This true story dragged out for so long that I ceased to care.
Séraphine (2008)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:84
Fresh:75
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... 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 in the world. Wilhelm Uhde (Tukur), a German art critic and collector - he was the first Picasso buyer and discoverer of naïve primitive painter Le Douanier Rousseau - discovers her paintings while she is working for him as a maid in the beautiful countryside of Senlis near Paris in the early part of the 20th century. A moving and unexpected relationship develops between the avant-garde art dealer and the visionary cleaning lady. Martin Provost’s fictionalized and poignant portrait of this forgotten painter is a testament to creativity and the resilience of one woman’s spirit.--© Music Box Films [More]
Starring: Yolande Moreau, Ulrich Tukur, Anne Bennent, Genevieve Mnich
Starring: Yolande Moreau, Ulrich Tukur, Anne Bennent, Genevieve Mnich, Nico Rogner, Adelaide Leroux, Serge Lariviere, Francoise Lebrun
Director: Martin Provost
Director: Martin Provost
Screenwriter: Martin Provost, Marc Abdelnour
Producer: Milena Poylo, Gilles Sacuto
Studio: Music Box Films
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Reviews for Séraphine
Boasts a raw and convincing performance by Yolande Moreau along with exquisite cinematography, but it often drags and suffers from lack of insight into the life and mind of Séraphine which keeps it from being an emotionally resonating experience.
The film ends up something of a muddle that strives too hard to wear a ‘quality’ tag upon its sleeve.
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.
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.
Rather painterly and a bit distant. It never digs into the messiest of either the artist's or her patron's lives.
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.
A moving, distinctly French tale, this sumptuous production is made complete with a brilliant performance by leading lady Yolande Moreau.
The energies of Séraphine are devoted to examining the alchemy by which perception is transformed into vision.
Moreau is bewitching -- she simply breathes her role, without a hint of vanity.
Scores points for actually investing time in scenes depicting the extent to which she worked on her art.
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.
Provost and cowriter Marc Abdelnour explore the mutable boundaries between spirituality, naivete, genius, and madness, showing how the two outsiders and polar opposites cultivated a mutual understanding.
The film is a commendably worthy endeavor, and I am almost ashamed that my ingrained hedonistic attitude toward movies prevents me from recommending Séraphine more enthusiastically.
Next to Demme’s expressionism and Troell’s realism, Provost’s good film is banal.
We are ... made privy to the very reverie, that state of almost beatific hypnosis, where artists find sanctuary and are compelled to create.
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