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‘Therese’ Brings Saint Endearingly To Life

By Diane Levero

This fall, only half a year after the razzle-dazzle and mighty controversy surrounding Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ,” Leonardo Defilippis released his movie, “Therese,” with very little fanfare.

I had seen two of Defilippis‘s live presentations and was impressed by his talent.  Would his directorial skill transfer to the silver screen?

The good ole’ Catholic Review on September 23 obligingly printed a Catholic News Service review, giving “Therese” a sneering “thumbs down”:  Defilippis’s effort was “earnest but mawkish . . . a dry series of tableaus which may limit the movie’s appeal to mainstream viewers.”

On the opposite page, by the way, the newspaper printed a glowing encomium to the film “Wimbledon”:  “An appealing love story,” the reviewer gushed; even though the two tennis player co-stars casually indulge in premarital sex, “the ultimate emphasis on good values makes this an audience pleaser.”

But I digress.

On October 11 I attended the “premier” of “Therese” at Snowden Square Theater in Columbia, an event organized and financed by Defend Life.

Mr. Defilippis himself was there to introduce the film to the packed theater.

“Therese always called herself a little bird,” he said; “but she wanted to fly like an eagle.  With this movie, we’re opening up the cage and letting this little bird fly out.”

Every scene in the movie is based on Therese’s account of her life in The Story of a Soul and from Last Conversations, the record of the dying Therese’s conversations with her sisters, said Mr. Defilippis.

It is a great joy, when you have read a good book (I have read Story of a Soul), to see the characters and story well brought to life on the screen, and that is the case with “Therese.”

The simple, poignant episodes of Therese’s life are strung loosely together through voice-overs by Therese (Lindsay Younce), her words taken from Therese’s writings.

A bucolic opening scene of a happy Martin family picnic is quickly followed by Mama Zelie Martin’s death, when Therese is only 4.

Little Therese turns to Pauline, the second oldest of her four older sisters, crying, “Pauline will be my momma now!”

But when Therese is 9, Pauline enters a Carmelite convent.  Poor Therese is devastated:  “In an instant I understood what life was,” she would write later; “only continual suffering and separation.”

Two more sisters, Marie and Leonie, leave for the convent, and Therese is left only with her next oldest sister, Celine.

Spoiled and indulged as the “baby” of the family, Therese writes, “God would have to work a little miracle for me to grow up — and He did on Christmas Eve.”

In an instant, she is transformed from a weepy, self-absorbed child into a strong, joyful and mature young lady, thirsting to sacrifice and pray to save souls.

There follows in quick succession Therese’s eager efforts to enter the convent when she is only 15, her audacious plea to Pope Leo XIII for permission, charming scenes from her life as a nun, and her illness, great suffering and death.

After their father died, Celine had entered the convent, lugging her bulky camera with her.  Two scenes from the movie:  the nuns washing clothes around a pool, and a pensive Therese portraying Joan of Arc in a convent play, are strikingly like actual photos taken by Celine.

The musical score, by Sr. Marie Therese Sokol, OCD, is unobtrusively beautiful.  The photography is rich, the acting superb (I especially liked Linda Hayden’s compassionate portrayal of Pauline.)

Mr. Defilippis (who played Therese’s father) said that he had to cut a lot of scenes to satisfy the distributors, who thought a longer movie wouldn’t sell.  But the DVD version, which should come out five or six months after the movie, will be the uncut version.

If you haven’t seen the movie, get the DVD; you’ll be glad you did.