Excellent Movie about the Saint's Life
Added 1/24/2009
This film is a wonderful tribute to the life of Saint Therese. I love the way that it is shot in a very minimalist fashion and conveys the life of the enclosure beautifully.
The film is composed of vignettes of her life and many of the important moments that Therese faced are covered. The nuns chanting is soulful and I have watched this movie many times and never fail to be moved by the acting and message that it conveys.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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Poems that won't move everyone
Added 8/20/2007
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.
6 out of 6 people found this helpful.
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Naturalistic Reduction of Sanctity to Sadomasochism
Added 7/29/2007
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.
8 out of 10 people found this helpful.
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IT A GREAT MOVIE AT LEAST YOU CAN SEE A LOT OF THE SAINTS THAT WE HAVE.
0 out of 10 people found this helpful.
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Love for Christ
Added 11/10/2006
Very inspiring on how one is spiritually uplifted to serve Christ at any
cost and unconditional inspite of all the restrictive obstacles encountered in the religious institution. An eye-opener to those who are called to serve the Lord spiritually.
4 out of 6 people found this helpful.
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Excellent Movie about the Saint's Life
Added 1/24/2009
This film is a wonderful tribute to the life of Saint Therese. I love the way that it is shot in a very minimalist fashion and conveys the life of the enclosure beautifully.
The film is composed of vignettes of her life and many of the important moments that Therese faced are covered. The nuns chanting is soulful and I have watched this movie many times and never fail to be moved by the acting and message that it conveys.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
|
Poems that won't move everyone
Added 8/20/2007
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.
6 out of 6 people found this helpful.
|
Naturalistic Reduction of Sanctity to Sadomasochism
Added 7/29/2007
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.
8 out of 10 people found this helpful.
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