Best movie of this year hands down!

Brilliant and touching

Beautiful, moving film.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

We absolutely loved every single minute of this film. It is a quiet, sweet story, and a true one. Now we want to go and visit the museum where her paintings are exhibited!

When it comes to historical films, I am one of the most critical people you'll find. That's because as a retired history teacher, I often notice that films often re-write history to make a good story. A good example is "Julie and Julia"--a film that whitewashes one of the protagonists (Julie) to make a sweet story. So, when a film gets the story right--telling the WHOLE story--I really appreciate it."Séraphine" is the unusual and tragic story of a strange figure in the art world, Séraphine Louis. She was an untrained middle-aged domestic worker who has a mission from God--to paint, paint, paint. But she was not painting to sell her work--she was painting because voices told her she MUST paint. Eventually, she was discovered by a German art dealer--but WWI intervened and her whereabouts were lost for over a decade. What happens next is very exciting and very, very tragic. I'd say more, but don't want to ruin the film. But what I will say is that if you want a nice, happy ending, then you should probably NOT see this film.This is a very slow film. This is NOT a negative thing--I liked how the film slowly unfolded. But I mention this because I cannot imagine the average viewer enjoying this film--or at least someone who wants a traditional Hollywood style film. But, if you are willing to sit back and watch, it's well worth your time.

Seraphine Loius was an impoverished, self-taught French painter who claimed to be inspired directly by God. This film of her life depicts her partly in the obvious way (as an idiot-savant), but also as a woman utterly determined, with a keen sense of her own worth and an acute sensitivity to her absence of value in the eyes of others. This characterisation gives the film its interest; but it's opening portion, depicting her early life without explanation, is almost unbearably slow and painful. The second half, in which there is more of a plot (thanks to her discovery by an art collector), is more interesting, although one shouldn't expect a happy end. While it's not a jolly film, it's a serious attempt to engage with an intriguing, awkward character; that it makes you want to see her pictures is a mark of its success.

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