Trivia / Novitiate

• The novices practicing the chant are going over and over a bizarre-sounding line about putting words in someone's mouth. It's Exodus 4:15. God is reassuring Moses that he'll be with him and his brother Aaron, helping them to speak convincingly both to Pharaoh and to the Hebrew slaves. The nuns would be chanting in Latin in reality at this time, since Mother Marie hasn't instituted Vatican II changes yet; the English is for viewers' benefit. If they had done it in Latin, it would have been an excellent illustration of just what Marie is worried about, what she's afraid the nuns would lose, and why, at least in this case, she is right. One of the biggest controversies about Vatican II was that devotions such as Mass and liturgical chant had to be in English (or whatever your local language was). Read Rumer Godden's In This House of Brede for more on just how well that went over. Liturgical chant is extremely important in monastic communities, especially in the enclosed contemplative orders. It takes hours and hours of practice to get it exactly right. It is considered the highest form of prayer. And it was written to be sung in Latin.
• When Cathleen begs Sister Emmanuelle for human contact she cries "Comfort me, comfort me." She didn't choose that word by chance. It's Isaiah 40. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem... God is telling the prophets to speak to the children of Israel, to say that they have paid for their sins and are forgiven. This may be Viewers Are Geniuses if we're supposed to pick up on that; it's a famous chapter, which continues with "Prepare ye the way of the Lord".
• There is an alternative ending on the DVD in which we see that Cathleen did get out, and has a son of her own. The church where she felt God's call is in ruins, but she visits and is happy, saying she still senses God's presence and warmth.
• In an interview with Variety, Maggie Betts said she became interested in consecrated life after reading about Mother Teresa. More here.
• The abuse endured by the novices at the hands of a psychotic Mother Superior is, unfortunately, Truth in Television for some religious houses. Members of the Sisters Minor of Mary Immaculate had to escape undercover from their convent when they could no longer endure the excesses of their "U.S. delegate", Sr. Theresa Kovacs. As in the film, the "delegate" seemed to have assumed the functions of both Mother Superior and Novice Mistress, and ran the place like a BDSM cult instead of abiding by the founder's instructions. In fact, their story is uncannily like Novitiate. And there are probably others. Unfortunately, Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity was in some ways one of them, according to some of the sisters who left.