Cairo Station: All Saints

Three movies about saints and their search for holiness.

Saint Maud

Rose Glass, UK, 2019.

Set in a fictional coastal northern English town, Saint Maud is a story of mental illness and solitude. The horror of religion is consumed in greasy spoons, downtown arcades, and upper-class mansions where the pagan ‘liberal elite’ fester. An allegory of the mad pursuit of purity that is infesting Britain, an unnecessary and reckless martyrdom. Right here, right now.

Thérèse

Alain Cavalier, France, 1986.

In 1986, the director Alain Cavalier guiltily overlooked in France — depicted, with minimal style and maximum lyricism, the life of the Saint Thérèse of Lisieux. So rarely have we seen such delicacy, intimism, and naivety on the screen. This movie is not a movie. This movie is a miracle.

Jeannette, l’enfance de Jeanne d’Arc (2017) & Jeanne (2019)

Bruno Dumont, France, 2019.

Who would have thought of making not one but two musicals about the life of Joan of Arc, with flying nuns singing stoner ballads and countryside cousins rapping the heaven out of it? After Dreyer and Bresson, there is Bruno Dumont, bien sûr! First comes the struggle for faith, then the struggle for victory. Spoiler: the English lost the war, the French won a saint.

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