Les soeurs Brontë

This is the one single wonderful biography about the Brontës!

You feel, it's French: cold, realistic and authentic... Ok, and it seems to be a little boring at the beginning; and there is no one single highlight turing the whole film. But isn't it a magnum opus? I think, exactly this kind of silence gives the film its power. Listen to the words! There is almost no dialogue without a hidden allusion to poems by the Brontë-sisters.

And Isabelle Hupperts' sensitive performance is definitely outstanding.

it is not exactly the expected biopic. and this represents its basic virtue. because, after its end, you discover than it is the best manner to present the Bronte universe. in cold images, using a magnificent cast, as fragments of memories, silence, dust and expectation. as a trip around the corners of a world who remains enigmatic. a film about a family. as a painting in Pointilist style. because all is discovered behind the shadows. because it is a poem about survive. and one of films who, after its end, grows up in yourself. this fact does it special. real special. almost like a memory. because it has the wise science to be a film about people more than about theirs books. and the result is fantastic - the people becoming theirs characters.

Although I saw this film in 1979/1980 it was one of the most memorable movies of my movie viewing days. The photography was excellent and is to my mind one of the best alongside 2 or 3 other films that have appealed to my artistic senses. At the time I thought 'trust the French to make a movie about the English that is so beautifully executed'. This may sound very "highbrow" but not really. If you are into foreign language films well acted and visually appealing this is a film for you. I have been searching ever since for a chance to view it again. Top Marks 10/10

"Les Soeurs Brontë" is an undeniably handsome production, but also a bleak and shallow film. For at least half its length, it could be re-titled "Branwell & Co.", because he is the main character. But even when the sisters have the film to themselves, Andre Techine and his co-screenwriters have chosen to focus too much on their misery and not enough on their artistic / creative impulses and processes. If you bypass the obvious language discrepancy (at one point, one of the sisters says "we know a little French" - the entire film is in French, of course), the three female leads are well-cast, especially as sisters: Marie-France Pisier (who later became a novelist herself) outshines her two more famous co-stars on this occasion. ** out of 4.

When the movie was released,it met mixed critical reception.The director seemed more interested in Brother Brontë and the audience was waiting for the sisters ,or should I say the actresses ,Marie -France Pisier (an intellectual thespian) ,Isabelle Huppert ,the rising star and above all ,Adjani the idol of the crowds of the era.

Objections to this costume drama remain:too few of the scenes are really potent,the actresses are too attractive (have you seen portraits of the sisters ? They were not really beauties ),nothing (or almost nothing ) deals with literary creation ,unless some (splendid) pictures of the Moor count.

It's interesting to note that the movie was cut drastically: they say almost an hour is missing .It's hard to judge a truncated version.Maybe some day ,the film as intended by Téchiné will be shown.