Agnes of God

When Agnes, a young novice, gives birth to a baby later found strangled, a court psychiatrist (Fonda) is despatched to the convent to discover whether the girl (who claims to remember neither conception nor pregnancy) is fit to stand trial. Fonda, a chain-smoking lapsed Catholic, is determined to find the answer within the girl's subconscious; the worldly Mother Superior (Bancroft) believes a miracle might have taken place. Thus (based on a play) the obvious and slightly spurious battle between science and faith. Splendidly shot by Sven Nykvist and with excellent performances, it's an agreeable puzzle which doesn't, thank heaven, come up with a solution to the meaning of life.