Lourdes

Pros: 1. Léa Seydoux (Maria), Sylvie Testud (Christine), and Elina Löwensohn (Cécile) give fantastically rich performances. 2. The film highlights how people will use faith differently. Whether it be as a hobby, as a way of coping, or as a way-of-life. 3. The cinematography is almost perfect. Everything from the lighting, the framing, and the long impactful shots are just incredible. 4. Cécile collapsing on the floor is legitimately heartbreaking as even though before she was mostly stern and stoic, it was obvious that she cared for the patients. 5. Christine finding the ability to walk again is genuinely uplifting, and her reaction really helps to ground the "miracle" as she milks the newly-found attention after being ignored for awhile. It also rams home the ending with blunt force.

Cons: 1. Some of the scenes last a little too long. 2. The audio, at times, is distractingly out-of-sync.

A girl with MS can't move her body, except for the face muscles. She goes to Lourdes, the place of miracles. She's not just tired of her life, she's of course also envious about life of others.

Usually, it's obvious there on the screen you shall look. Not here. Long takes, many extras, everybody make their moves and everybody is interesting, although you may forget them for a while, watching others.

Quietly, so many believable emotions are to be found here. Jealousy, slight passion, hopes, disappointments. And after a while you're not watching, you're among these pilgrims, and although you've never been in this environment, you recognize everything. And Sylvie Testud is superb.

Kinda like reading "Magic Mtn"; a long, sometimes dull, but ultimately worthwhile tour through institutional hell, the institutions in question, medicine in the Mann novel and the church in Jessica Hausner's film, made all the more horrendous in that they masquerade as "healing". Film loses a bit of energy, though, to say nothing of credibility, once Christine experiences her temporary "cure". At that point Hausner abandons her heretofore effective tone of serio comic reality for one of allegory and kind of allows her hatred of humanity to overwhelm her. Still, a most impressive film from a director whose work has up to now been unknown to me and whose other movies I will assiduously seek. Give it a B plus.

That was George Martin's description of Lennon and Maccartney's songwriting partnership: Maccartney provided the olive oil, and Lennon the vinegar. The balance is just as perfect in this movie, which manages to capture the temple of crass which is Lourdes, without ridiculing the faith that leads people to revere it. It is a quiet movie, with little dialogue, and frequent recurring motifs—religious services, visits to the grotto, Lourdes water in ghastly containers. The little cast of characters is superb, and there are no weak performances here.

If I had one criticism, it's that the movie is sometimes too subtle for its own good. Occasionally, I like to be told what I'm watching and why it's significant. Perhaps this is my own crudeness. Nevertheless a brilliant movie, that made me chuckle and yet moved me.

Lourdes is a famous Catholic shrine in France, visited by pilgrims from around the world seeking miraculous cures for serious medical conditions.

Christine(Sylvie Testud) is wheelchair bound due to multiple sclerosis. Although not deeply religious, she decides to try to be healed by divine intervention. After a few days, she slowly is able to get up and walk. Other visitors with much more faith than Christine have philosophical debates on the fairness of it all.

She meets a man while apparently making progress physically, but the budding romance fizzles quickly when the guy proves to be unable to accept her limitations.

A night view of the city with only the faithful holding up candles while Ave Maria plays in the background is simply breathtaking. I am not personally religious, but I grew up Catholic and can appreciate the beauty of the symbolism and message. Jessica Hausner does not preach to the audience at any point, but gives us the opportunity to make up our own minds about faith and belief in miracles. Lourdes is an interesting conversation starter and a good movie.