Provost's film has few equals in depicting the dangerous territory between artistic inspiration and madness.
Comment
11/20/09
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.
Runtime: 2 hrs 1 min
Genre: Dramas
Theatrical Release:29-11-2009
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
Reviews for Séraphine
Where the film scores -- and scores very highly -- is in the characterizations of Séraphine and Uhde, both of whom emerge as wholly formed complex creations.
10/25/09
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
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
It ... works as an intimate story of one woman’s mental instability; the film commendably does not demur from recognizing that whatever powered Séraphine’s art was also responsible for her social awkwardness and institutionalization.
10/08/09
Yolande Moreau plays the industrious but touched washerwoman-turned-painter Séraphine de Senlis with an open-faced conviction that is almost unnerving in its intensity.
10/07/09
If you're in the mood for a gentle, unsentimental film, where the director has made choices that are intelligent and thoughtful, seek this out.
09/24/09
A moving, distinctly French tale, this sumptuous production is made complete with a brilliant performance by leading lady Yolande Moreau.
09/22/09
As far as biopics of painters go, Séraphine is one of the very best
09/19/09
May be about a minor artist, but it's a major success.
09/03/09
...Séraphine's art, religious fervor and mental breakdowns are all accepted as facts which may be witnessed but not explained.
08/22/09
Seraphine, a biopic of the early-20th century French painter Seraphine Louis aka Seraphine de Senlis, is among the best of its kind, thanks in no small part to the utterly believable, vanity-free performance of Yolande Moreau in the title role.
08/21/09
Seraphine is rare in its sympathetic focus on a laborer, yet refined in its execution.
08/19/09
The film belongs to Moreau. Half-derided, half-protected by her village neighbors, her Séraphine is dowdy, willful, gruff, determined: a blend of singing mystic and muttering madwoman.
08/14/09
Relies heavily on Moreau's gripping, continually surprising performance to effectively convey the oracular urgency and fractured, Dionysian mentality of Seraphine de Senlis and her work.
08/08/09
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
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
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
Here's one that feels like homework.
07/25/09
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