An uncommonly moving and wonderful experience: it is a cinematic depiction of a mindset, and a quiet and especially internal mindset at that.
Comment
07/11/09
Séraphine (2008)
92
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:60
Fresh:55
Rotten:5
Average Rating:7.7/10
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, an outsider artist before the term was invented, is both a cautionary tale for contemporay artists of all and sundry media and a genuinely moving portrait of the artist as a young(ish) scullery maid.
10/09/09
Séraphine is far more powerful when it lingers on Louis at work. Her canvases -- mostly nature studies -- were cluttered with colorful shapes and filigree, clearly arranged by an obsessive personality.
06/04/09
The euphoria, lunacy and transformative intensity of art receive passionate, perhaps immortal treatment in Seraphine, Martin Provost's quietly magical and urgently moving film.
07/31/09
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
The painterly images afford a brooding, sometimes luminous setting for Yolande Moreau, who conveys Séraphine's weird and saint-like turmoil without sentiment or stereotype.
07/30/09
A list of the striking images that Provost composes would be long and enticing, even though words cannot do them or the movie justice.
06/12/09
Seraphine arrives from France as the year's most honored film, winner of seven Cesars from the French Academy, including best film and best actress.
06/18/09
Top CriticSéraphine is a rare example of a film that does justice to the mysteriousness of artistic invention.
06/19/09
...the audience is brought increasingly closer into the heart and mind of a genius whose turbulent inner life eventually envelops her conscious being.
06/08/09
It's even-tempered, evenly-paced and decidedly middlebrow.
07/10/09
An endearing example of religious passions that turn a cleaning woman into a near-great painter.
05/29/09
We 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
Moreau's nuanced turn as the title character ensures that the film is not a complete loss. She's very convincing, especially when there arise some questions regarding her mental stability.
10/08/09
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
Moreau is bewitching -- she simply breathes her role, without a hint of vanity.
06/03/09
Yolande Moreau captures both the purposeful, single-minded woman who does other people's laundry to support her painting, and Séraphine de Senlis, whose secret life of fervid creativity drove her to madness.
05/20/09
Beyond a must for those interested in art and women's history are Moreau's brilliant performance, Brunet's luscious cinematography and Galasso's lovely score.
06/10/09
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 moving, distinctly French tale, this sumptuous production is made complete with a brilliant performance by leading lady Yolande Moreau.
09/22/09
Latest News for Séraphine
June 14, 2009:
Trailer & Poster review 
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