Yes, this isn't a family film, folks. When they say "tragic tale," they really mean it. There's rampant drug use, violence, and explicit sexuality, including plenty of full frontal nudity of the female persuasion. Everything about the life of Sister Smile is shown as completely miswired, leaving her with romantic entanglements rather than true relationships. The song she was famous for singing is a relatively small part of the story. We instead get much more to fill out the picture of her father, her lover, and the circle of nameless strangers that seduce and poison Sister Smile. Several dream sequences and dreamlike scenes show Director and Writer Roger Deutsch putting his own interpretation on the story of Sister Smile. Like any good surrealist vision, Deutsch's interpretations are open to interpretation. Saint or sinner, Sister Smile was clearly her own worst enemy - at least in this film, no one more than Sister Smile is bent on her own destruction.
Actress Ginevra Collona turns in a great performance as Sister Smile, proving herself completely untrustworthy and misdirected, and teetering on the edge of madness, while trying to convince herself and others that she is stable. Simona Caparrini and Antonio Salinas fill out the small cast, and spend the most time on-camera apart from Collona. It's an effective compressed program at 95 minutes, and two other Deustch short films are included here, 2005's Dead People and 2004's Mario Makes a Movie. If you're a fan of independent film and enjoy a healthy dose of the surreal, Sister Smile is worth checking out. It's a story that certainly gives a clear vision to the idea of a fall from grace...
