Die starken Seelen

Malkovich and Casta! Seems like a safe bet, but no way....

Nothing really interesting during the entire movie. Too boring, even for a Casta fan.

Don't lose your time. A golf game is much more exciting!

Santosped.

There is much hype surrounding the release of les Ames Fortes in France due to the starring debut of Laetitia Casta as the main character.

We can understand very well what has appealed to the 23 year-old model: the movie, freely adapted from a Giono novel, tells the story of a peasant girl who will discover and use her personal attraction on men and women as she goes to town.

What could have made a good story turns very boring as Ruiz lacks a sense of tempo and seems unable to craft a good end to the movie.

This movie is not worth two hours of your time, even if you are a Casta fan.

A well acted and respectful adaptation of Giono's masterpiece. Ruiz takes the internal and complex ambiguity of a women's soul and frames and reflects her struggle in the backdrop of the refined beauty of Provence. The truth about Thérèse we may never know but the truth about Ms. Casta's talent on screen is without question.

Despite the unquestioned talent of Raul Ruiz, this movie is an unqualified disaster. The plot drifts aimlessly, tv-series like, coupled with inadequate acting and over-elaborate voice-over in order to further the "action" in an ad-hoc manner. Practically very little of any importance actually happens, even less of what occurs on the screen is dramatically convincing in this terminally unexciting journey of a manipulative young girl and her encounters in rural France of the 19th century. Vacuity disguised as ambiguity or worse, profundity. Good cinematography though, but there are far better literary adaptions done recently such as Assayas' "Les destinees sentimentales".

Is this the Victoria's Secret and L'Oreal supermodel , starring in this very ambitious movie ??? It seems it is. Yet, what a rich personality this girl must have. I found her surprisingly good, deep, right for the role, at the opposite of the image I had of her. The whole movie is very faithful to the original XXth century French classic by Jean Giono. It might seem a little complicated because its characters are fully ambiguous. This is the main theme of the movie and of the novel. Thanks to the screenwriters and the director, it is great to see such movies that do not take the average cinema goer for a silly person. A movie you can interpret your own way, in which everything is not explained. Not another silly psychological drama ! A movie with depth.. I have seen it four times already and can't wait for the DVD. With Laetitia Casta actress, I would say a star is born.