Diane Kury's oppulent film is a mixed bag. In it's favour it features
real life lovers Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel on excellent
form. As Alfred de Musset Magimel gives us a young man
completely out of his mind on a cocktail of opium and absinthe. A
man deeply creative and talented, but unable to function as a
human being. Binoche's George Sand is a strong a determined
woman. The scene where she finds that Musset may die after
overdosing is wonderfully performed with passion and grandeur.
The film comes alive in her eyes. As filmed by Vilko Filac and
dressed by Christian La Croix, Binoche has never looked more
beautiful or sensual.
However Kurys' direction and her screenplay, co-written by
Francois Olivier Rousseau and Murray Head, lacks direction and
understanding of her period. The brothel scenes are particularly
over the top. Yet her direction of her actor is magnificent.
What is missing from Kurys' film most of all however is Sand and
Musset as writers, as creative masters. There is no sense of their
value in the film beyond their doomed love affair.
Les Enfants du Siecle is a mixed bag, but certainly worth a look.
real life lovers Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel on excellent
form. As Alfred de Musset Magimel gives us a young man
completely out of his mind on a cocktail of opium and absinthe. A
man deeply creative and talented, but unable to function as a
human being. Binoche's George Sand is a strong a determined
woman. The scene where she finds that Musset may die after
overdosing is wonderfully performed with passion and grandeur.
The film comes alive in her eyes. As filmed by Vilko Filac and
dressed by Christian La Croix, Binoche has never looked more
beautiful or sensual.
However Kurys' direction and her screenplay, co-written by
Francois Olivier Rousseau and Murray Head, lacks direction and
understanding of her period. The brothel scenes are particularly
over the top. Yet her direction of her actor is magnificent.
What is missing from Kurys' film most of all however is Sand and
Musset as writers, as creative masters. There is no sense of their
value in the film beyond their doomed love affair.
Les Enfants du Siecle is a mixed bag, but certainly worth a look.