It's always a joy when major gongs go to the right people especially when the right people are less than high profile, less than glamorous, less than charismatic - one thinks, for example of Brod Crawford, a more than worthy winner of his Best Actor Oscar for Al The King's Men, or Ernie Borgnine who received the same distinction a few years later for Marty. Yolande Moreau has been enhancing French cinema since the early nineties in things like Germinal, The Horseman On The Roof, The Milk Of Human Kindness, Amelie, Le Bonheur est dans le pre, Folle embellie, to say nothing of Quand le mer monte, which she wrote and co-directed. This is a lady of 56, verging on the clinically obese who can make you believe she is beautiful because she is, of course, beautiful with a shining talent. Seraphine recalls other outstanding understated French films like La Dentelliere and Brodeuses, films in which female acting transcends subject matter. If Marion Cotillard was born to play Piaf then Moreau was born to play Seraphine, the beautiful innocent, condemned to a life of harsh servitude yet never wavers from her simple faith and sings to the virgin on a daily basis.completely untrained she uses what little spare time she has to paint flowers and fruit with no thought of reward, a real definition of Art For Art's Sake. Because this is a true story about a real person her gift is, ultimately appreciated by the German art collector/critic who also 'discovered' Rousseau; for a mayfly moment she knows something akin to happiness/contentment before spending her last years in an asylum. The film scores on all levels, not least the visuals in which almost every set up whether indoors or out, reeks of paintings we can all but name but ultimately remain elusive. In the leading role Yolande Moreauis beyond praise. A totally stunning and moving performance worth a minimum of fifteen out of ten
Review of Seraphine
