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Movies / On DVD / Silk
Silk

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Silk (2007)

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Reviews Counted:55

Fresh:4

Rotten:51

Average Rating:3.8/10

Consensus: Silk contains a simple love triangle story but director Francois Gerard goes to painstaking lengths to turn it into a protracted and wearisome art film.

Rated: R [See Full Rating] for sexuality and nudity.

Runtime: 1 hr 56 mins

Genre: Dramas

Theatrical Release:Sep 14, 2007 Limited

Box Office: $990,439

Synopsis: With SILK, director François Gerard (THIRTY TWO SHORT FILMS ABOUT GLENN GOULD, THE RED VIOLIN) brings Alessandro Baricco's bestselling novel to sumptuous life. Michael Pitt stars as Herve Joncour,... With SILK, director François Gerard (THIRTY TWO SHORT FILMS ABOUT GLENN GOULD, THE RED VIOLIN) brings Alessandro Baricco's bestselling novel to sumptuous life. Michael Pitt stars as Herve Joncour, a Frenchman who lives in a small town that has hit hard times. A local silkworm magnate (Alfred Molina) stumbles upon a solution for his town's troubles, and enlists Herve to travel to a hidden corner of Japan in order to smuggle back a boundless supply of rare silkworms. Traveling in disguise so that he won't be exposed, Herve succeeds in his mission. Upon returning home, he reunites with his beautiful, supportive wife, Helene (Keira Knightley). While Herve and Helene have a loving relationship, their inability to produce a child creates an undercurrent of distance between them. This is compounded when Herve meets a beautiful concubine (Sei Ashina) during one of his subsequent journeys, sparking a passionate encounter that will haunt him for the rest of his life. Gerard's adaptation of Baricco's novel spans several continents and many years. The production is aided by the lush imagery of cinematographer Alain Dostie and the haunting score from acclaimed composer Ryuichi Sakamoto (THE LAST EMPEROR). Featuring yet another standout performance from Molina, SILK tells an epic tale of love and loss in the 19th century. [More]

Starring: Michael Pitt, Keira Knightley, Koji Yakusho, Alfred Molina

Starring: Michael Pitt, Keira Knightley, Koji Yakusho, Alfred Molina, Sei Ashina

Director: Francois Gerard

Director: Francois Gerard
Screenwriter: Francois Girard, Michael Golding
Producer: Niv Fichman, Nadine Luque, Domenico Procacci, Sonoko Sakai
Composer: Ryuichi Sakamoto
Studio: Picturehouse

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Release:

Feb 26, 2008

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Reviews for Silk

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1 - 20 (sorted by source)
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While the locations are stunning and the cinematography (by Alain Dostie) frequently pulls off compositions of breathtaking beauty, the flimsy emotional journey left me bored and frustrated -- never a good combination.

Full Review Source: Austin Chronicle | comment Comment
09/22/07
Toddy Burton
Toddy Burton
Austin Chronicle

Sensual but profoundly silly, Silk is ultimately little more than softcore porn with arthouse trappings, a moony, dopily romantic Red Shoe Diaries variation for the NPR set.

Full Review Source: AV Club | comment Comment
09/22/07
Nathan Rabin
Nathan Rabin
AV Club

Francois Girard's film proves a cross-cultural yawn, as if taking its cue from Pitt's blank-faced blandness and Keira Knightley's anaemic support.

Full Review Source: BBC | comment Comment
11/09/07
Neil Smith
Neil Smith
BBC

Sumptuously photographed but achingly dull story of a French silk trader who finds unrequited love in 19th century Japan.

Full Review Source: Big Picture Big Sound | comment Comment
09/13/07
Joe Lozito
Joe Lozito
Big Picture Big Sound

This thin silk doesn’t hold together for long.

Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine | comment Comment
09/14/07
Shlomo Schwartzberg
Shlomo Schwartzberg
Boxoffice Magazine

A problematic period movie, Silk is anything but finely spun. Unaided by lacklusture performances from the leads, director Francois Girard seems more interested in crafting a beautiful travelogue than he does a moving melodrama.

Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
11/09/07
James Mottram
James Mottram
Channel 4 Film

Francois Girard's adaptation of Alessandro Baricco's novel is a visually arresting period piece, set in the 1860s, that addresses memory and loss.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
09/14/07
Joshua Katzman
Joshua Katzman
Chicago Reader

Silk is a languid, too languid, story of romantic regrets, mostly ours, because romance is expected to carry the film without explaining it.

Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment Comment
09/14/07
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

It is worse than a straightforward bad film, it is a middling, stagnant film that could have been extraordinary.

Full Review Source: Christianity Today | comment Comment
02/28/08
Brandon Fibbs
Brandon Fibbs
Christianity Today

Girard dampens it, choosing to frame pretty pictures and frost them with a constant, twittering score.

Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | comment Comment
09/13/07
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid

Dull period drama goes for sensuality over story.

Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | comment Comment
10/22/07
S. Jhoanna Robledo
S. Jhoanna Robledo
Common Sense Media

The movie is at its best as a collage of environments representing states of mind.

Full Review Source: culturevulture.net | comment Comment
10/17/07
Beverly Berning
Beverly Berning
culturevulture.net

Inscrutable and Insufferable

Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | comment Comment
09/13/07
Peter Sobczynski
Peter Sobczynski
eFilmCritic.com

What's happened to Girard, who made the original 32 Shorts about Glenn Gould, then the mediocre Red Violin, and now a dull, studied art film, a period tale of doomed romance with no chemistry entre Michael Pitt and Keira Knightley or Pitt and other woman

Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | comment Comment
09/08/07
Emanuel Levy
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com

A flat story, lean characters and a miscast lead make this a poor facsimile of period epics like Farewell My Concubine.

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
11/23/07
Anna Smith
Anna Smith
Empire Magazine

What we're told in Silk is that Michael Pitt is a French 19th-century silkworm merchant in love with his wife but obsessed with a mysterious woman he glimpses on business in Japan. What we see is a mopey fellow without the energy to comb his hair

Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly | comment Comment
09/13/07
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Entertainment Weekly
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A film that manages to remove just about everything that makes soap operas entertaining.

Full Review Source: Film Journal International | comment Comment
09/14/07
Daniel Eagan
Daniel Eagan
Film Journal International

[B]eautiful-looking but torturously dull...

Full Review Source: Flick Filosopher | comment Comment
09/13/07
MaryAnn Johanson
MaryAnn Johanson
Flick Filosopher

Though elegantly staged, Silk is badly written and indifferently cast.

Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | comment Comment
09/28/07
Stephen Cole
Stephen Cole
Globe and Mail
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Dralon is more like it.

Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | comment Comment
11/09/07
Peter Bradshaw
Peter Bradshaw
Guardian [UK]
 
 
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Latest News for Silk

September 11, 2007: Silk preview & trailer Opens in new window
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August 23, 2007: It's hard to imagine Brit beauty Knightley playing the long-suffering wife of an adulterous spouse who'd look at another woman - even if he's got a thing for a seductive geisha in faraway Japan, who happens to be the personal property of a powerful baron. Opens in new window
More...

August 22, 2007: Trailer & Poster review Opens in new window
More...

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