Les enfants du siècle

Contrary to its title, this is not a movie about children in an unnamed century. Instead this movie is about the love/hate relationship between French writers Alfred Musset and George Sand. They are two souls who have a mutual and affectionate understanding of one another until a voyage to Italy reveals their true nature. Passion, envy, trust, betrayal and forgiveness are all brilliantly encompassed in the relationship between Musset and Sand.

I enoyed this movie, though some may find it dull and slow. You may need to be a die-hard romantic or like well-costumed period dramas to watch this movie. My harshest criticism for this film would be that of it's length and even though I enjoyed the turbulent relationship shown in this film, there were times when I thought that their affair had ended for good only for them to reconcile a few scenes later.

This movie is handsomely photographed with wonderful costumes by Christian LaCroix and most magnificent of all, the actors don't seem like they're acting at all. Juliette Binoche is spectacular, both beauitful and natural in her potrayal of Sand. Benoit Magimel is splendid as Alfred Musset. Don't expect historical accuracy, and if you're a romantic at heart, you will not be disappointed.

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.

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 saw this film in French with Spanish subtitles so I had to read very fast! The photography is beautiful. I had not seen either of the principal actors before but I will look for them again. Miss Binoche made George Sand a real person not just an odd woman! The actor who played Alfred de Musset, showed him as charming but weak, very well done.

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.