Featured Audience Ratings

• Cynthia S

  
  This film is decent, to say the most. To call it a masterpiece is too much... This biographical story revolves around a poor cleaner who turns out to have amazing artistic talent. It is the typical French tragedy, done with typical French cinematography. I never liked the character… More
  This film is decent, to say the most. To call it a masterpiece is too much... This biographical story revolves around a poor cleaner who turns out to have amazing artistic talent. It is the typical French tragedy, done with typical French cinematography. I never liked the character Seraphine much, although from time to time I sympathized with her. Her acting was unique. It was as if she was taken straight from a poor country into the studio, because there is NOTHING about her that resembles an actress, or a star. But, all in all, the movie was well done.

• Mark H

  
  Period drama uses the "tortured genius" blueprint to tell the story of Séraphine Louis, a mentally disturbed housekeeper, with a secret passion to paint. A self-taught outsider to the art world, her works were highlighted by intricately ornate floral arrangements. Sadly,… More
  Period drama uses the "tortured genius" blueprint to tell the story of Séraphine Louis, a mentally disturbed housekeeper, with a secret passion to paint. A self-taught outsider to the art world, her works were highlighted by intricately ornate floral arrangements. Sadly, she is such a profoundly quiet, withdrawn woman, her personality fails to engage as a character. It's difficult to care for this dreary woman. Biography also fails to shed light on what made this woman tick. She loves to paint, but no insight concerning why. She is plagued by mental illness, but no explanation as to what she suffers from or if it can be cured. It's clear the encouragement of German art collector Wilhelm Uhde lifted her spirits immeasurably and helped her to become psychologically stable for a time. This makes the subsequent actions of those around her, a thoroughly exasperating experience. Nice cinematography, but the glacial pacing is sleep inducing.

• Mark A

  
  An excellent bio-pic of the primitive artist, Seraphine de Senlis (the fabulous Yolande Moreau), who heard voices that told her to paint the most intricate, beautiful paintings taken from nature. She came to the attention of an art critic and collector, Wilhelm Unde (Ulrich Tukur) who… More
  An excellent bio-pic of the primitive artist, Seraphine de Senlis (the fabulous Yolande Moreau), who heard voices that told her to paint the most intricate, beautiful paintings taken from nature. She came to the attention of an art critic and collector, Wilhelm Unde (Ulrich Tukur) who eventually championed her work in France. The strength of Ms Moreau's performance is what made this film for this viewer. She is phenomenal, capturing the single-minded purpose with which she carried out her duties, her naïvetà (C), her devious nature, and her incredible talent as an artist. Everyone else merely inhabits the frame. Ms Moreau commands it.

• Walter M

  
  Sometimes art comes from the most unexpected places, and that is especially true of Seraphine Louis(Yolande Moreau) who in 1914 takes all sorts of odd jobs cleaning to support her painting which she was told to do by a higher power while at a convent. At the same time, she is two… More
  Sometimes art comes from the most unexpected places, and that is especially true of Seraphine Louis(Yolande Moreau) who in 1914 takes all sorts of odd jobs cleaning to support her painting which she was told to do by a higher power while at a convent. At the same time, she is two months behind on her rent. But that's not important when she is doing what she loves and can be outside where she can feel the ground beneath her bare feet in the countryside. One of the houses she cleans is for Madame Duphot(Genevieve Mnich) which she is renting out to Wilhelm Uhde(Ulrich Tukur) and his sister Anne-Marie(Anne Bennent). Wilhelm is an influential art critic from the city who was the first one to bring Picasso to the public's attention. So, while the film moves in leisurely fashion, the world of 1914 is not, as a war on the horizon will change everything as realism is being replaced by modernism and beyond in the art world.(But the world is not changing quickly enough as Wilhelm tells Seraphine at one point that he will not marry a woman.) All of which is captured with nuance in this endearing film.

• John B

  
  Close but not the full set of marks from me. I found it a bit too slow moving at times. It is possible to develop a complex character without taking it at a snail's pace.

• August S

  
  Beautifully calm yet tragic, this poignant and honest drama about the life of a genius painter was intensely inspirational and saddening at the same time. Yolande Moreau captured Seraphine Louis with her superb performance, and the Cold War setting was enthralling and gave the film… More
  Beautifully calm yet tragic, this poignant and honest drama about the life of a genius painter was intensely inspirational and saddening at the same time. Yolande Moreau captured Seraphine Louis with her superb performance, and the Cold War setting was enthralling and gave the film further depth.

• Lesley N

  
  Seraphine, a film about Seraphine de Senlis, France's second most famous naive artist (after Le Douanier/Henri Rousseau) and a painter not so much ahead of her time, as completely outside it. Uneducationed and yet driven by nature and religion, she created amazing, rich works of… More
  Seraphine, a film about Seraphine de Senlis, France's second most famous naive artist (after Le Douanier/Henri Rousseau) and a painter not so much ahead of her time, as completely outside it. Uneducationed and yet driven by nature and religion, she created amazing, rich works of art, before, as all good artists do, getting certified and being locked up in the local asylum. . Engrossing. .

• Constanza B

  
  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… More
  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 Séraphine's paintings were very much like Moreau's performance here -- cries of passion and intensity in a world of careful, unemotional perfectionism.

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