THE MOVIE

Brides of Christ is one of Australia's most successful drama mini-series, it has also won numerous awards, including the AFI for best mini-series and best screenplay. This six part mini series is set in the 1960’s and revolves around a group of nuns at an inner city convent in Sydney and the schoolgirls they interact with at the Santo Spirito catholic boarding school.

Brides of Christ was written by John Alsop and directed by Ken Cameron. The mini series stars Brenda Fricker as Sister Agnes, Sandy Gore as Mother Ambrose, Josephine Byrnes as Sister Catherine, Lisa Hensley as Sister Paul, Naomi Watts as Frances Heffernan and Kym Wilson as Rosemary Fitzgerald. Below is a brief episode guide.

DISC 1
Episode 1 - Diane
The year is 1962 and the place is Sydney. Diane Catherine (Josephine Byrnes) has just completed her masters and is also engaged to be married, but she suddenly decides that she wants to serve God. At the convent she quickly forms a strong bond with Veronica Paul (Lisa Hensley) and the two of them endure, even as other girls reach breaking point under the tough guidelines enforced by Sister Agnes (Brenda Fricker).

Episode 2 - Frances
Diane and Veronica are now fully fledged nuns and teachers at the Santo Spirito catholic boarding school. Frances Heffernan (Naomi Watts) is one of the young female boarding students. It is a testing time for Frances as her parents are separated and her mother has a new male friend. She wants to remarry but risks being ousted from the church. Frances also establishes a friendship with troublemaker Rosemary Fitzgerald (Kym Wilson).

Episode 3 - Ambrose
The school year is about to begin again, seeing the reunion of school mates Frances, Rosemary and Brigid (Melissa Thomas). There are to be changes at the convent, including a new habit and a new lay teacher, a man called Ian McGregor (Philip Quast). Not everyone is happy about the new habit though. Sister Agnes and Sister Philomena (Caroline Gillmer) are both somewhat reluctant to embrace change.

DISC 2
Episode 4 - Rosemary
The schoolgirls are taught about self respect, and that their bodies are temples of the holy ghost. However, curiosity abounds and young Bernadette (Pippa Grandison) is soon expelled from the boarding school for having sex. Rosemary is intrigued by the subject and her questions see her miss out on a school science excursion. She becomes increasingly disobedient, and her voyage of self discovery soon begins. This episode also stars a very young Russell Crowe and Alex Lloyd as the lead singer of the band The Beef.

Episode 5 - Paul
Sister Paul pays a visit to her family to attend a wedding. She is reunited with an old friend Jack (Simon Burke). He’s a priest and wants to see more change in the church and leaves in frustration to drive a taxi. Sister Paul has developed feelings for him and has decided she doesn’t want to be a nun anymore, upsetting some of the older sisters. However, she soon discovers things aren’t what she expected on the outside and is having second thoughts about leaving the convent.

Episode 6 - Catherine
The convent finally has their new science block. Mother Ambrose is off in Rome and the issue of birth control is explored after the Pope’s new encyclical is released. Sister Catherine is against the ruling and it causes tension between her and the other nuns. She even supports a mothers decision to take the pill, going directly against the church. In the end Sister Catherine makes a tough decision, to leave the convent.

THE TRANSFER

Video:

Brides of Christ was originally screened on ABC television in September 1991. The transfer is a little ordinary. This DVD is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 full frame. The transfer is a little ordinary, I must say. This transfer comes with quite a lot of film grain and there is also stacks of background noise, this is especially noticeable during the darkened church interiors. Some minor aliasing is also evident from time to time, although this isn’t overly distracting. Colours are slightly muted, but the black dresses worn by the nuns looks great. Flesh tones are also realistic. Both DVDs are dual layer (DVD-9) and the layer changes are evident (one during Episode 2, Chapter 2, 27.21 minutes and another during Episode 5, Chapter 3, 28.40 minutes) but not overly distracting.

Audio:

This DVD comes with only one soundtrack, that being an English Dolby Digital 2.0 channel soundtrack. This soundtrack is quite good, especially the theme music for this series. Dialogue is clearly audible throughout all six episodes and there didn’t appear to be any audio synch problems. Brides of Christ also features English subtitles

THE EXTRAS

Brides of Christ is unfortunately devoid of extra features. The menus on these DVDs are static but feature looped audio. Both DVDs also feature an ABC promotional trailer during startup.

SUMMARY

Brides of Christ is one of Australia's most successful drama mini-series. It stars Josephine Byrnes, Lisa Hensley, Naomi Watts, Kym Wilson, Brenda Fricker and Sandy Gore. The story revolves around a group of nuns at an Australian convent in the 1960’s with each episode concentrating on one specific character. This DVD has a satisfactory audio transfer although the visual quality isn’t all that flash. Still, this is a great series and the DVD will definitely appeal to those of you who enjoyed Brides of Christ when it was shown on television.