Les enfants du siècle

"Enfants du siècle" does'nt really mean "Children of the Century", as for the contemporaries it was obvious that it meant "Heirs of the Napoleonic Saga".

This generation, Hugo, Dumas,, Musset, Nerval, Lamartine and Vigny was obsessed by the sad perception that they could not lead the heroïc, larger than life existence experienced by their fathers during the Revolution and Empire - a period (or shortly thereafter) during which they were born. They - and Aurore Dupin de Francueil (aka George Sand) with them - sought vicariously to find fame and glory in literature, particularly in theatre which was the « 7th art » of those days, and in forms of "original living" which would not surprise those reading now on the antics of 'world famous' people. In those days, that was called « Romantism ».

All of them succeeded in literature; but - even though in those days novels, essays, tales, and poems were keenly read - theatre was the big thing: a kind of Hollywood on Seine! And the successful theatre writers and performers had a fame akin to that of our Hollywood stars of today.

So this film should be seen as the biopic of two larger than life "Hollywood stars".

No surprise that passions, drugs, unfaithfulnesses and manifestations of an enormous ego are sprinkled liberally in this film. One may think of the Burton and Taylor duet, but with a wittier and more intellectual bent.

Musset, fabulously talented, has left immortal poems and several theatre pieces which have been rediscovered in the XXth century and which will last; but he has sadly wasted his talent in alcohol (absinthe mainly), drugs and philandering, prostitutes included; he died at 47.

Sand has been the more resilient of the two. She died at 71, a busy grandmother fond of country life, a true precursor of the cause of women's freedom in terms of choosing her (sometimes Saphic) lovers, espousing political causes, and communing with nature.

Sand's "original" life is her real masterpiece; it has a very modern tone. Her writings are numerous and charming, but for me, the literary genius of the two is Musset: most of his writings are masterpieces, even though his life has been a shambles.

It is no surprise then that Diane Kurys takes Sand as her lead character, against a despondent and weak Musset. And I quite understand why - to some reviewers - they both appear boorish, selfish and inspiring few sympathy. But - keeping in mind that Musset and Sand ooze talent and are their generation's Hollywood superstars - you may enjoy this well crafted biopic.

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Diane Kury's oppulent film is a mixed bag. In it's favour it features

real life lovers Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel on excellent

form. As Alfred de Musset Magimel gives us a young man

completely out of his mind on a cocktail of opium and absinthe. A

man deeply creative and talented, but unable to function as a

human being. Binoche's George Sand is a strong a determined

woman. The scene where she finds that Musset may die after

overdosing is wonderfully performed with passion and grandeur.

The film comes alive in her eyes. As filmed by Vilko Filac and

dressed by Christian La Croix, Binoche has never looked more

beautiful or sensual.

However Kurys' direction and her screenplay, co-written by

Francois Olivier Rousseau and Murray Head, lacks direction and

understanding of her period. The brothel scenes are particularly

over the top. Yet her direction of her actor is magnificent.

What is missing from Kurys' film most of all however is Sand and

Musset as writers, as creative masters. There is no sense of their

value in the film beyond their doomed love affair.

Les Enfants du Siecle is a mixed bag, but certainly worth a look.

If you have any interest in French Romanticism, or romanticism in general, see this film. The story is taken from both Musset's & Sand's accounts of the affair that took place. If a film is to be made about a poet, use the poets feelings and even words at the most opportune times, this film does that, and then some. This film is well crafted, from every aspect of its making. The performances by Binoche & Magimel are both riveting and heart wrenching.

If this love were a battle, the filmmaker would most definitely taken the side of Sand. As the truth of this affair left Musset's heart dispirited until his death. Even his friends, like Eugene Delacroix, have said that his pen was a poison that infected his reader like a virus. But all histoire aside, as a film, this is an exquisite piece of work, that is both heart-breaking and entertaining. In the words of the central characters, "Shame on you, who are the first to show me treason. The horror and anger, which made me lose my reason."-Alfred de Musset "The angels are no more pure than the heart of a young man who loves truthfully."-George Sand

Above all watch this film and judge for yourself.

I was really hoping to find some special quality in the two main characters that I could like. However, self absorbed people are usually too melodramatic about every single aspect of their lives and so I had no sympathy for their predicament at all. So, I settled back and enjoyed Julliet Binochet at work. The film was meticulously crafted and the settings and costumes were wonderful, so I got the time machine effect, too. If you like historical melodrama, you might enjoy this.

If Romanticism, as a movement, can be defined as an "infinite longing" which combines passion and erotic tension with death, despair, and the cycles of nature, then Kurys film portrayal is aptly named and her protagonists--Alfred de Musset and Georges Sand--are indeed children of their century.

The key to understanding the point of this film is to think of it as a painting. It does not give you an insider's view of the relationship between these two literary giants; it does not break down their psychology; and you do not even understand why you, as an audience member, should like either of them. Yet their obsessive love was a monument for the first major artistic movement of the 19th century. Kurys paints them as Delacroix would--in all their lurid color, capturing the details of high emotion without explaining a thing. As painting on film, Les Enfants succeeds as wildly as any Romantic dreamscape and, thus, captures the mood of that era and the sentiment which spawned it more perfectly than 1,000 words on the subject.