Sister Smile (film)

Sister Smile (original title: Sœur Sourire) is a Belgian-French biographical drama film directed by Stijn Coninx and written by Coninx, Ariane Fert and Chris Vander Stappen. The film stars Cécile de France as Jeannine Deckers, also known as The Singing Nun.[2] The film won the Magritte Award for Best Costume Design.

Soeur Sourire
Film poster
Directed byStijn Coninx
Written byStijn Coninx
Ariane Fert
Chris Vander Stappen
Produced byEric Heumann
Marc Sillam
StarringCécile de France
Sandrine Blancke
Jan Decleir
Tsilla Chelton
CinematographyYves Vandermeeren
Edited byPhilippe Ravoet
Music byBruno Fontaine
Distributed byKFD (Belgium)
Océan Film (France)
Release date
  • 23 April 2009 (2009-04-23)
Running time
120 minutes
CountriesFrance
Belgium
LanguageFrench
Budget$7.3 million[1]
Box office$2.9 million

Plot

Belgium in the 1950s. Jeanine Deckers dreams of becoming a singer and of going to Africa as a missionary. Against her family's wishes, she joins a convent. However, the strict rules become too much for her. She rebels, especially when her guitar is taken from her and when she hears that she'll have to wait several years before being sent to Africa for missionary work. Despite being punished, she is eventually given back her guitar so she can entertain young people visiting the convent. One day she is filmed by Belgian television while singing and playing music to a group of youngsters. This launches her career as a commercially successful artist, yet everything she earns is sent to the convent and the head nuns keep her identity secret from the general public, while keeping her success secret from Deckers herself.

Later, Deckers discovers the truth and eventually gets fed up with obeying the other nuns. She leaves the convent and moves in with her friend Annie who had made a pass at her when they were younger but whom she rejected.

Deckers desperately tries to get her career back on the road but she is told that she cannot use her stage name "Soeur Sourire" or "Singing Nun" because the convent owns the rights to it. She starts performing under her own name and goes on a tour in Québec, but due to her controversial song about birth control nobody wants to sign her anymore for concerts. Deckers is reduced to singing in small strip clubs and gets depressed. Rejected by both the convent and her own family, Deckers returns to Annie and falls in love.

Pursued by the Ministry of Finance of Belgium for taxes on her first album, which the Church didn't pay, she and Annie commit suicide together.

Cast

References
  1. "Soeur Sourire (2009)". JPBox-Office (in French). Retrieved 20 January 2022.
  2. "Sister Smile". Madman. Archived from the original on 9 April 2011.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.