Customer Reviews

Therese

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

This intimate, intense little film shows the making of a saint `from the outside.' When I first saw it, I was so impressed by the portrait of young Therese Martin that I learned all I could about the icon she became to the Roman Catholic World. The after-death publication of her stubby-pencil autobiography "The Story of a Soul" captured the attention of the devout. She rapidly came to be known as `The Little Flower' or "St. Therese of Lisieux" and was canonized in 1927, becoming co-patroness of France with St. Joan of Arc, and a "doctor of the church". The film shows us this giant figure of the faith as she appeared within the hermitically sealed world of a Carmelite convent-a little girl with quietly extraordinary qualities. No music or heavenly light announces her holiness. The scenes are barren, the light is directional and shadowed, as in a Caravaggio painting. The film presents a series of vignettes, as though on as shallow stage. Within each one, she seems to seek to hide, not allowing herself to dramatize even her own illness and approaching death. But the reactions of other sisters reveal her. An elderly nun chooses her as confessor, surrendering to her the one private possession she has retained, against the rules, for 50 years. A confused and unhappy young sister responds to her clear-eyed and loving compassion. A crabby older sister showers her with flowers and asks her for the relic of a fingernail clipping, astonished that she is unable to withhold her homage. Most important, her Mother Superior, who alone knows her secret desire to become a great saint, requires that she write down the thoughts of her heart, knowing that they will be important. Believers will be moved, the merely curious may find themselves breathless.
One vignette in particular, stays with me as a beautifully rendered cinematic explication of her character. I have never in all my researches on St. Therese encountered a narrative that `validates' the scene, but it has a haunting truthfulness. Therese is working in the kitchen with another sister. A box is delivered. When opened, it proves to contain a huge, live lobster. Therese boldly lifts it, though she is clearly frightened and awed by its claws and its repulsive appearance. But it is too large for her hand, and falls heavily to the floor, writhing and snapping on its back. She bends over, rights the thing, and picks it up. As she bends, blood streams from her mouth-a hemorrhage from the lungs, and the first sign we see in the film of the tuberculosis that will painfully kill her. She smiles radiantly to her companion sister, wiping the blood away, and saying that she `bit her tongue.' Thus, Therese faces death. I am struck by this scene because it reflects another painful scene in Dostoevsky's novel, The Idiot. A tubercular young student recounts a nightmare in which he is trapped in a room with a huge scorpion he knows he cannot escape. His terror and horror at this entrapment by inexorable death contrast strongly with Therese's outward reaction, though we later learn that she, too, is afraid. The difference? She boldly asserts her fear as a test of her faith, and continues to give herself to the God she no longer can see.
I see that some reviewers have been unnecessarily disturbed by the young nun who is so attached to Therese. This isn't a sick modern-day attempt to introduce'lesbianism' into the convent. It illustrates that one of the great difficulties religious must face is the inevitable temptation to form special attachment to another individual. Such special, individual love IS a problem for those trying to focus all love on an invisible God. Watch closely. You will see that Therese knows her fellow sister is troubled. Clear-sightedly, but lovingly, she refuses to participate in that exclusivity. The disturbing scene in which this sister eats sputum Therese has coughed up from her dying lungs is clearly based in the girl's attempt to emulate the actions of St. Catherine of Siena, who drank water used to wash a leper's skin. This action is 'perverse' only to those who do not understand it as an attempt to participate sacrificially in another's human suffering. Where the young sister is 'wrong' is that she would do such an action 'for Therese' but probably not for a stranger who is, as Mother Teresa of Calcutta would put it "Jesus in a distressing disguise." Therese herself costantly reveals less self-dramatizing sacrifices in her 'Story of a Soul.' To some, she appears extremely neurotic. To me, her 'craziness' appears the insanity conferred by divine love. Such madness for love of God will always look bizarre to non-participants.

Keep in mind that the director of this film was an atheist, and that one of his primary purposes in filming it was to experiment with a new/different cinematic style. Therefore, no fancy sets or backgrounds, just a concentration on the life of a very devout, simple, and loving young girl. Not her whole life, only bits and pieces of how she thought, what she said and did, and what life in a Cloistered Convent was like. l've seen this movie several times, and not once did l see any overt or obvious act of the so-called lesbianism. See it for its spititual message, and keep in mind that after this movie was released there was a solid increase in applications to Carmelite Convents and a more solid interest in the life of St. Therese of Lisieux, also known as the Little Flower.

First and foremost, this is not a traditional biographical movie. It is a theatrical, artsy, series of vignettes. Very French.

Secondly, there is very little that can be interpreted as being anti-Catholic, or scornful of Therese. The ancient expression of Christ as husband and lover may be surprising to modern ears, but it was part and parcel of Carmelite spirituality.

Likewise, one may not like to see flagellation and self-mortification through pain, but that is part of the tradition of the ascetic life, and not something to be ignored because it's uncomfortable.

Whether you enjoy the film or not, its basic presentation is not anti-Catholic or a betrayal of the life of Therese.

At the same time, you must read her writings yourself if you want to have any sense of this amazing young woman of God.

Recently a new movie came out about Saint Therese. I must say that it's nice to see the attempt at making Catholic oriented films, but the new movie is quite bad and perhaps shouldn't have been made. This film, however, is wonderful. It's filmed in the style of a stage production, so no LucasArts lightening bolts, etc., here, but it doesn't pretend to be anything more than that. In a way it's simplicity is quite fitting when we consider the message of Therese ("the little way").
I highly suggest this film even if you don't think you're into watching "Catholic" movies. There's a beautiful life story here, and it's told very well. A great family film that doesn't feel like a family film.

Unlike some of the more vehement reviews citing flaws, I saw this film as an unprecedentedly REALISTIC view of a saint I have read about for over 40 years. One must realize that life in the 19th century was not convenient or easy--and the convent life depicted reflects various aspects of that. Also, French culture at the time of her life was tolerant of much innocent physical demonstrations of love among family members--also depicted in the film. Comments about St. Therese calling Christ her lover are obviously oblivious to the writings of St. Teresa of Avila, St. Francis of Assissi, St. John of the Cross, and the Lord Himself in the Bible in "The Song of Songs". To assign other vulgar meanings to these references by her in the movie is uneducated and parochial. I found this movie to be one of the most beautiful I have ever seen about her life. And if anyone things the sets were stark, I invite them to visit the Carmelite convent where Therese lived and died--compared to that, the sets used in the movie were luxurious! A definite good work on the life of a Saint and Doctor of the Catholic Church!!

Can't believe how the reviewers on this page overlook some serious subtexts in this film. It's a dark movie and the setting is so stark and minimal it could have been on a stage or filmed in black and white. However, I can understand devout people getting swept up with the film because of the actress who plays Therese--I have seen all available photos of St. Therese and this actress looks just like her, down to the rosebud lips. Luke Films also recently came out with a film on St. Therese that will make traditional Catholics happy, but its American actress who plays the lead role is a far cry from this one. She is thoroughly French yet has all the sweetness, spiritual romanticism, and innocent exuberance Therese of Lisieux emits from her autobiography. However, these French film makers certainly make their late twentieth century, post-Christian European statement on the mentality of a turn of the century Carmelite nunnery. One young nun who is obviously rather mental apparently also has some lesbo hots for Therese, but her angst leads her to escape via a knotted cloth as if she's in a prison (I read the autobiography several times as a teen and don't recall Therese ever mentioning any "jail-break"). The cranky old nun Therese wrote about is featured in this film and with impressive detail. The film depicts a bizarre spectacle of the nuns at Christmas taking turns cradling and dancing about with a creche figure of the Baby Jesus as if it were a real baby, as if we're being told these nuns are acting out their repressed and thwarted motherhood. There are indeed other messages the makers plug in this setting of severity that seems more like S&M to people of our generation and it was possible such holy self-abuse prematurely killed Therese who died of TB in her early 20s. I'm not defending such extremes that Carmelites of that time performed--in fact, rather than such unnecessary extremes, I'd prefer along with the doctor (the voice of the film maker?) who says "This place should be burned down"--but just be forewarned of the film maker's subliminal commentaries.
Nevertheless, I found this film was very worth seeing and buying if watched with a critical eye. Besides the excellent performance of this actress who portrayed one of my favorite saints, I was very touched and deeply stirred by how the film showed the great love and affection among the Martin sisters (Therese had two or three sisters in the convent), especially how one sister was the embodiment of perfect love, empathy, and attentive care for Therese as she suffered in great misery in her final stage of tuberculosis. Parents who have to contend with kids obsessed with sibling rivalry should sit them down and show them that beautiful scene.

I found it very hard to give this movie a "1-5" rating. It isn't that kind of a movie.

This movie is less a movie and more a chronological series of audio-visual poems, done with great care in the technical artistic details. In the craft of it, the movie is extremely well done. Like poems, the more these scenes speak eloquently to some of us, the more they are not going to speak at all or are going to carry an entirely different message to others.

Although millions of Catholics would probably understand the movie reasonably well, I think a person with no background knowledge of the story of St. Therese or of the Carmelite life is either going to be misled or else find the story simply baffling. A great deal of vitally important foundational information is left unsaid. If you didn't understand the rule of life that operates in a Carmelite convent, for instance, the places where exceptions were made would go unnoticed. I don't see how a Protestant who has never read the autobiographical writings of St. Therese could watch this film and not walk away wondering why on earth Therese is so inspirational to so many, let alone why she was made a "Doctor of the Church."

Since all of the actresses dress identically (obviously!), keeping track of which story is which is not a piece of cake. Also, a great many liberties are taken in the story. In order to contrast Therese's simple faith with the real excesses that might have existed within the world of cloistered orders as a whole in her time, stories were made up that probably had no place whatsoever among the sisters that St. Therese actually lived with. The result is to portray her convent as a more or less emotionally and psychologically diseased setting, something not found in Therese's first-hand depiction. The faults of the sisters she lived with, where she depicted them at all, were far more of the common garden-variety human faults that we all know quite well. Her story is one of living a quietly holy life among pious people with the ordinary faults that even the pious struggle with, not one of finding one's way amongst women with, for example, sadomasochistic tendencies. Again, a person who had not read about her writing would have no way of knowing this.

This movie would be a really poor way to get acquainted with St. Therese or the doctrines she developed in her writings. It is, rather, a poetic comparison between true and false sanctity. Taken that way, I can see why some are so enthusiastic about it. As for myself, I couldn't get past the short shrift given the ordinary "little" life that Therese lived and most of us live, a life that she found can offer great opportunties for deep sanctity.

I was charmed by this film. Having read everything I could about this saint over a period of almost 40 years, I thought the film was quite realistic and rather lovely, even with the few liberties taken with the story. I didn't see anything insulting to the catholic faith in it, or to nuns. But I can't help but note how strongly some of the reviewers interpreted it that way. I don't know what to say to that. As to the person who objected to the sensuality of the nuns' thoughts in prayer -- well, I think they were quoting the Song of Songs, and St. John of the Cross's Spiritual Canticle -- traditional carmelite sources. At any rate, everything else aside, I thought the actual editing and scene composition were very well done.

I first watched the Vatican-approved version with Lindsey Younce in the starring role, and while I enjoyed the film as part of my growing admiration for Therese, I felt the film was too emotionally drawn and lacking depth.

This film, evidently directed by an atheist, went to the other extreme...too artsy fartsy. And what's more, the director's atheism portrayed the saint as well as all the other nuns in the Carmel as deranged neurotics with a latent S&M streak.

I'm reading the writings of Therese and those who knew her. That's where you will find her spirit...not in this film.

An excellent movie, but was not informed or didn't realize that it was in French, with English subtitles.
Definite not for the weak of stomach or for children.
Spiritually definitely worth your time.