Therese
1986, NR, 90 min.
Directed by Alain Cavalier, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Catherine Mouchet, Hélène Alexandridis, Aurore Prieto.

Therese Martin was a middle-class French girl who became a Carmelite nun and died of tuberculosis in 1897 at the age of 24. The “Little Flower of Jesus” was canonized by the pope in 1925. Her diaries have inspired many other girls to join the order. An apparently simple movie, Thérèse insidiously examines the personal attachment this woman had to Jesus, developing from an almost schoolgirl crush into a full-fledged “bride of Christ” relationship.

This article appears in November 22 • 2002.

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Marjorie Baumgarten is a film critic and contributing writer at The Austin Chronicle, where she has worked in many capacities since the paper's founding in 1981. She served as the Chronicle's Film Reviews editor for 25 years.