Séraphine (2008)

Pretty Good

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

We absolutely loved every single minute of this film. It is a quiet, sweet story, and a true one. Now we want to go and visit the museum where her paintings are exhibited!

Speaking as someone who would rather have my teeth pulled out individually and slowly than be forced to watch Hollywood product of any kind Séraphine wasn't so bad - at least I watched it to the end. But I've lived in France for many years and seen hundreds of French films and there are many like this one. The main objection is that "cultural" French films like this are quite a bit less than the sum of their parts: they are "full of themselves" with an idea that it's sort of "cool" to be understated, not to tell a story, but just to depict a slice of life, albeit of an extraordinary person in a period setting, and say "now, look at that...", and we're meant to go "hmm... fulfilling". So often I'm afraid this is film-making about film-making. There were things to be asked here, which might have been useful to know but which would have (horror, how uncool!) involved exploring character a bit more - particularly of Uhde: why was there a gap of 14 years between his departure from Senlis and his decision to go back and rediscover his protégée? - perhaps a little more cynicism generally about the motivations, passions and prejudices and art dealers, who are obviously flawed individuals like the rest of us, would have made for a much more engaging film. But it would not have "complied" with the mandatory "film d'art et de contemplation" aesthetic.

Seraphine Loius was an impoverished, self-taught French painter who claimed to be inspired directly by God. This film of her life depicts her partly in the obvious way (as an idiot-savant), but also as a woman utterly determined, with a keen sense of her own worth and an acute sensitivity to her absence of value in the eyes of others. This characterisation gives the film its interest; but it's opening portion, depicting her early life without explanation, is almost unbearably slow and painful. The second half, in which there is more of a plot (thanks to her discovery by an art collector), is more interesting, although one shouldn't expect a happy end. While it's not a jolly film, it's a serious attempt to engage with an intriguing, awkward character; that it makes you want to see her pictures is a mark of its success.

Seraphine Louis (1864-1942), who used the name Seraphine de Senlis (for the town where she worked), was French cleaning-woman who heared voices of angels and painted vivid flower arrangements. She was eventually closed into mental hospital. Unconventional and humanistic, Seraphine is a film which treats this obese middle-aged woman - who looked like a sweet old granny in the pictures I have seen - as a beautiful human being, unpolluted crazy visionary. Unfortunately film itself is academic with drab and ugly colours - so natural, so normal, so realistic. Subject was interesting and rich, film was well-meaning but poor.