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La Vie miraculeuse de Thrse Martin
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Wikipedia article
'La Vie miraculeuse de Thrse Martin' ('The Miraculous Life of Thrse Martin'), is a French film, silent, directed by Julien Duvivier, and released in 1929. It is a " stark and striking biographical account of the late 19th century Discalced Carmelite nun who died at age 24 from tuberculosis and was canonized in 1925." The film is based on the spiritual autobiography Thrse wrote, 'L'Histoire d'une me'. The same material inspired Alain Cavalier's film 'Thrse'. "Simone Bourday has genuine adolescent fervour as Thrse and Andr Marnay is pathetically fine as her father. The sequence of the taking of the veil has extraordinary documentary force."[http://www.moma.org/explore] The film was screened at MoMA , 22 May 2009. Words quoted by Lenny Borger. Art direction on the film was by the future director Christian-Jaque.
The film follows Thrse Martin as she moves from the close circle of her family home in Lisieux to the austere world of the Carmel, where she joins her older sisters Pauline and Marie. In this film version of the saint's life the Devil (Franois Viguier) appears, before her taking of the veil, and again when she lies ill in the infirmary. This is a direct allusion to the trials she faced when she doubted her vocation, and near the end of her life when she wondered how she would die. " In childhood the great events of my life seemed from afar like mountains I could never reach. When I saw other little girls going to First Communion, I said to myself: how shall I ever reach my First Communion? Later: how shall I ever get to the point of entering Carmel? And still later: reach my Clothing, make my Profession? And now I say the same of dying. The devil is about me. I feel him near me. He torments me and holds me with a grip of iron to deprive me of all consolation, trying by increasing my sufferings to make me despair. Oh, how necessary it is to pray for the dying. If you only knew! How needful is that prayer we use at Compline: "Free us from the phantoms of the night!" Ida Friederike Grres 'The Hidden Face'
Cast
* Simone Bourday as Thrse of Lisieux
* Andr Marnay as Louis Martin, her father
* Janine Borelli
* Franois Viguier as Satan
* Lionel Salem as Louis Martin
* Suzanne Christy
* Jane Dolys
* Nina Vanna
* Pierre Blondy
References
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