Description

Juliette Binoche and Benoit Magimel star in Diane Kurys’ (Entre Nous) tempestuous love story between two of the 19th century’s most headstrong Romanticists, writer George Sand and poet Alfred de Musset. Iconoclastic, proto-feminist writer Sand has usually been depicted onscreen in the context of her decade-long romance with Chopin, but Kurys concentrates upon her earlier more intense two year liaison with de Musset, whose fictionalized version of their affair was entitled "Confessions of a Child of the Century". Their relationship – which takes place in the upper realms of French society in the early 1830s against a backdrop pf great artistic tumult (Hugo, Delacroix, Berlioz, Balzac, Merimee et al.) and social upheaval – became the celebrity coupling of their day. Lavish period production design including the grand costuming of Christian Lacroix (working in film for the first time) and the lush cinematography by Vilko Filac (best known for his work with Emir Kusturica) all contribute to this classic piece of "heritage cinema." Children of the Century was an official selection at the Cannes Film Festival. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Costumes, Designs OK - but the story is not quite accurate.
The Alfred de Musset that is portayed here is quite different than the one I know. I think George Sand's relationship with Chopin was much more tumultuous and far more interesting, especially when we would factor in the fact that Sand's son took her side and her daughter took Chopin's side. I think there would be interesting dynamics there.

I have one major problem with this story line. We know Sand met Musset in the 1830s and that Musset died in 1857, which happens in the movie. But Chopin died in 1849 - and he is never mentioned!! There is a reference to Liszt being a priest im the mid-1850s. That was a bit early. That came around 1860 as I recollected. If the script intended to relay the idea that everytime Sand and Musset fought that they didn't see each other for a number of years at a time, then it was not effective. For one thing, Sand never looked any older and neither did Musset - at all.

Conclusion: George Sand is one of the most interesting women in history. This movie doesn't quite get her right. Neither did it get her right in the movie Impromptu, where we have a completely different Musset. But, in all fairness to the directors and the producers, portraying these "children of the century" along which I would include Chopin, Delacroix, Balzac, Hugo, Liszt, D'Agoult, Berlioz, Gautier, Saint-Beuve, Flaubert (who knew Sand very well), among others, in a movie, would not be an easy feat. So I congratulate them for a good job - half done.

Passion is What it Takes to, One Day, Say "I Have Lived."
You gasp when she gasps. She vexes you when she's mad. She has this inscrutable ability of stealing you from your surroundings by a daring look or a despairing smile. Juliette Binoche. That passionate, vivid woman whose eyes speak to you like the night, and chronicle the tale of natural talent. In 'Les Enfants du Siecle' (Children of the Century) she impersonates George Sand who had inspired Chateaubriand and Herzen and whose works had influenced Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Flaubert, and Proust. Sand had played a significant role in the novel's evolution. She had called sexual identity and gender destiny into question in her own fiction. A controversial rebel and illustrious romanticist in an era that could espouse Hugo and Lamartine, she defied convention and led off a free-spirited and irreversible way of life for women. "My profession," she once wrote, "is to be free."

The movie recounts her intimate involvement with Alfred de Musset, the poet and playwright attractively played by Benoit Magimel. Musset was a devil-may-care whoremonger and gambler who indulged in opium, but who was also the man who adored her absolutely and could not live without her. He was also the man for whom she had suffered the pain of her lifetime. "Once my heart was captured," she tells, "reason was shown the door, deliberately and with a sort of frantic joy. I accepted everything, I believed everything, without struggle, without suffering, without regret, without false shame. How can one blush for what one adores?"

Sand scandalized 19th-century Paris but her voice could not be hushed. She smoked cigars in public, wore male attire, wished to be addressed as "mon frere," and advocated free love in an epoch when men were unconcerned with women's right to physical pleasure. With Alfred, the woman in Sand broke open the cage of the French haute bourgeoisie; he introduced her to desire, passion, and most importantly a love she could not do without no matter how persistently she tried. Unreservedly, she introduced him to herself, a woman made of feeling and courage, a woman who loved him too much. "You taught me to love that way," she tells him. That was enough to disrupt his happy-go-lucky and excessive life forever.

Directed by Diane Kurys (Love After Love & Entre Nous), and whose costumes were made by French couturier Christian Lacroix, the movie glistens in quality and precision, whether that of period interiors, music mood, or supporting performance.

Although Sand had been portrayed before in Judy Davis' 1990 film 'Impromptu' that had explored her love affair with Chopin, 'Les Enfants du Siecle' explores the love that had transformed her life and marked it with an unfogettable moral:

"Love does exist," she confesses in the end. "It's not an illusion. I'm sure of that now. One merely has to recognise it, and be humble before it. We didn't understand it. We parted in the arrogance of youth. We didn't know then what we learnt with time: We only love once with all our soul. Today, I know it. It was him. He was that one time."

But it was too late.

When Passion and Pride Collide...
Diane Kury's sumptuous epic tells the true story of French author George Sand's passionate but brutal affair with poet and dandy Alfred de Musset.

An incredibly romantic and sesual film, Children of the Century follows the pairs relationship more than their lives as authors. Their relationship is presented as a constant stryggle between two behmoths. Binoche Sand is graceful and wise, while Magimel's Musset is possessed with an incredible energy (there might be something to all those Sean Penn comparisons after all). The film follows the lovers to Venice where violence, infidelity and selfishness destroy their relationship.

Kury's film is not particularly interested in the pair as writers, or in the larger literary scene of the time. Instead she recounts a marvellously messy affair in all its glory. Both are seen as selfish, kind and above all proud. The sexual element of their relationship is not shied away from, as Kurys explores how a proto-feminist such as Sand fits into a conventional relationship... Binoche in particular develops Sand with a fine finesse and a calm serenity.

Children of the Century is a fine example of French costume drama and sits well alongside Queen Margot and the Horseman on the Roof, although it's story is not as rousing as those two. However it does not meet to the haunting standard of two heritage classics... Cyrano de Bergerac and Binoche's own Widow of Saint-Pierre...

As a tale of mad, passionate, all consuming amour you cannot miss this movie...

Banal Binoche extravaganza
This film began as a beautiful European historical period piece, in Paris, which lush costumes, gorgeous people, etc. But after an hour, it deteriorated into incredibly boring melodrama with Binoche placed in alternating picturesque European cities and sex scenes. No deep emotions are penetrated, more than many other Binoche vehicles like "Chocolat" and "The Horseman on the Roof". I couldn't wait for it to end -- it's 2 hours seemed like 4. ... Read more

Description

Pierre and Anne have been married for several years. They have slowly started to grow apart. One night after a party, Anne tells Pierre that she is in love with another man. Although her admission is not surprising, Pierre's reaction is. This seemingly commonplace story is told in a modern, sharp, intimate style, allowing two remarkable actors to express a complex range of emotions.Full Filmographies, Interactive Menus, Scene Access, Production Credits, Widescreen Format 1.85:1 ... Read more

Reviews (4)

The End of Something
Well if you are going through a break-up of your own and you want some company then this film is for you. The actors are what drew me to the film. Isabelle Huppert has been in at least a dozen great films including The Piano Teacher and Merci Pour Le Chocolat. I would recommend both of those films to anyone. She can play enigmatic very well. In her best roles though we eventually start to see glimpses into just what makes her enigmatic characters tick. In this role there is enigma but not enough glimpses behind the facade. She just plays a generic unhappy wife. Anne(Huppert) just stares at her husband (Auteuil) as if waiting for him to react in the opening scenes when she reveals she has fallen in love with someone else. One doesn't sense this woman is capable of feeling passion for anything though. The new love doesn't give her life any added spark. It seems more like a diversion from facing what the real problem is. It seemed to me the real problem was that Huppert's character felt nothing for anyone. This is partly because of the kind of actress Huppert is--remote. And when Huppert's character does express some belated emotion toward the end of the picture it seems forced. Other directors have used this remote quality that Huppert has to great effect by offering us clues as to why she became that way but in this film shes just remote.

Auteuil is fine. He is an actor who never hits a wrong note. What he portrays time and again is the lone brooding and quietly suffering type. He can play intense, in fact his characters are always intense, but his intensity is an inward intensity. There is not much chemistry between Huppert and Auteuil. For a movie about a break-up thats perfectly alright but its hard to imagine what these two characters ever shared and so it is hard to feel remorse that the relationship has runs its course. What is interesting is that though the passion between them is gone they still rely on each other because they know each other so well. And what is sad is that Huppert's affair though it turned out to be meaningless was enough to ruin a friendship which meant more to both of them than either of them ever knew until it was too late. The film is decidedly downbeat in its uncompromising look at a couples dissolution. And an honest film about such a topic could be no other way.

Very real...
Daniel Auteuil. Need I say more? I love him! If he is in a film, you can sure bet it is going to be a picture filled with depth and substance. He is one of my favorite actors, right up there with Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. After you see this one, buy "The Girl on the Bridge", and see Auteuil show off his outstanding capability of playing a wide varitey of acting roles. One of the BEST in the profession!

French blues
Although based on a novel by Dan Franck with the same title, the name of this film is misleading. Parisian couple Daniel Auteuil and Isabelle Huppert have a crisis when Isabelle confesses that she has fallen in love with another man, but this doesn't directly lead to their separation. It's more like a 10 point study of suffering in co-habitation. The source material having been written by a man clues us into whose story we are seeing, typified by how Isabelle doesn't see how her affair should impact on their relationship, but Daniel does. He's all jealousy and frustration and she's understanding. That is, until his hostility breaks out. Director Christian Vincent casts a relative as the couple's child, who Daniel videotapes intermittently, and the blue tint of the video is carried over into a general blue lighting state for the whole film. Vincent also controls the actors so that both deliver restrained performances, with Isabelle wearing a lot of jackets. Daniel has a few amusing bull sessions with his best male friend (an opportunity Isabelle is deprived of), and has a memorable hugging moment. Vincent also gives us the most stressful flying kite scene I've ever witnessed, though I could have done without the film's obvious ending. A conversation with Isabelle resting on Daniel's chest is particularly striking, and she looks very beautiful when dishevelled and her hair covers her face. The soundtrack is bleakly silent, with only Glen Gould playing Bach's Goldberg Variations over the credits, and we get a clip from Roberto Rossellini's Europe '51 with Ingrid Bergman.

Flawless performances.
Intimate and intense French drama details the painful dissolution of a relationship. Superb and mature performances make this movie highly appealing for french movies fans. It is a slow exploration of a family break-up when Anne told Pierre that she is seeing another man. Fans of Huppert and Auteuil will not miss this movie. The end is of course depressing. ... Read more

Amazon.com

The mysterious Time Out is a riveting film, despite (because of?) the fact that hardly anything happening in it corresponds to our notion of movie "action." Vincent (Aurélien Recoing, a top French theater actor but cinematic newcomer) is an out-of-work family man living along the Swiss border. He's never told anyone he's lost his job with a U.N. bureau. He leaves home in the morning--when not working out of his (nonexistent) Geneva apartment--and does things like go to an all-glass office tower and hover as if he belonged. Vincent's excellent at seeming to belong; Recoing's performance is an uncanny symphony of collegial tics, benign watchfulness, and shy, tolerant shrugs. Eventually we gather that Vincent is running a swindle, the ease of which seems to quietly horrify him. However, the most unsettling thing about his fictional work posture is that we come to realize it's scarcely less genuine than, or different from, the shell game that is the real thing. --Richard T. Jameson ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Daddy's boy
The French are masters of subtlety and here's another film that proves it. Vincent, a quiet family man, keeps up the appearance of having his job to make his family--wife and three kids--feel secure with him. But there is another force working at Vincent, inside him and it is just as powerful, if not more so, in his game-playing.

He is in thrall to his father, a wealthy businessman who, thanks to his great success, has been able to not only raise Vincent well but also psychologically tie a noose around his neck his entire life. Although this does not seem to be a major theme, it becomes crystal clear near the end of the film. Vincent's own "success" is a mockery of his father's as he scams people left and right, lies to those he knows and loves, and engages in criminal activity.

This subtle display of familial dysfunction is a brilliant psychological character study and for that reason alone, makes this a film worth not only watching but owning. It's possible not too many others will have this interpretation of the film, but from my perspective, that's what it is.

Highly recommended.

suffocating, boring and pathetic
fired then tried very hard to maintain the regular living style and won't let any family members know the situation. wondering and sleep in the car. cheating all the time to anyone you meet. what a pathetic situation. man oh man, i do know some similar situation during my jobless years except i didn't have the opportunity to put scams on others and get their savings. but this movie is so suffocating albeit boring and contrite. after 30 minutes watching, you need to force yourself to see it thru. well, pathetic life and pathetic situation really don't need anybody to do any further study. if you like this movie, then you better watch those cheating donation ads like 'feed the children' and those unitedway's commercials. to me, all the churchs are just business that don't need sellers' permits and always tax exempted. and those so-called pastors, vicars, preachers, fathers, board members of the church (don't know why there are board members of a church, might just a nickname for a corporate), well, they are just business owners, man, did you ever get the real picture? did you ever see those 'churchs for sale' ads on the web? 'good location, good, rich neighborhood, good clientelle, monthly gross over or around $$$$.....sell under market price..." try it, you won't be disappointed, man.

Man's Search for Happiness...
Vincent is on a route where he is out driving trying to find something, while hiding that he has been laid off from his family. The anxiety of displaying failure to his family and parents seems to be overwhelming for Vincent and he begins to pretend that he has quit his job for a better job in Switzerland. Through his idea of lying about his newly acquired job, he is lead astray from reality, and he must cover his lies by providing the necessary means for his family. He does so by scamming his acquaintances and friends for large amounts of money. In return, he offers a large profit through his pretend job, however, this is overheard by a man in a hotel lobby. This man interferes with Vincent's plan, but in return he finds a new profitable business through this stranger. During this, Vincent is struggling with to keep his family happy and content, but the wife begins to smell a rat. Time Out is an intriguing slow paced thriller about a man's pride and his search for happiness, which provides well developed characters and ingenious cinematography that enhances the quality of the film. Ultimately, the audience is provided well-rounded story that is presented through an astounding cinematic experience.

Thought provoking film
The French film "Time Out," is the story of Vincent (Aurelien Recoing)--a middle-aged man who loses his job and begins a series of deceptions rather than admit the truth to his loyal wife Muriel (Karin Viara) and his critical father and supportive mother. Vincent spins a web of impressive lies, and these include his new elite job with the U.N. in Switzerland. Vincent's parents don't smell a rat when he wheedles a "loan" from them that will fund his relocation, but Muriel remains mildly suspicious. Vincent spends weeks away from home and returns with elaborate stories about his new job. Family and friends are spellbound by the tales of his success, and soon he's driving a fancy new car and bragging about his non-existent apartment in Geneva.

In order to finance his rock-n-roll lifestyle, Vincent contacts old friends and convinces them to invest in some foreign business--cash up front, of course. While some people are motivated to greedily hand over their hard-earned francs, others invest because they trust Vincent and want to share his apparent good fortune. Obviously, Vincent's fantasy life cannot last forever. It is only a matter of time before something goes wrong.

The photography in "Time Out" is absolutely beautiful--especially the scenes in Switzerland. As Vincent's car negotiates the snow-filled landscape, somehow the viewer shares Vincent's sense of bleakness and isolation. This clever film manages to emphasize Vincent's remoteness and isolation in scenes involving a packed school and a busy office complex. In a crowded room, Vincent is still alone.

The role of Vincent is a first for Aurelien Recoing. Prior to this film, Recoing directed, and yet he really was perfect for this role--so self-contained and self-composed, a very plausible liar, but he also conveys a quiet desperation that plunges him into lies that inevitably must fail. Is he a failure who wants to be admired by his family, or is he someone who has spent a lifetime out of touch with reality? This is for the viewer to decide, and ultimately, the interpretation of the protagonist's character and motivation are left to the audience--displacedhuman--Amazon Reviewer--

Intense, Excellent Movie
I saw "Time Out" while I was out of work. It brought up a lot of uncomfortable feelings and issues. Especially the pride issue, of how you feel when you don't have a job to identify with. The movie is based on a real story, which is even more amazing and sad than the movie. ... Read more

Description

Camille is having the time of her life, enjoying all that Paris's decadent nightlife has to offer. She parties all night with sexual abandon, then stumbles home at dawn, hungover and ready to do it all over again. But things change when she meets Alexis, a militant political activist. Camille falls madly in love with a man whose life represents everything she detests. She becomes obsessed with Alexis and involves herself in his world. Just when Camille must choose between freedom and love, she finds herself faced with the biggest challenge of all. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Another typical french romantic comedy!
The movie is a typical french romantic comedy and this is rather a complement. As usual in such films you can expect deep pchylogical observations, in this case of quite unstable single woman in her thirties (played fabulously by Karin Viard). There is plenty of humor and even sarcasm in the movie. I was rather a little disappointed by the ending (contrary to what some other viewers said here) since I felt that it somehow didn't follow the spirit of the movie - therefore only four stars. But overall, if you like romantic comedies and/or like french movies you will not be disappointed.

The New Eve, So French, So Fun
This is a great romantic comedy with all the twists and turns of a typical French film. Camille (Karin Viard) is a bored young woman who hangs out at [exotic] clubs and often ends the night passed out from too much liquor and drugs. She has a disfunctional brother with a pregnant wife. One day she meets a socialist worker, Alexis, with whom she rapidly falls deeply in love. After she finds out he is married, she becomes involved with a truck driver and a lesbian. The sex scenes are fun, but not explict. The ending is poignant and sweet.

...
... this movie was extremly dry w/ little if any redeming factors.

Karin Viard is a great actress
i have to say that i saw this film with spanish translation and thank God because the whole thing is in French. And i dont understand French because i dont speak it at all. i only speak spanish and english ,but i thought this motion picture was great and really worth my time viewing. Karin Viard, is truly, a fantastic actress who works at her character quite well.She is truly a gifted actress. i think she is very cute too. She plays a woman who falls in love with a married man and finds out that the married man will not leave her wife(teacher) for her. the situation infuriates Camille (Karin Viard)and so she works very hard at persuading him with words and positive actions at the work place that the only person she truly loves is him, that he is the love of her life. the ending is really something, which i feel everyone should see.ending is really sweet and beautiful and one actually wants a happy ending for camille in which it does happen. this motion picture titled "New Eve" which stars Karin Viard should be broadcasted on the major networks of this country (USA). movies such as these have so much feeling and soul.Great motion picture.... Ms. Karin Viard..sensational! buy it, very touching! ... Read more

Reviews (63)

A black comedy about having the neighbors for dinner...
What can you possibly say about a post-apocalyptic surrealist black comedy about the landlord of a decaying apartment building who creates cannibalistic meals for his tenants who are some of the weirdest characters you will ever find on film? This is a world in which protein is hard to come by and the little old lady across the hall is starting to look good. "Delicatessen," a 1991 French film directed by Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet, is certainly imaginative but equally rude, a world in which good taste is certainly a relative concept. Of all the tenants trying to avoid being served up as dinner by their neighbors, the best is the woman who keeps trying to commit suicide but whose attempts, um, go slightly astray (I will say no more). This film is certainly on my evolving list of Top 10 Black Comedies, certainly much better than "Eating Raoul," the obvious American cinematic counterpart.

This is especially for francophiles!
This movie is my all-time favorite and for many reasons. If you see it for no other reason, the coordination between the bouncing on the bed, cello playing, painting, mooing toys, etc is well worth it. This scene is a perfect example of why this movie is so amazing. I saw it for the first time on the Independent Film Channel and jumped at every chance afterwards to see it again. The characters are brilliant and you lose yourself in their quirks. Even those who don't speak French will appreciate the movie as a lot of the beauty of the film isn't in the dialogues, but in the style, backgrounds, and subtleties throughout. If there was one movie that everyone should see, this is it. It gives a nice picture of the dark side of humanity without being too frightening and preachy. Plus I am a big fan of Dominique Pinon.

A pity this isn't available
I find it hard to believe this isn't available on DVD when there is so much junk out there that is still available. This film isn't that old. I really hope they bring it out on DVD. I first saw it when I was learning French and years later when I could speak French. Both times it was great.

Dark movie shining bright.
If there is a Hollywood director closest to Jeunet, then it would have to be Tim Burton. Domnique Pinon's character brings to mind a French version of Edward Scissorhands or Ichobald Crane from 'Sleepy Hollow'. The out of place new guy who's blatantly unaware of the machinations that lie behind the faces he sees. In 'Delicatessen' Jeunet spends a lot of time focusing on faces and you get the feeling that it must have been a lot of fun casting this film. Each actor seems to have been chosen as much for their extraordinary face as for their acting abilities. Not a frame is wasted as every facial tick bears with it the same intensity of expression as every action sequence.

Like Burton, Jeunet also came to film direction through animated shorts and it's this animated sensibility that has given him the discipline and vision to create truly amazing live action films. Which is one of the main reasons why this subtitled film seems to be such a success with American audiences. It thrives on that most American of cinematic sensibilities, a heightened sense of unreality. Most European movies prefer to dwell on the emotions that lurk beneath the mundane aspects of everyday life. Not so stateside where such an elevation of the ordinary is met with the Homeric cry of "Bo-ring!" It's not surprising then that European directors such as Jeunet and Pedro Almodovar will continue to have success across the water as long as their fantastical and colourful stories glitter bright in the land that likes to dazzle.

STUNNED...
That was my impression after watching through this very strange movie.

I had started watching it expecting a "weird French film", and that was indeed what I got at first. I couldn't believe the atmosphere that the directors had created in this film, though I imagine it might have been somewhat familiar to some Francophones living in the destruction after WW2. The introductory sequence to this film is MASTERFULLY shot, and it raised my expectations quite a bit.
Unfortunately, the same level of energy didn't seem to last when the movie really started. The atmosphere was fantastic, yes, and the inventions that were made in this movie (a MUSICAL SAW?) were totally unique. However, no amount of weird atmosphere can amend a movie if the story and characters aren't up to the job. In fact, it's a lot harder to create good characters & plot for a movie like this, because the movie has to make sense within its own unique world and yet make us the viewers feel like something REAL is at stake.
For a while, it seemed like Delicatessen was only as deep as its cover; scenes whose only purpose seemed to be to show the inventions of the movie dragged on too long, and the various conversations that the tenants of the apartment building had (I'm assuming you know the general story here) seemed to have no meaning. The Troglodytes that came in about 1/2-way through also didn't quite seem to fit in.
However, by the end of the movie all was justified. I realized just what an enormous task the movie had done; this is not a story of just the two main characters, but a story of at about a dozen tenants of the apartment building. By the end of the movie, each tenant of the apartment building was portrayed as a unique individual, and each had their own story. These mini-stories are masterfully weaved through the main plot of the movie, and much to the movie's benefit, because I came to care for these secondary characters as much as for the main ones.

The movie was also DEEPLY disturbing for me to watch. It doesn't wince at talking about the subject of cannibalism, and the true worth of a human being. It was very disconcerning when I realized, near the end, that this movie had something to say about OUR world as well, and it was not a very approving message.

As strange as it may sound, this could really happen.
Watch the film, and think about it. ... Read more