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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
This movie comes through as a philospher's thought on relationships and the consequences of dramatic events on childhood. However, if feels like this philosopher is almost completely cut off from reality.
This film gets two stars for some nice imagery and the ticket controller moments! Other than that....too little Jean Rochefort and to no effect.
The ideas of destiny v. coincidence in this film are used to explain some strange and/or downright crass behaviour.
Too many strings lead to nowhere in this movie...you hold your breath hoping something will come of ANYTHING......I've passed out!
This film gets two stars for some nice imagery and the ticket controller moments! Other than that....too little Jean Rochefort and to no effect.
The ideas of destiny v. coincidence in this film are used to explain some strange and/or downright crass behaviour.
Too many strings lead to nowhere in this movie...you hold your breath hoping something will come of ANYTHING......I've passed out!
24 of 29 people found the following review helpful
Amazon Verified Purchase
Despite an impressive pedigree, Danis Tanovic's adaptation of an unfilmed Kieslowski script L'Enfer feels like a shaggy dog story at times despite some good scenes and at least one powerful moment with some overheard lovemaking. The story doesn't stand up to too much scrutiny, following the lives of three sisters who have lost touch but are still linked by the emotional fallout of their father's suicide while they were still children. The youngest, Marie Gillain, is having an affair with her own father figure (Jacques Perrin), the father of her best friend; the middle sister, Emmanuelle Beart, is in the dying days of a failed marriage to a philandering photographer (Jacques Gamblin); while the oldest, Karen Viard, is an emotional shut-in looking after their wheelchair bound mother (Carole Bouquet, particularly unconvincing in old age makeup and a terrible silver wig) and possibly being romanced by an equally socially awkward Guillaume Canet.
As they all suffer in their private hells, made worse by slight glimmers of hope, the truth about their father's prison sentence for seducing a young male student finally comes to light, leading to... well, not very much, really. Once the not very surprising cat is out of the bag, the film doesn't really know what to make of its rather underwhelming revelation. The punchline is a song title, though when it's delivered you might find yourself thinking Is That All There Is? may have been a better choice.
The presence of Emmanuelle Beart, increasingly a monument to France's collagen and silicon industries as she unwittingly turns into a Tex Avery cartoon, almost sounds a warning note: this is her second film called L'Enfer after Chabrol's misfired 1994 of an unfilmed Henri-Georges Clouzot script. It's hard not to feel that the reason both projects never saw the light of projector with their original creators was because ultimately there wasn't quite enough there to justify the effort. Certainly there's the feeling that Kieslowski's reputation has assembled a more formidable array of talent than the same material from an unknown source would have done. In some ways, the impressive cast occasionally threaten to swamp the film. While it's always a pleasure you see Jean Rochefort, his casting in a bit part adds nothing to the movie but more weight of expectation that remains unfulfilled: he really has nothing much to do. Indeed, it's significant that it's Georges Siatidis' smitten train conductor who leaves the most lasting impression in a minuscule role rather than any of the heavyweights. It's by no means a terrible film, and it certainly holds the attention en route to its anticlimax.
Still, the UK DVD presentation is excellent, with a good 2.35:1 widescreen transfer, one-hour documentary Reflections of Hell and the original trailer.
As they all suffer in their private hells, made worse by slight glimmers of hope, the truth about their father's prison sentence for seducing a young male student finally comes to light, leading to... well, not very much, really. Once the not very surprising cat is out of the bag, the film doesn't really know what to make of its rather underwhelming revelation. The punchline is a song title, though when it's delivered you might find yourself thinking Is That All There Is? may have been a better choice.
The presence of Emmanuelle Beart, increasingly a monument to France's collagen and silicon industries as she unwittingly turns into a Tex Avery cartoon, almost sounds a warning note: this is her second film called L'Enfer after Chabrol's misfired 1994 of an unfilmed Henri-Georges Clouzot script. It's hard not to feel that the reason both projects never saw the light of projector with their original creators was because ultimately there wasn't quite enough there to justify the effort. Certainly there's the feeling that Kieslowski's reputation has assembled a more formidable array of talent than the same material from an unknown source would have done. In some ways, the impressive cast occasionally threaten to swamp the film. While it's always a pleasure you see Jean Rochefort, his casting in a bit part adds nothing to the movie but more weight of expectation that remains unfulfilled: he really has nothing much to do. Indeed, it's significant that it's Georges Siatidis' smitten train conductor who leaves the most lasting impression in a minuscule role rather than any of the heavyweights. It's by no means a terrible film, and it certainly holds the attention en route to its anticlimax.
Still, the UK DVD presentation is excellent, with a good 2.35:1 widescreen transfer, one-hour documentary Reflections of Hell and the original trailer.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Amazon Verified Purchase
This movie spends its first half refusing to link the disparate threads.
The film starts with a 30 second sequence of a young girl bursting into an adult's office unannounced to see him with a naked boy. This is followed by an amazing rich red kaleidoscopic title sequence narrating the reproductive strategy of a cuckoo. The titles are bookended by the same man being released from prison.
Then, totally unlinked to the former, and each other, are the narratives of the three central women. One suspecting her husband of adultery, the second socially withdrawn, and the youngest, a student, rejected by a professor after a fling on a field trip to the Acropolis.
So how do these scenarios tie together into a coherent whole, and inform the title of the movie? Its a tall order, that is expertly met by Tanovic. We are led through the difficulties of the women's respective lives before any connections are made. At the same time we are fed intellectual ideas about fate and chance; and parallels with tragic Greek heroes. So much energy is fed into weaving an elaborate tale, there is a tendency to lose contact with the emotional turmoil afflicting the individuals.
The film is of a high technical standard in all departments. Most of the shots and sequences are lovingly committed to celluloid. The circular tower stairway sequence is expert and memorable. A couple of hours well spent on an intelligent, visually splendid, and engaging French film.
The film starts with a 30 second sequence of a young girl bursting into an adult's office unannounced to see him with a naked boy. This is followed by an amazing rich red kaleidoscopic title sequence narrating the reproductive strategy of a cuckoo. The titles are bookended by the same man being released from prison.
Then, totally unlinked to the former, and each other, are the narratives of the three central women. One suspecting her husband of adultery, the second socially withdrawn, and the youngest, a student, rejected by a professor after a fling on a field trip to the Acropolis.
So how do these scenarios tie together into a coherent whole, and inform the title of the movie? Its a tall order, that is expertly met by Tanovic. We are led through the difficulties of the women's respective lives before any connections are made. At the same time we are fed intellectual ideas about fate and chance; and parallels with tragic Greek heroes. So much energy is fed into weaving an elaborate tale, there is a tendency to lose contact with the emotional turmoil afflicting the individuals.
The film is of a high technical standard in all departments. Most of the shots and sequences are lovingly committed to celluloid. The circular tower stairway sequence is expert and memorable. A couple of hours well spent on an intelligent, visually splendid, and engaging French film.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
There is nothing such as a perfect family!
French cinema at its best with a story which starts with a dark and tragic secret.
The story unfolds through the lives of three daughters who are each different but all... Read more
The story unfolds through the lives of three daughters who are each different but all... Read more
Published 10 hours ago by celebrity juice
Hell of a movie!
Excellent movie,watched it several times.Emmanuelle Beart is splendid and I always wondered if those melons were really hers;-).This movie costs 25 Euros in France! Read more
Published 15 months ago by Jerrian Dafou
It's best not to read reviews that reveal the plot!
After watching more acclaimed Emmannuelle Beart films Un Coeur En Hiver (my rating 2 stars) and Nelly & Monsieur Arnaud (3 stars), this is the only one I would buy to watch... Read more
Published on 23 Jan 2010 by Darren Cook
Heaven
I loved it. Watched it Saturday night, then saw the extras. Watched it again on Sunday. How many other gems are there waiting to be discovered?
Published on 6 May 2008 by Tim Greig
What the French are best at...
If you like French movies then you will, probably, love this one. With questions about detiny vs. coincedence, and tragedy vs. drama, this is French filmmaking at its best. Read more
Published on 21 Nov 2007 by P. Millar
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