There is probably some philosophy about education, freedom, order, God, values etc etc somewhere deep in this movie. The problem is the movie is way too long, too incoherent, explains too little about the motivation of the founder (the queen) and all the other persons here. I have no idea who is who in this movie - maybe some of these girls have been really important for the French history or whatever. Something is happening in here, but the movie is very slow, hard to watch, boring to death. "Barry Lyndon" was not the fastest historical movie I have seen but I loved it. The story was coherent and real, I could see fate of a real man in particular historical era. But this movie is more or less the collection of postcards, emotions, images than real storytelling movie. I have had very hard time to fit the movie to some particular time or greater historical picture. There is no real ending, no explanation of consequences. I have found this movie way too unsatisfactory to enjoy it. The "Vatel" was way, way better.
Review of Saint-Cyr
