The Children of the Century (1999)

Sadly Over-hyped

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

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

This movie seems to be filmed in real time -- 2 years! I had to look at the notes to discover its length is only 139 minutes. Very interesting that most girls under 18 gave this a "1" rating, as did I, a 63 year old man. All other ages / sexes seemed to rate this film between 5 and 10, on average. I think many adults must be bullied by the "literary" subject matter, and give the film an undeserved pass. Or are girls just more honest? I don't know about that, but Diane Kurys has inflicted this endlessly obsessive film on us as much as de Musset inflicts his repetitive cruelties on Sand. I simply got tired of watching the horrible dance and pushed the eject button well before the movie's end. In my opinion, Kurys is much better represented by Entre Nous, a quite enjoyable film with content I found coherent and meaningful.

I actually found this less engaging than "Star Trek: Nemesis" that I'd seen earlier the same day. At least I knew why Picard and Data wanted to love their respective dangerous doppelgangers. Kept thinking in the French film, this is paced just like too many American costume dramas. What on earth's happened since "Peppermint Soda," etc.? Now I see, though, in Imdb's listings, at least part of the problem. Kurys' "Les Enfants du siècle" was 135 minutes. Her American distributor's "Children of the Century" is 109, minus the time to run its logo.Wait for the dvd. Maybe it'll reverse the damage. "Cet amour-là" is a much, much finer great writer/younger man film.

Contrary to its title, this is not a movie about children in an unnamed century. Instead this movie is about the love/hate relationship between French writers Alfred Musset and George Sand. They are two souls who have a mutual and affectionate understanding of one another until a voyage to Italy reveals their true nature. Passion, envy, trust, betrayal and forgiveness are all brilliantly encompassed in the relationship between Musset and Sand.I enoyed this movie, though some may find it dull and slow. You may need to be a die-hard romantic or like well-costumed period dramas to watch this movie. My harshest criticism for this film would be that of it's length and even though I enjoyed the turbulent relationship shown in this film, there were times when I thought that their affair had ended for good only for them to reconcile a few scenes later.This movie is handsomely photographed with wonderful costumes by Christian LaCroix and most magnificent of all, the actors don't seem like they're acting at all. Juliette Binoche is spectacular, both beauitful and natural in her potrayal of Sand. Benoit Magimel is splendid as Alfred Musset. Don't expect historical accuracy, and if you're a romantic at heart, you will not be disappointed.

Being French, I saw this film at its release. I had no idea about what I might find except that Juliette Binoche was in it. I went there alone. I came out in a crowd.Romanticism isn't what we think it is. This story IS romantic, not because it's a love story, but because it's a Romantics's story. George Sand and Alfred de Musset were two of our greatest writers. Their works were full of hope, of despair, of melancholy and bitterness. They were revolutionaries. This film is all about the atmosphere of that time, all about the fights and ambitions of these young writers who wanted to change the world and find an unclear future.This film is one of the few that changed my life, not because of the way it was filmed, or the performance of the actors (though they were absolutely fabulous and I'm looking forward to their next films), it changed my perception of life, made me read some Romantic works (by Sand, Musset, Hugo, Lamartine,... and that's only for the French ones) where I found a "translation" of what I feel when I look to the world in front of me.That's what this film is all about. It's not a film about a past true story, it's about all of us, everyday.