It's even-tempered, evenly-paced and decidedly middlebrow.
Comment
07/10/09
Séraphine (2008)
90
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:79
Fresh:71
Rotten:8
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
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
Director Martin Provost has brought the true story of Séraphine de Senlis to to the screen with elegant simplicity. A gorgeous film to watch, thanks to cinematographer Laurent Brunet, the pastoral settings are especially satisfying.
07/17/09
Top CriticThe characterization is deft, the acting is superb, and the production values are high. If there's a dryness to the way the story is told, that's because director Martin Provost has shifted his focus toward intellectual, not emotional, satisfaction.
07/23/09
Top CriticWe are ... made privy to the very reverie, that state of almost beatific hypnosis, where artists find sanctuary and are compelled to create.
07/19/09
...Séraphine's art, religious fervor and mental breakdowns are all accepted as facts which may be witnessed but not explained.
08/22/09
The film ends up something of a muddle that strives too hard to wear a ‘quality’ tag upon its sleeve.
11/27/09
Seraphine is a fascinating story (and the film is beautiful to look at), but in the end, the movie leaves a lot of questions about the real-life Seraphine unanswered.
07/17/09
An uncommonly moving and wonderful experience: it is a cinematic depiction of a mindset, and a quiet and especially internal mindset at that.
07/11/09
If the French town of Senlis really looks like Provost's beautiful and painterly world as he depicts it in Séraphine, no wonder Séraphine Louis went nuts.
06/04/09
A measured, soulful and tactile work; a film with gouache beneath its fingernails.
11/27/09
An extraordinary French film about a deeply religious cleaning woman with a passion for creating luminous paintings.
06/04/09
Here's one that feels like homework.
07/25/09
Séraphine may be one of the spookiest, most unsettling films ever made about the hazy line between art and madness. That’s a theme the movies have done to death, yet it finds new life in the title performance by Yolande Moreau.
07/30/09
Top CriticAs the works of Seraphine the artist have stood the test of time and grown in value, I expect this account of her little-known life to do the same.
06/05/09
...a mesmerizing portrait of an artist that gives exposure to beautiful work too little known, but it makes it audience work for its art.
07/18/09
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
Moreau gives a dominating, award-worthy performance. The combination of the beautiful scenery, musical score and art work resonate into a sensory epiphany for the audience.
07/30/09
Yolande Moreau is a revelation in the title role; a part she plays without vanity and sneaking humour.
07/17/09
Top CriticDuring the film I craved energy, but by the end I realized that I just wanted a story that stood a bit closer to its interesting, well-played title character and a bit further from the time-marking events of historical drama.
06/19/09
Latest News for Séraphine
June 14, 2009:
Trailer & Poster review 
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