Séraphine poster & wallpaper

Yolande Moreau, Ulrich Tukur, Anne Bennent

Centers on the life of French post-modernist painter Seraphine de Senlis. Born in the mid-19th century, she worked as a shepherd, a housewife and a painter before finally going mad.

Flixster Users

72% liked it

10,877 ratings

Critics

92% liked it

59 critics

PG, 2 hrs. 10 min.

Directed by: Martin Provost

Release Date: June 5, 2009

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DVD Release Date: March 23, 2010

Stats: 163 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (163)

  • her69eyes
    August 22, 2009
    her69eyes
    Sometimes a performance can be so good that you simply become unaware that you are, in fact, watching an actor. You simply sit, accepting every mannerism without reservation, and assuming that this robust woman in early 20th century France wondered into the set of Martin Provost'...( read more)s "Séraphine". Provost's film is an effortless one - with the period detail flawless and the performances far from showy, yet so pitch-perfect. Yolande Moreau, an unlikely leading lady, inhabits Séraphine to an almost eerie precision. It's only when the credits roll, and you're taken out of this fantasy world, that you begin to realize the tremendous accomplishment of the performers in this astoundingly well-constructed picture.

    "Séraphine" comes to us from France with the highest of honors. It was the winner of seven different César awards, the French equivalent of the Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actress. Much of the success of the film is owed to Yolande Moreau, who plays the title character, in a performance that has been rightfully universally honored.

    The film concerns a real early 20th century painter by the name of Séraphine Louis, better known as Séraphine de Senlis. At the time, she was referred to as a "naive artist" - but, today, the more appropriate and respectful term would be outsider artist. She was a humble woman, a housekeeper who spent the majority of the day scrubbing the floors of the bourgeoisie on her knees. Between her jobs, however, she collected a number of liquids - blood from the butcher, turpentine from church candles - and mixed paints. At night, guided by her "guardian angel", Séraphine reached a state of ecstasy by painting flowers and fruit while singing to the Virgin Mary.

    As much as the film is about Séraphine, it's also about the art collector and critic Willhelm Uhde (Ulrich Tukur). Séraphine serves as his housekeeper and one day, by chance, Uhde notices one of her small pieces. He recognizes her brilliance immediately, convincing her to allow him to sell her work for her own profit. Séraphine is astounded at first, not believing that anyone could want anything to do with her work, but she eventually embraces what she believes to be potential great fame and riches. Not long thereafter, however, Séraphine was locked in a mental institution, where she would die in 1942.

    "Séraphine"'s pace is slow and deliberate, a sort of intimate biopic that revels in small gestures rather than elaborate set pieces. We never get to know Séraphine much at all - throughout the entirety of the film, we observe her closely yet couldn't be any more distant. Nevertheless, however, the film is touching and powerful for the sheer brilliance of Yolande Moreau.
  • constanzaboutter
    July 3, 2009
    constanzaboutter
    Moreau makes a strong case for modern day pantheism as a cure for all our daily woes.
    In the small French town of Senlis in 1914 to 1927scenario, of the daily life of Séraphine
    Moreau's intensity burns through the bleak night world of Séraphine's creativity.
    The real life Séra...( read more)phine's paintings were very much like Moreau's performance here -- cries of passion and intensity in a world of careful, unemotional perfectionism.
  • lamecajm
    November 26, 2009
    lamecajm
    A lovely film about how special we are as human people. Nothing to do with the beast.
    A.
  • gultenreiz
    November 25, 2009
    gultenreiz
    Good movie with a great performance from Yolande Moreau , so "chapeau" to her!
    Clumsy, odd, relatively old, not pretty, not skinny, Seraphine is very common, or so it may seem, but she is a born painter , a raw talent expecting to be discovered.
    The movie follows her evolution as...( read more) a painter, from the moment of her discovery and to her descent into madness.
    My favorite scene was in the first part of the movie, I've found very emblematic: Seraphine paints beeing surrounded by the afterglow of the candles, she seems to enchant something. Her dual communion with art and religion that got my attention.
    The main problem was the duration, the film is too long, are moments when nothing happens and I've lost interest somewhere in the middle.
  • art8man2008
    July 25, 2009
    art8man2008
    I really enjoy watching this movie instead of all the other summer block buster movies.
  • carlivit
    June 23, 2009
    carlivit
    Well acted and slow moving bippic about a neglected outsider artist.
  • fuad0001
    June 4, 2009
    fuad0001
    whoooooooooopsssssssssssss
  • Soundsofmadness
    June 4, 2009
    Soundsofmadness
    No thanks, not interested
  • FlyingSolo2009
    June 4, 2009
    FlyingSolo2009
    I will wait for some good reviews before I agree to watch this.
  • fufa010
    June 3, 2009
    fufa010
    another silly film......

View All Séraphine Reviews

Critic Reviews

July 30, 2009
Ty Burr, Boston Globe

Séraphine may be one of the spookiest, most unsettling films ever made about the hazy line between art and madness. That's a theme the movies have done to death, yet it finds new life in the title per... full review

July 17, 2009
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

The triumph and fascination of Yolande Moreau's performance as the French painter Séraphine de Senlis (1864-1942) is in the way she makes us believe -- completely and without questioning -- that Sérap... full review

July 16, 2009
Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer

The character's fleeting success in the art world, her moody naivete and childlike reverence for both the natural and religious worlds, is conveyed with such tenderness and totality that it's almost h... full review

June 18, 2009
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Seraphine arrives from France as the year's most honored film, winner of seven Cesars from the French Academy, including best film and best actress. full review

June 10, 2009
Bob Mondello, NPR

Yolande Moreau's Seraphine, all doughy and unreadable at first, lets you see how the passion that enriches her work might also upend her life. full review

June 5, 2009
A.O. Scott, The New York Times

The energies of Séraphine are devoted to examining the alchemy by which perception is transformed into vision. full review

June 3, 2009
Armond White, The New York Press

Next to Demme's expressionism and Troell's realism, Provost's good film is banal. full review

June 1, 2009
David Edelstein, New York Magazine

Séraphine is one of the most evocative films about an artist I've ever seen -- and in its treatment of madness one of the least condescending. full review

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