Séraphine (2008)

90% of critics liked it
(91 reviews)
77% of users liked it
(14,861 ratings)

Belgian actress Yolande Moreau headlines this biopic, starring as a little-known but uncommonly brilliant painter. Frenchwoman Séraphine Louis (Moreau), aka Séraphine de Senlis, lived from 1864 to 1942. Though ostensibly a shepherdess and housekeeper whose chief duties involved cooking, cleaning,… More Belgian actress Yolande Moreau headlines this biopic, starring as a little-known but uncommonly brilliant painter. Frenchwoman Séraphine Louis (Moreau), aka Séraphine de Senlis, lived from 1864 to 1942. Though ostensibly a shepherdess and housekeeper whose chief duties involved cooking, cleaning, and ironing, in her off-hours Séraphine joyously turned to natural elements of the outdoor world, with which she felt a tremendous degree of emotional and spiritual communion. Séraphine channeled these undying passions through painting, and, having only the scantest materials at hand, created paints from elements such as animal blood, oil from church candles, and dirt pulled from the ground. With these crude and raw tools, the nascent, budding artist created tableaux of floral arrangements utterly unlike any seen before. Sadly, those around Séraphine perceived the paintings as coarse and unimpressive -- something of a joke. Her life took a most fantastic turn, then, when Wilhelm Uhde (Ulrich Tukur), a German art critic, turned up in Senlis -- and laid eyes on the young woman's creations for the first time. Yet, despite the success that Uhde brought to Séraphine, a sad future still lay ahead for the young woman -- one accompanied by continued obscurity and emotional isolation. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: PG, 2 hr. 1 min.
Directed By: Martin Provost
Written By: Martin Provost, Marc Abdelnour
Genres: Art House & International, Drama

In Theaters: Jun 5, 2009 Wide
On DVD: Mar 23, 2010
Studio: Music Box Films

Critic Reviews

Richard Nilsen, Arizona Republic
What makes this slow, intense film so compelling is its persuasive creation of complex characters: You scarcely believe Moreau is an actor and that the film isn't, on some level, archival footage of the real painter.
Eddie Cockrell, Variety
A naive, between-the-wars French painter is brought to vivid life in the satisfying fact-inspired drama Seraphine.
Andrea Gronvall, Chicago Reader
Provost and cowriter Marc Abdelnour explore the mutable boundaries between spirituality, naivete, genius, and madness, showing how the two outsiders and polar opposites cultivated a mutual understanding.
Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel
Yolande Moreau plays the industrious but touched washerwoman-turned-painter Séraphine de Senlis with an open-faced conviction that is almost unnerving in its intensity.
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 performance by Yolande Moreau.
James Berardinelli, ReelViews
The characterization is deft, the acting is superb, and the production values are high. If there's a dryness to the way the story is told, that's because director Martin Provost has shifted his focus toward intellectual, not emotional, satisfaction.
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
Gives testimony to the human spirit.
Philip Martin, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Engrossing, well-shot bio-pic ... which won seven Cesars, including Best Picture, from the French Academy in 2008, has a gorgeous antique look and a surfeit of empathy. A lovely, lingering film.
Edward Porter, Sunday Times (UK)
It's a plodding film in its storytelling, but with a sensitive attitude to its subject. In its best moments, it simply wonders at the rapturous state in which this devout Christian creates her art.
Jason Solomons, Guardian [UK]
Séraphine is a deceptively subtle tale.
Nicholas Barber, Independent on Sunday
It's like reading the introductory essay in an exhibition catalogue, except that it takes two hours. Personally, I couldn't stop thinking of Susan Boyle on Britain's Got Talent.
Robert Hanks, Independent
This biopic, which swept the board at the Césaires, is somewhat over-inclined to reverence and simplification; but it is also, some of the time, rewarding and touching.
Alex Zane, Sun Online
This true story dragged out for so long that I ceased to care.
, This is London
Séraphine doesn't mess with the formula but the script allows plenty of awkward details to remain and we're allowed to decide for ourselves if fame was a godsend for her.
Rich Cline, Shadows on the Wall
Made with a remarkable attention to detail that makes the characters and period spring vividly to life
Ian Nathan, Empire Magazine
Superb central performance in this original take on the art biopic.
Trevor Johnston, Time Out
This utterly beguiling biopic about a cleaning lady with the artistic gifts of a Van Gogh is just a bit special.
Matt McNally, Film4
Depends on your levels of Christmas spirit. Nativity either glorifies the charming amateurishness of the British school play or celebrates the slapdash incompetence of the British film industry.
Wendy Ide, Times [UK]
A classy drama and a sympathetic portrait of two outsiders and the vibrant, unsettling work that binds them.
Xan Brooks, Guardian [UK]
A measured, soulful and tactile work; a film with gouache beneath its fingernails.

Read all 21 critic reviews

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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 naÃ¯vetÃ (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.
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.