Deep in the Woods (2010) User Reviews

Deep in the Woods

[Graphicstation · 7/10 · 17 June 2012]

Just saw this as part of a French Film Festival in Manila which as somewhat uncomfortable not knowing what audiences here find acceptable, though I think I only saw a couple of older audience members leave, everyone else enjoyed the show, many applauded at the end.

The story was well written an and directed, the cinematography well done except for a few odd zoom-in close ups. This is not a movie for those easily offended by adult themes as there are more than a few. The leading actress and actor both gave very good performances and though the story is a little predictable, it still leads you in directions you might not expect.

A true story

[paulouscan · 6/10 · 5 August 2013]

This story, while the scenario may seem weird and unreal, is a real fact story which happened in the Var department of France in 1865. The are very official and serious judiciary documents reporting those facts found by the police investigation then. On can find a good transcript of that in the Charles Lancelin'book named "La sorcellerie des campagnes" pages 86 to 91. Once one is aware of this, the message to be found in this film has nothing to do with displaying sex relationships or investigating boy and girl relationships in the XIXth century in France or anything "normal" like that. The message is about the strength of hypnotism and magnetism can exert on weak minds or nervous minds. The whole enquiry shown at the end of the film tends to stress that but the writer and the director of the film had obviously some difficulty getting that point out obviously enough to get it through the public. Nevertheless, this film is a very acceptable effort to tell us an account of this magnetism relationship which can occur when both magnetizer is quite strong and magnetized one is easily overwhelmed. One must not see this as an ambiguous situation where the magnetized one could have escaped easily, whatever the physical distance, as it is essentially a mind rapture, beyond physical dimensions.

Like a Millet painting

[bob998 · 6/10 · 3 September 2015]

It's like a Millet painting; you know, The Angelus or something, a bunch of decrepit peasants tilling the field, misery written on their faces. The French highlands provide a stunning backdrop for all this misery. The sex that takes place between the two leads shouldn't distract us from the almost medieval poverty and desperation these people experience.

Isild le Besco has now made five films with Benoit Jacquot; she's established a solid working relationship with him. I enjoyed the Sade film, and the crime story that crosses several countries (A tout de suite}. I wish they would make a more traditional story next time.

Definitely worth checking out

[lazarillo · 3 March 2013]

This is a story set in 19th century France of a poor and seemingly simple-minded vagrant who tricks his way into a prominent do-gooders house by pretending to be a deaf mute in order to bewitch and rape his virginal daughter (Isild Le Besco). After he deflowers her, she ends up following him "deep into the woods", but is unclear if she does so willingly or because he has some strange power over her. . .

It's hard to agree with most of the criticisms of this movie. It is a very ambiguous film, but it is an intriguing ambiguity rather than a frustrating ambiguity and vastly preferable at any rate to the usual Hollywood tendency of hitting the audience over the head with every blunted plot point. The idea of a woman coming to sympathize with her rapist is pretty "politically incorrect", but there is such a thing as Stockholm Syndrome, and you also have to reckon with the fact that this was set in the 19th century where women's sexuality was kept so deeply repressed that it's not hard to imagine they might fall under the hysterical sway of any man who releases it (or merely use him as an excuse to their explore own repressed sexual desires). A goodly portion of the movie does involve little but the two characters wandering around the French countryside and having sex. But I don't really find the natural beauty of the French countryside boring, and I certainly don't find the natural beauty of Le Besco's incredible body the least bit boring.

Isilde Le Besco is really quite an amazing actress. There is no Anglophone actress of her talent that would take on the heavily sexual and constantly undraped roles that she does (the only possible exception being Kate Winslet). She is not conventionally pretty, but she is unconventionally beautiful, and like Kate Winslet I'm sure the crazies (who consider anorexia sexy) might call her "fat", but she is really just a naturally voluptuous young woman, and I think everybody has just forgotten what one looks like after being exposed to all these walking skeletons with fake breasts. The actor playing the vagrant "Timothee" I've never seen before or since, but he is certainly effective in this role and he does have a diminutive Rasputin-like charm to him.

This movie is available with English subtitles, but it has never been released in America. Still if you get a chance, it's definitely worth checking out.

It is a love story after all

[vanmust · 7/10 · 7 December 2018]

It is more than a Stockholm syndrome , hereditary madness(girl,s mom was in that state as well) drives her to the path of Red Rinding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf ...in one moment she expects to see his foot hairy and growning nails...she is so attached to him and he to her....obviously both of them had read a lot of books ....and the influence of them on both their distorted minds was selfdestructive......it is not clear if the Woods didnt call her back.....in the end....after securing their pup would have a normal life.......deep in the Woods they both could hear Quasimodo crying ....Sanctuary....Sanctuary!!!!!!

What Did I Just Watch?

[ridell-42999 · 4/10 · 28 October 2017]

A filthy Hobbits repeatedly rapes a woman until she likes it. Then they go on an adventure. Other things probably happened too but I stopped watching after 30 minutes. The only saving grace here is Isild Le Besco, who Isild De Based herself for this film. Honestly though, if you just wanted to see her naked -and I don't blame you- there are plenty of better films that you can watch.

Uninvolving mystery

[Groverdox · 6/10 · 12 May 2016]

"Deep in the Woods" is presented entirely through short, fleeting scenes, giving the initial impression that you are watching a trailer of the movie, rather than the movie itself. Once you overcome this feeling, you settle in to watch a movie that you know isn't going to be generous in its exposition, so you'd better pay attention to these short scenes.

The movie is about a mysterious tramp who enters the house of a 19th century French doctor and his beautiful daughter, played by Isild le Besco. He does magic tricks with the cutlery, and soon reveals a psychic hold over the daughter, Josephine, seemingly able to make her sick and well at his command. He also takes a strong sexual interest in her.

Eventually they escape, her apparently under his spell, and submitting, perhaps not willingly, to frequent bouts of unerotic sex. After a while, she seems to change her mind in regards to this ugly, monobrow'd vagabond, and in a late sex scene where Josephine is on top, it feels like a vital turning point in their relationship.

Nevertheless, the vagabond is captured and Josephine returned to her life at home. She has a baby. Is it Tomothee, the vagabond's? We don't get to find out.

The aforenamed short scenes, combined with typically opaque performances from the leads, and obscure dialogue, keep us at a pretty safe distance from this one. When a police officer says, late in the movie, that a court case is no place for poems, but for the straight truth, we know how he feels. The movie is, ultimately, too lightweight to be engaging, and too distancing to make us much bother with puzzling over its mysteries.

Dreadful - possible spoilers, but how can you spoil a film this bad?

[team-26 · 1/10 · 23 October 2010]

Saw this one at the British Film Festival last night (22nd October). It seemed to me to be a film without redeeming features. The plot-line was exiguous and (such as it was) moved forward at a snail-like pace. There were no attractive characters (either physically or morally) other than perhaps the father. No explanation was proffered either for why the girl fell under the spell of the feral boy or (if she did fall under his spell), why she spent so much time screaming?

That being said, if you like films where a not-very-attractive woman with a wobbly bottom and an inadequate personality gets raped by a crafty peasant with slimy grey teeth and a moustache that looks like a furry centipede, then this is the film for you.

We just about stomached the rape, but when the crafty peasant started slurpy cunnilingus as if he was eating soup without a spoon, we walked out. I suspect the leading lady wished she could have walked out too . . .

Bad film. Avoid.

the old psych game

[dumsumdumfai · 8/10 · 11 September 2010]

this might pretty much be a big spoiler below.

Story revolves around 19th century setting, a doctor's daughter being abducted and/or not by a dumb peasant/drifer. A lot of ambiguity in the film, is he that or not? Is she that or not? Did s/he "intended" to do that or not ? Supposedly the seed of the film is based on some fictional story found in an archive that might or might not have based on true story. True or not, that might not be the point ...

The setting is interesting. Perhaps true to the source and the attitudes of the time. The story revolves around whether an beggar/outcast magnetize and capture a doctor's daughter against her will. Somehow the whole thing reminds me of the Italian Devil in the Flesh. Music wise even.

I saw on other film by the same director a few years back, that was more of a go-as-you-please, day in the life episode. Not sure if that is typical. This is more structured, has a purpose, it wants to tell you something ,or let you be the judge.

Maybe the point of this movie is this : Who you are is a combined definition of a) How you see yourself, b) How others see you and c) Who you really are inside. And well, that all depends on how well you know yourself also ?

Deep in the Woods left a Deep Impact on my soul

[dochito · 10/10 · 25 June 2020]

I am trying to understand the girl...she was attracted by the most ugliest and filthiest man and couldn't get rid of his influence. She enjoyed being with him, she loved and feared him. They needed each other. Seems that she thought that this repulsive man was the only man she could be get in life, that she deserved him. This movie shows a really troubled mind of both characters, that somehow, filled each other. Excellent movie.

The wild boy and the maiden.

[dbdumonteil · 18 October 2012]

This film is not unique in the French cinema;it belongs to a long tradition of country stories set in the 19th century :in the grand tradition of such movies as Truffaut's "L'Enfant Sauvage" ,Tavernier's "Le Juge Et L'Assasssin" or Allio's "Moi Pierre Rivière Ayant Egorgé Ma Mère Ma Soeur Et Mon Frère " and some other minor works.

"Au Fond Des Bois" is perhaps disturbing to some,but it does not improve much on them;it's odd it did not get a PG 12 whereas it contains rape and nudity !The problem of the film is that it does not devote enough time to "why?";the two actors ,not very attractive,are not bad for all that ,but ,and of course in the case of the girl,they do not display enough ambiguity :after some time ,she seems to appreciate her mate and it seems that she finds that quite romantic ,which the last sequences reinforce.The wild boy may possess magnetic powers ,a la Rasputin, but they are hardly necessary for a while :only the burn can pass for an argument ,although the heroine might be a glutton for punishment!The depiction of the girl's milieu leaves something to be desired too:the father,the good doctor,might be over possessive and she might have been brought up a sexually repressed girl.

The movie essentially consists of wandering and having sex in beautiful landscapes ;it's not bad,but not a movie to be seen twice.