Thérèse movie

The other day, my copy of Thérèse arrived from the good ol' US of A so it was time for me to take a drive down the Dover Road to that great temple of mammon, Bluewater, to get hold of a DVD player that could be hacked into being multi-region. Having checked that the cheapest one currently available had a hack available online, I was a little crestfallen to find that the shop had printed sheets with all the details. At any rate, I can now merrily play DVDs from the USA or anywhere else - which seems sensible after all.

I thoroughly enjoyed the film and will watch it again - probably with a few parishioners. However, I rather winced at one or two points; not from personal dislike but in anticipation of what I might read in the reviews; the Rotten Tomatoes page for Thérèse confirmed some of those fears.

UPDATE: I referred here to a NYT review. A commenter points out that it was a review of an earlier film. [wipes egg off face]

I would share the concern of some commentators that the movie might not give a very full picture of the Little Flower for someone who did not know much about her. I was amused by this comment from Chris Armstrong in his review of the film for Christianity Today:
As an evangelical Protestant, however, I felt as I watched this first full-length English-language film portrayal of the young lady of Lisieux that I had somehow wandered into a theater playing a foreign film without subtitles. Something was being communicated just below the surface here, I thought, in telegraphic symbols and catchphrases, but I was too dense to quite catch the deeper meaning. I felt uncomfortable, as if I sat with a sign around my neck reading "clueless Protestant."
That is a perceptive comment. At times the film operates almost as a slideshow of the saint's life and spiritual quest. Nevertheless, if you are familiar with the life of St Thérèse and have even a little devotion to her, you just can't allow it to pass by. (I got my copy via Amazon UK.)

Popular posts from this blog

1962 Missal pdf online

Request for Novena to Blessed Pius IX

Saint Gabriel

Saint Ignatius on heresy, and the capsizing boat

Downloadable booklets for Vespers