Teresa de Jesús

If only the English subtitles could be reviewed and greatly improved upon, this would be a really excellent series on St Teresa of Avila's Way of Perfection but the translation into English for the subtitles is really awful.

Whether looking at paintings by Velázquez, Zurbarán or Murillo, or by Tiziano, Botticelli, or by Van Eyck, or whether listening to Masses and Requiems by Berlioz, Rachmaninov, Brahms or Verdi, I tend to take on an aesthetic attitude and of course a historical contemplation of what my eyes and/or ears are perceiving. Religious aspects do not take part in any appreciation of anything which may be a work of art.

This same philosophy stands me in good stead when watching what at first appraisal is a religious film, be it for the cinema or for TV. My mind focusses not only on the story being told - often too well known, anyway - but on the acting, the sets, the dialogues, the accompanying music, and so on. Apart from that, religious significance for me has little o no interest whatsoever.

From 1492, when Columbus sailed the wide ocean and found what he thought was India, up to the death of Teresa de Jesús 90 years later, Spain went through rather traumatic experiences. The `Reyes Católicos' sowed havoc among the populace with their fiendish interpretation of religiousness, Carlos V opened up to a more tolerant attitude, and Felipe II immediately slammed all that shut with beraged intolerance, producing the Inquisition and all the disaster resulting thereof.

Given such a background, Teresa emerged from the cold high plateaux of the deepest interior of the Iberian peninsular to become a nun. Daughter of a Jew who converted to Catholicism - hardly surprising amid the socio-religious upheavals taking place - and one of ten children, she joined the Carmelite sect and went on to found her own `descalzas' -literally `shoeless' or `barefoot'.

This film takes up from her early twenties and goes through to her death, following her life around the high lands of Ávila, the Encarnación Monastery, and her later travels around most of central Spain, reaching as far afield as Aragón and Sevilla. Faithfully recreated from the anals of time by the historian Víctor García de la Concha, specialist in Spanish medieval matters, who helped in writing the script with novelist Carmen Gaite, this film mostly avoids being sanctimonious or preachy. The film is accompanied by music from José Nieto, though on some occasions I detected certain other sources, most notably a piece which sounded like `tafelmusik' by Georg Philippe Telemann - more than a hundred years later. It gave rise to my hopes of hearing something by Tomás Luis de Victoria, also from Ávila and coinciding in time with Mother Teresa, one of the great examples of early polyphony later taken up by the Italians.

Mother Teresa herself wrote a lot, including poetry which later became categorized as `mystic', a leaning also taken up by Juan de Yepes y Álvarez - San Juan de la Cruz/St. John of the Cross - who appears in this film, as well as the mysticism of Fray Luis de León, following on from the Archpriest of Hita, himself outrageously prone to remarkable romantic - sexual - verses.

Concha Velasco was born to do something in this life: her role in this film is her crowning achievement; nothing else comes anywhere near her interpretation of this 16th Century saint. Only `Más Allá del Jardín' (1997) (qv) is worthy of mention, as anything else in which she has taken part has either been minimal or trivial. But in this excellent production, directed by Josefina Molina, who also carries out her own particular masterpiece, Ms Velasco reaches the absolute peak of her creative ability.

Precisely in the Monastery of the `Encarnación' a chamber organ was found more or less when this film was being made: lost for over 400 years the `organillo de la Teresita' was discovered in an underground vault; it has now been restored and is the oldest working organ in the world.

This shortened version of the original series has a few inexcusable editing faults. Some scenes even include interrupted dialogues, with the ensuing sudden shift of scenario that is somewhat off-putting. Another fault here is the absolutely essential inclusion of a voice in off who narrates certain passages so as to link up the scissored continuity - or perhaps I should say discontinuity. The result is a little harrowing a couple of times, but with some misgivings has to be admitted as necessary for the well-being of the whole. Even so, at just over 220 minutes it would be advisable to show/see this version in two parts, or - better still - show/see the full original 1984 uncut TV series in its natural episodes of approximately 1 hour each.

FOOTNOTE:

The Spanish used is pure `Castillian' - that is, the most neutral and unregionalised, which will be of special interest to students of the Spanish language.

Saint Teresa of Jesus (Avila) is so beautifully portrayed in this movie, and brings her writings into a brilliant reality. For those who have read her works, you will see her actions lived out along with her spiritual insights. The acting could not be better, it is human and humble. I really enjoyed the true-to-life settings, and language. I am happy to see this series has won awards, and Concha Velasco won my heart over. Her portrayal of this Saint was remarkable due to the ability to convey humility, spiritual depth, holy virtue, love for Jesus Christ, and over the course of time to age in character. The rest of the cast was superb in evoking a love or hate relationship for the viewer because one either will love or hate Saint Teresa of Jesus, and those for or against her strong determination to create the Discalced Carmelite Order that has flourished through-out the world to this day. I highly recommend this to anyone, believer or not. You will be inspired by one woman's courage to follow through, and will never be able to feel self-pity or make excuses you can't do something great with your own life after watching this series.

There really should be more series made for TV just like this one. The world surely needs them.

I have shared this mini-series with many friends and hope that even though it was made in 2003, the producers will bring the series out on DVD.

I am familiar with the story of Teresa, but these details showed what a powerful person she was and how much she had to endure from catty religious. Great presentation. Definitely worth viewing.

This film shows Teresa as a powerful woman in that she is focused and able to get things accomplished. She fought a lot against the authorities of the Order to which she belonged and stood up for what was important to her. Her legacy, even if she hadn't been named a Doctor of the Church, would have put her in the prominent history of the Spanish Church.

"Teresa de Jesús" is a jewel of Spanish cinema, with Concha Velasca playing the role of Teresa of Avila (for this is how most of us know her), mystic and, ultimately, Doctor of the Church. This is no naïve, sweet interpretation of sainthood. The writers and Concha Velasca make us aware of Teresa's struggle to be humble and remain faithful to the church one the one hand, and reform an entire religious order (the Carmelites) taking them back to their primitive rule and thereby launching one of the most effective answers to the Protestant challenge to come out of Spain. Along the way, Saint Teresa of Avila, discovers and launches another saint (and Doctor of the Church), John of the Cross. "Teresa de Jesús" is an 8 hour mini-series, and Concha Velasca's "aging" (she was about the same age as Teresa when she began her reform at the time this was filmed) with the character seems both effortless and natural -- what talent.

Here is a "masterpiece", but you will not see it on American television, which seems to have a parochial view of religious content (unless it is Count Dracula, of course). What a loss. This series is less about religion and more about the spiritual journey. The writers (two women and a man, including the director, Josefina Molina) were able to be sympathetic to the plight of women in Spain in the 16th Century without breaking the spell of age with modern messages. A example of their success is the discussion of the dilemma of women -- marriage, childbirth and higher odds of an early death, or celibacy and, typically, life in a convent.

This reality of women was sharp enough that numbers of Spanish women did choose a convent life, and this invariably led some convents to gravitate to the comfortable life. Teresa of Avila upset this trend, and much of this story is about her struggles with "conventional" Christians (who preferred a self-contained life with some luxuries and who battled her most of her life), her ability to inspire others even in the face of violent opposition, and her adroit handling of superiors. As difficult as the bishops and priests are (everyone has an agenda), the women of nobility raise the biggest fires. Noblewomen were not only patrons of convents, but often had them attached to their grand homes. The film successfully introduces us to their complex personalities: vain or pious, they too have agendas. Some considered convents a good source of female help; moreover, as Teresa's reputation for sanctity spread, some would coerce priests to order Teresa to visit them. It was then fashionable to have a presumed saint in residence.

The writers carefully pace the series. They gradually introduce more elaborate costumes (beautiful and authentic Spanish costume of the period), exotic locations (Medina del Campo for those of you who know it from James Mitchner or Carlos Fuentes) and new characters, and these add to the enjoyment each episode. I would like to mention two women in particular. Mid-series we meet the Princess of Eboli (yes, she really was a beauty and she really did have only one eye), played by Patricia Adriani (pulling it off as one of the youngest of the adult actors in the series). You will not forget the image of this powerful and willful person as she conveys her dead husband to their castle and, she presumes, her future convent. Compared to her, the Inquisition was for Teresa easy. The other woman is Sister Ana, who takes care of Teresa late in her life. Sister Ana is Teresa's, ah, left hand (we who are sinistral notice these things). I enjoyed Sister Ana's subtle maturation, all in the last hours of the series, from someone "not able to write" to the embodiment of all of the saints successes. I do not know for sure who played the role, Silvia Munt I think.

So how did I see this? A friend bought a copy of the series (3 DVDs on the bargain counter) in a Madrid department store. They are PAL format (European standard), but I was able to play them through a laptop (with commonly available DVD software). I S3 videoed and audio jacked it out to an LCD TV. And as an American poet, who also read St. Theresa's autobiography, wrote -- "that is that, is that."