A film we saw months ago, but didn’t review is “Séraphine” a picture lauded up the wazoo by the French Cesars (the French Oscars), taking the prize in seven out of its nine nominations including Best Music Written for a Film (Michael Galasso), Best Original Screenplay (Martin Provost and Marc Abdelnour), Best Actress (Yolande Moreau) and Best Film. It has 14 reviews on RT that add up to a super solid 92% rating, but we would s
Yolande Moreau does put in a superb performance as the crazy, obsessive idiot savant housekeeper turned obsessive artist turned crazy (e.g. similar in tone to “Camille Claudel” to name one example), but we’d be lying if we didn’t say the film was a bit of a slog, and of the typical austere and severe art biopic mien. The French idyllic countryside moments can be nice to look at, but the milieu is mostly the ashen misery of post WWII and it feels as wet, cold and damp as it does up onscreen. Sure that means its effectively communicate the harshness of the subject’s life, but it’s more admirable to look at then a film we truly enjoyed.
Still, it’s a huge award winner in France and some find it carefully observed (which it is), un-condescening (which it is) and evocatively incandescent portrayal of madness (mmm, on the fence). It opens up this weekend in limited release.