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La Petite Lili (2003)

tomatometer

50

Average Rating: 5.6/10
Critic Reviews: 10
Fresh: 5 | Rotten: 5

No consensus yet.

audience

41

liked it
Average Rating: 3/5
User Ratings: 857

My Rating

Movie Info

Anton Chekhov's The Seagull receives an updated adaptation in this drama from veteran French filmmaker Claude Miller. Mado (Nicole Garcia) is a successful actress who is spending the summer at her country estate with her boyfriend, Brice (Bernard Giraudeau), a noted filmmaker who directed her latest picture. Also staying with Mado is her son, Julien (Robinson Stévenin), a budding experimental filmmaker with a combustible personality who is infatuated with Lili (Ludivine Sagnier), a beautiful

Aug 23, 2005

Pyramide Films

Cast

All Critics (35) | Top Critics (11) | Fresh (22) | Rotten (10) | DVD (4)

Miller, a French director of dry humor and great skill, has taken the Chekhov outline and updated it to present-day France, substituting the cinema for literature.

December 10, 2004 Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | Comment
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Like the play, it's acutely perceptive, universally empathetic and humane.

December 9, 2004 Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune | Comment
Chicago Tribune
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Talky, pointless exercise.

November 12, 2004 Comment
New York Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Miller takes Chekhov's themes and checks them off, but he never gets under his egocentric characters' thin skins.

November 12, 2004 Full Review Source: New York Daily News | Comment
New York Daily News
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Claude Miller's ingeniously freewheeling adaptation of "The Seagull" drags Chekhov's 1895 play into the age of cellphones, digital video and hip-hop.

November 11, 2004 Full Review Source: New York Times | Comment
New York Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Because the talk never gets beyond statement making, and because the characters emit none of Chekhov's radiantly lived-in soulfulness, there's plenty of time to appreciate the sun-kissed landscape.

November 10, 2004 Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly | Comment
Entertainment Weekly
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The movie sings with an affectless simplicity and elegance much missing in American cinema.

November 1, 2005 Full Review Source: Now Playing Magazine | Comment

those hoping for a dramatic finish are going to come up short

July 23, 2005 Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | Comment
Filmcritic.com

It's a simple story, but it's sort of satisfying to see the way they come full circle, using 'the movie within the movie' concept to wrap everything up.

June 17, 2005 Full Review Source: TheMovieChicks.com | Comment

A rather slight work, but especially for those acquainted with 'The Seagull' it should prove an intriguing exercise in translation.

June 13, 2005 Full Review Source: One Guy's Opinion | Comment
One Guy's Opinion

The understated, unsettling sexuality of Ludivine Sagnier vamps James Deanish-Robinson Stévenin in Claude Miller's attractive adaptation of Checkov's The Seagull.

March 28, 2005 Full Review Source: tonymedley.com | Comment

Miller crafts a warmly, but not entirely optimistic fable about the salutary power of lazy afternoons, meals taken at dusk beneath outdoor tents and, ultimately, of moviemaking itself.

March 24, 2005 Full Review Source: L.A. Weekly | Comment
L.A. Weekly

Sagnier plays her sensuality for all it's worth... which is undisguised and considerable, and provides the glue for a tale that could easily come apart.

March 7, 2005 Full Review Source: Cinema Signals | Comment
Cinema Signals

A film that adapts the basic Russian classic and then breaks away in more ways than just the setting.

January 14, 2005 Full Review Source: Miami Herald | Comment
Miami Herald

The film explores the conflict between idealistic youth and pragmatic maturity, respecting each in turn, but succeeds best in underscoring the power of youthful sexuality.

December 8, 2004 Full Review Source: Film Journal International | Comment
Film Journal International

Centers on a small family of wealthy, prominent celebrities, whose indulgent infighting feels forced and predictable

November 14, 2004 Full Review Source: culturevulture.net | Comment
culturevulture.net

Miller has smoothly transformed Chekov's masterpiece into a critique of his own art -- cinema -- while respectfully retaining the playwright's core themes.

November 12, 2004 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | Comment
TV Guide's Movie Guide
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for La Petite Lili

Quite an entertaining tale of a young girl taking advantage of what is before her to launch a career in film. There are scars, and hearts are broken, but life goes on. One time lovers Lili (Ludivine Sagnier) and Julien (Robinson Stevenin) collaborate on a short film that gets her noticed by Julien's mother's lover, a

October 25, 2008
Mark Abell

Super Reviewer

"La Petite Lili" takes place in the French countryside where Julien(Robinson Stevenin) is a budding filmmaker who has just completed a short film starring his girlfriend, Lili(Ludivine Sagnier). He disdains the more commercial instincts of his stepfather, Brice(Bernard Girardeau), himself a successful director. At

May 28, 2006
Harlequin68
Walter M.

Super Reviewer

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Foreign Titles

  • Little Lili (Petite Lili, La) (DE)
  • Little Lili (Petite Lili, La) (UK)
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