Thérèse Martin was a middle-class girl from Normandie who became a Carmelite nun and who died of tuberculosis in 1897, at the age of 24. She was declared a Saint in 1925. Her diaries inspired a generation of young girls to join the order but in Alain Cavalier's film Thérèse is no star. As Derek Malcolm wrote for the London Film Festival, "This is no hagiography but a humorous, humane and moving depiction of a very ordinary life, made un-ordinary in the telling and adorned by a superb performance from Catherine Mouchet as Thérèse-a lively, open and idealistic person who struggled against doubt, lack of care, and physical suffering." What is central to and fascinating about Thérèse is the girl's very tangible relationship to Jesus, a schoolgirl crush that she nourishes and solemnizes with the veil of chastity-love intensified through physical denial and ultimately through physical suffering; in fact, through doubt.