votes: 23,013 | Gross: $2.43M
6. Robin and Marian (1976)
PG | 106 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
Robin Hood, aging none too gracefully, returns exhausted from the Crusades to woo and win Maid Marian one last time.
Director: Richard Lester | Stars: Sean Connery, Audrey Hepburn, Robert Shaw, Richard Harris
Votes: 14,009 | Gross: $8.72M
7. The Innocents (2016)
PG-13 | 115 min | Drama, History
1945. Mathilde is a French Red Cross doctor working on a mission to help the French survivors of the German camps. While she works in Poland, she is asked for help by a nun. In her convent, several nuns are pregnant.
Director: Anne Fontaine | Stars: Lou de Laâge, Agata Buzek, Agata Kulesza, Vincent Macaigne
Votes: 11,634 | Gross: $1.06M
8. The Four Musketeers: Milady's Revenge (1974)
PG | 108 min | Action, Adventure, Romance
The Four Musketeers defend the queen and her dressmaker from Cardinal Richelieu and Milady de Winter.
Director: Richard Lester | Stars: Michael York, Raquel Welch, Oliver Reed, Richard Chamberlain
Votes: 11,750 | Gross: $19.10M
9. The Demons (1973)
R | 79 min | Horror
A group of nuns become possessed by demons and are then tortured in a dungeon of horrors during the inquisition.
Director: Jesús Franco | Stars: Anne Libert, Carmen Yazalde, Doris Thomas, Karin Field
Votes: 917
10. The Song of Bernadette (1943)
Approved | 156 min | Biography, Drama, Mystery
14-year-old Bernadette Soubirous, living in a small town in the south of 1850s France, claims to have seen a divine vision, prompting extreme skepticism, concern from her family, and religious and political turmoil.
Director: Henry King | Stars: Jennifer Jones, Charles Bickford, William Eythe, Vincent Price
Votes: 7,671
11. The Nun and the Devil (1973)
R | 100 min | Drama, Horror
During the 1570s, in the convent of Sant'Arcangelo di Baiano, after the death of the mother superior, a power struggle rages on, as one nun, who comes from a powerful family, is willing to do anything to become the new abbess.
Director: Domenico Paolella | Stars: Anne Heywood, Luc Merenda, Ornella Muti, Martine Brochard
Votes: 563
12. Hawk the Slayer (1980)
PG | 90 min | Adventure, Fantasy
With the aid of his companions, a man seeks to defeat his evil brother who has taken a nun hostage.
Director: Terry Marcel | Stars: Jack Palance, John Terry, Bernard Bresslaw, Ray Charleson
Votes: 4,116
13. Marketa Lazarová (1967)
Not Rated | 162 min | Drama, History, Romance
A grim portrayal of the shift from Paganism to Christianity in medieval central Europe - as a young virgin promised to God is kidnapped and raped by a marauder who her religious father seeks to kill in return.
Director: Frantisek Vlácil | Stars: Josef Kemr, Magda Vásáryová, Nada Hejna, Jaroslav Moucka
Votes: 6,058
14. Love Letters of a Portuguese Nun (1977)
Not Rated | 80 min | Drama, Adventure, Horror
16-year-old Maria is forced into Serra D'Aires convent, secretly run by Satanists.
Director: Jesús Franco | Stars: Susan Hemingway, William Berger, Herbert Fux, Ana Zanatti
Votes: 1,258
15. Shogun's Joy of Torture (1968)
Not Rated | 96 min | Drama, Horror
Three tales of punishment and torture set in Japan in the Middle Ages.
Director: Teruo Ishii | Stars: Teruo Yoshida, Masumi Tachibana, Fumio Watanabe, Reiko Mikasa
Votes: 692
16. Madame Bovary (1991)
PG-13 | 143 min | Drama, Romance
In nineteenth-century France, the romantic daughter of a country squire marries a dull country doctor. To escape boredom, she throws herself into love affairs with a suave local landowner and a law student, and runs up ruinous debts.
Director: Claude Chabrol | Stars: Isabelle Huppert, Jean-François Balmer, Christophe Malavoy, Jean Yanne
Votes: 4,498 | Gross: $1.94M
17. The Singing Nun (1966)
Approved | 97 min | Biography, Drama, Family
Fanciful biography of the Belgian nun who briefly made the hit parade.
Director: Henry Koster | Stars: Debbie Reynolds, Ricardo Montalban, Greer Garson, Agnes Moorehead
Votes: 1,532
18. Mother Joan of the Angels (1961)
110 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
A priest is sent to a small parish in the Polish countryside which is believed to be under demonic possession and there he finds his own temptations awaiting.
Director: Jerzy Kawalerowicz | Stars: Lucyna Winnicka, Mieczyslaw Voit, Anna Ciepielewska, Maria Chwalibóg
Votes: 4,332
19. The Flowers of St. Francis (1950)
Not Rated | 85 min | Biography, Comedy, Drama
A series of vignettes depicting the lives of the original Franciscan monks, including their leader and the bumbling Ginepro.
Director: Roberto Rossellini | Stars: Aldo Fabrizi, Gianfranco Bellini, Peparuolo, Severino Pisacane
Votes: 4,056
20. Wondrous Boccaccio (2015)
120 min | Comedy, Drama, History
10 young friends hide out from a deadly disease in the countryside during the 1300s.
Directors: Paolo Taviani, Vittorio Taviani | Stars: Lello Arena, Paola Cortellesi, Carolina Crescentini, Flavio Parenti
Votes: 1,000
21. The Iron Mask (1929)
Passed | 95 min | Adventure, Drama, History
King Louis XIII of France is thrilled when his son is born--an heir to the throne. But his Queen has actually delivered twin boys. Cardinal Richelieu sees the second son as a potential for ... See full summary »
Director: Allan Dwan | Stars: Douglas Fairbanks, Belle Bennett, Marguerite De La Motte, Dorothy Revier
Votes: 1,400 | Gross: $3.27M
22. Beautiful Antonia, First a Nun Then a Demon (1972)
82 min | Comedy
To spite her father, a young woman enters a convent. However, the woman's old boyfriend shows up and tries to win her back.
Director: Mariano Laurenti | Stars: Edwige Fenech, Piero Focaccia, Riccardo Garrone, Dada Gallotti
Votes: 251
23. Francis of Assisi (1961)
Not Rated | 105 min | Biography, Drama, History
In 13th century Italy, Francis Bernardone, the son of an Assisi merchant, renounces a promising army career in favor of a monastic life and starts his own religious order, sanctioned by the Pope.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Bradford Dillman, Dolores Hart, Stuart Whitman, Cecil Kellaway
Votes: 1,131
24. The Nun (1966)
GP | 140 min | Drama
Suzanne is forced against her will to take vows as a nun and three mothers superior treat her in radically different ways. Suzanne's virtue brings disaster to everyone in this faithful adaptation of a bitter attack on religious abuses.
Director: Jacques Rivette | Stars: Anna Karina, Liselotte Pulver, Micheline Presle, Francine Bergé
Votes: 3,252 | Gross: $0.03M
25. Tales of Erotica (1972)
88 min | Comedy
Four women of Gubbio--Angelica, Violetta, Lisa and Bettina--are conducted before the court by their lovers and husbands.
Director: Piero Regnoli | Stars: Mario Carrara, Gino Cassani, Roberto Ceccacci, Luigi Leoni
Votes: 109
26. The Bridge of San Luis Rey (2004)
PG | 120 min | Drama, History, Romance
In 1714 Peru, a friar is tried by the Inquisition for questioning God's intentions when five die in the collapse of an Andean rope bridge.
Director: Mary McGuckian | Stars: Gabriel Byrne, Robert De Niro, Harvey Keitel, Kathy Bates
Votes: 3,689 | Gross: $0.04M
27. I, the Worst of All (1990)
R | 105 min | Biography, Drama, History
This fact-based film examines the life of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (Assumpta Serna), a Roman Catholic nun from Mexico City who, in the midst of the Spanish Inquisition, established herself... See full summary »
Director: María Luisa Bemberg | Stars: Assumpta Serna, Dominique Sanda, Héctor Alterio, Lautaro Murúa
Votes: 723 | Gross: $0.05M
28. The Lady of Monza (1969)
R | 105 min | Biography, Drama
A film loosely based on real life events of Marianna De Leyva, better known as "The Nun of Monza," a 17th century nun accused of and tried by the church for breaking celibacy and plotting murder.
Director: Eriprando Visconti | Stars: Anne Heywood, Antonio Sabato, Hardy Krüger, Carla Gravina
Votes: 218
29. The Garden of Allah (1936)
Approved | 79 min | Adventure, Drama, Mystery
The star-crossed desert romance of a cloistered woman and a renegade monk.
Director: Richard Boleslawski | Stars: Marlene Dietrich, Charles Boyer, Tilly Losch, Basil Rathbone
Votes: 1,712
30. Mariette in Ecstasy (2019)
PG-13 | 101 min | Drama
Set in a turn-of-the-century religious community about a nun who has recently taken her vows.
Director: John Bailey | Stars: Geraldine O'Rawe, Eva Marie Saint, Alex Appel, Nancy Beatty
Votes: 79
31. Flavia, the Heretic (1974)
R | 96 min | Drama, Horror
A young woman forced into nun-hood by her corrupt father teams up with an army of Muslims to destroy the convent and kill those who wronged her.
Director: Gianfranco Mingozzi | Stars: Florinda Bolkan, María Casares, Claudio Cassinelli, Anthony Higgins
Votes: 1,222
32. Story of a Cloistered Nun (1973)
R | 97 min | Drama
Refusing an arranged marriage, young aristocrat Carmela is sent to a convent. Her arrival intensifies the power struggle between the debauched nun Elizabeth, and the stern but evil Mother Superior, as both are smitten by Carmela's beauty.
Director: Domenico Paolella | Stars: Eleonora Giorgi, Suzy Kendall, Catherine Spaak, Martine Brochard
Votes: 477
33. Nasty Habits (1977)
PG | 96 min | Comedy
In a Philadelphia convent, two nuns battle it out to be elected to the position of head abbess, and neither is about to let anything stand in the way of getting what she wants.
Director: Michael Lindsay-Hogg | Stars: Glenda Jackson, Melina Mercouri, Geraldine Page, Sandy Dennis
Votes: 409
34. Let Joy Reign Supreme (1975)
Not Rated | 119 min | Drama, History, War
A look at 18th-century France, when the authorities depravity contributed to social oppression, and the uprisings flared up one after another.
Director: Bertrand Tavernier | Stars: Philippe Noiret, Jean Rochefort, Jean-Pierre Marielle, Christine Pascal
Votes: 1,763
35. The Sinful Nuns of Saint Valentine (1974)
Not Rated | 93 min | Drama, Horror
Lucita has been locked away in a convent by her family in order to keep her away from her lover, Esteban. The pair make plans to elope, but Esteban is accused of heresy before Lucita can ... See full summary »
Director: Sergio Grieco | Stars: Françoise Prévost, Jenny Tamburi, Paolo Malco, Franco Ressel
Votes: 932
36. Sacred Flesh (2000)
Not Rated | 75 min | Horror
Taunted by visions of Mary Magdalene, who reveals the confessions of the younger nuns at the convent, the Mother Superior's mind is filled with the violent, sexual acts of her fellow sisters.
Director: Nigel Wingrove | Stars: Sally Tremaine, Moyna Cope, Simon Hill, Kristina Bill
Votes: 558
37. The Trapp Family (1956)
Approved | 106 min | Family, Romance, Comedy
A novice nun, Maria, is sent to care for the unruly children of a wealthy baron. The baron and Maria fall in love, Maria leaves the convent, and they marry. Under Maria's guidance the ... See full summary »
Director: Wolfgang Liebeneiner | Stars: Ruth Leuwerik, Hans Holt, Maria Holst, Josef Meinrad
Votes: 355
38. Angels of Sin (1943)
80 min | Drama
Anne-Marie joins a Dominican convent as a novice where she knows Therese. After shooting a man for which she was imprisoned, Therese protests her innocence, reluctant to tell her secret.
Director: Robert Bresson | Stars: Renée Faure, Jany Holt, Sylvie, Mila Parély
Votes: 1,778
39. Mozart's Sister (2010)
Not Rated | 120 min | Biography, Drama, Music
A reimagined account of the early life of Maria Anna 'Nannerl' Mozart, five years older than Wolfgang, and a musical prodigy in her own right.
Director: René Féret | Stars: Marie Féret, Marc Barbé, Delphine Chuillot, David Moreau
Votes: 1,618 | Gross: $0.71M
40. In This House of Brede (1975 TV Movie)
TV-PG | 105 min | Drama
A well-to-do London businesswoman gives up her comfortable life, including the man who loves her, to become a cloistered Benedictine nun.
Director: George Schaefer | Stars: Diana Rigg, Pamela Brown, Gwen Watford, Denis Quilley
Votes: 309
41. Madonna of the Seven Moons (1945)
Not Rated | 88 min | Drama, Mystery
A respectable, convent-raised woman is haunted by the memory of being raped as a teenager. But when her grown daughter returns from school, her life begins to unravel in monumentally surprising ways.
Director: Arthur Crabtree | Stars: Phyllis Calvert, Stewart Granger, Patricia Roc, Peter Glenville
Votes: 635
42. Till We Meet Again (1944)
Passed | 88 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
Occupied France, World War II. The American pilot John is shot down and taken to a convent by the Resistance. The young novice Clothilde is interested in him and is willing to help him ... See full summary »
Director: Frank Borzage | Stars: Ray Milland, Barbara Britton, Walter Slezak, Lucile Watson
Votes: 233
43. Christmas Lilies of the Field (1979 TV Movie)
Not Rated | 100 min | Drama
Homer Smith returns to the chapel which, years before, he helped to build to find that the nuns have taken in a group of homeless/unwanted/runaway children. Once again, he is inspired by ... See full summary »
Director: Ralph Nelson | Stars: Billy Dee Williams, Maria Schell, Fay Hauser, Lisa Mann
Votes: 113
44. The Castro's Abbess (1974)
102 min | Drama, Thriller
A young woman is forced into a convent. However, due to her nobility she rises to be an abbess. She has to deal with corruption in the church.
Director: Armando Crispino | Stars: Barbara Bouchet, Pier Paolo Capponi, Ida Galli, Antonio Cantafora
Votes: 82
45. The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1944)
Passed | 107 min | Drama, Romance
A rope bridge over a gorge in the Peruvian Andes snaps, sending five people plunging to their deaths. A priest sets out to find out more about the life of each of the victims.
Director: Rowland V. Lee | Stars: Lynn Bari, Akim Tamiroff, Francis Lederer, Alla Nazimova
Votes: 219
46. Wet & Rope (1979)
Unrated | 69 min | Drama, Thriller
After being brutally raped, a young woman attempts to commit suicide. A priest talks her out of it and she decides to become a nun. Once inside the convent, she is again a victim of sexual abuse.
Director: Kôyû Ohara | Stars: Yuki Nohira, Miyako Yamaguchi, Yûko Akane, Jun Aki
Votes: 196
47. Father Charlie (1982)
30 min | Comedy
Sitcom about a troublesome clergyman who is sent to a convent to be kept watch over.
Stars: Lionel Jeffries, Anna Quayle, Deddie Davies, Jamila Massey
Votes: 9
48. Diarmaid & Strongbow (2005 TV Movie)
52 min | Documentary, History
Perhaps the key event of Irish history in the last thousand years was the arrival a small group of cousins on the Wexford coast in 1169. Of mixed Norman and Welsh blood, their followers ... See full summary »
Director: Brendan Culleton
Votes: 6
49. La monaca di Monza (1962)
100 min | Drama
Virginia de Leyva, daughter of a Spanish Lord, becomes a nun in Monza, in 1600s. She becomes very strict with herself and the students until she's unable to resist a romance with the nobleman Gian Paolo Osio which will lead both to danger.
Director: Carmine Gallone | Stars: Giovanna Ralli, Gabriele Ferzetti, Mario Feliciani, Lilla Brignone
Votes: 34
50. La monja alférez (1944)
PG | 88 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
A 17th century woman, imprisoned for fighting in a bar, recounts her past to a priest. She tells of her father teaching her how to fence, of being sent to a convent by her aunt when her ... See full summary »
Director: Emilio Gómez Muriel | Stars: María Félix, Ángel Garasa, José Cibrián, Delia Magaña
Votes: 62