It’s a plodding film in its storytelling, but with a sensitive attitude to its subject. In its best moments, it simply wonders at the rapturous state in which this devout Christian creates her art.
Comment
12/04/09
Séraphine (2008)
89
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:82
Fresh:73
Rotten:9
Average Rating:7.5/10
Consensus: Seraphine is a well-crafted French film that effectively captures one woman's experience with art, religion, and mental illness, and features a brilliant performance from Yolande Moreau.
Theatrical Release:Jun 5, 2009 Limited
Box Office: $557,682
Synopsis: Based on a true story, Seraphine centers on Séraphine de Senlis (Moreau), a simple and profoundly devout housekeeper whose brilliantly colorful canvases now adorn some of the most famous galleries... [More]
Starring: Yolande Moreau, Ulrich Tukur, Anne Bennent, Genevieve Mnich
Director: Martin Provost
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Reviews for Séraphine
Séraphine is a deceptively subtle tale.
12/04/09
It's like reading the introductory essay in an exhibition catalogue, except that it takes two hours. Personally, I couldn't stop thinking of Susan Boyle on Britain's Got Talent.
12/04/09
This biopic, which swept the board at the Césaires, is somewhat over-inclined to reverence and simplification; but it is also, some of the time, rewarding and touching.
11/27/09
This true story dragged out for so long that I ceased to care.
11/27/09
Séraphine doesn’t mess with the formula but the script allows plenty of awkward details to remain and we’re allowed to decide for ourselves if fame was a godsend for her.
11/27/09
This award-sweeping biopic of the French painter is made with a remarkable attention to detail that makes the characters and period spring vividly to life, aided by subtle direction and especially sharp acting.
11/27/09
Superb central performance in this original take on the art biopic.
11/27/09
This utterly beguiling biopic about a cleaning lady with the artistic gifts of a Van Gogh is just a bit special.
11/27/09
Depends on your levels of Christmas spirit. Nativity either glorifies the charming amateurishness of the British school play or celebrates the slapdash incompetence of the British film industry.
11/27/09
A classy drama and a sympathetic portrait of two outsiders and the vibrant, unsettling work that binds them.
11/27/09
A measured, soulful and tactile work; a film with gouache beneath its fingernails.
11/27/09
A little long, but quietly rewarding.
11/27/09
The film ends up something of a muddle that strives too hard to wear a ‘quality’ tag upon its sleeve.
11/27/09
Moreau’s marvellous performance captures the vulnerabilities of a woman who never dares to dream that her work might be taken seriously and who seemed to spend a lifetime poised between the call of greatness and the threat of madness.
11/27/09
A tender and intelligent glimpse of a life enriched both by her nascent talent and the affectionate devotion of Uhde’s protector.
11/27/09
An exceptional and exquisitely photographed depiction of artistic taste, social snobbery and transient celebrity.
11/27/09
It has a lyricism, passion and beauty unmatched in cinema this year.
11/27/09
Whimsical but wonderful - and very worthy of those awards.
11/27/09
Moreau’s stellar performance and the astral intensity of the paintings keep taking us where this story belongs, up into the skies.
11/27/09
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