What a waste of my time!!!

the audience applauded

I have absolutely never seen anything like this movie before. You have to see this movie.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

This film was just too mysterious at times and, even though I found it super provocative and ultimately, worthwhile: the end had me laughing out loud -- and I'm sure that wasn't the intended effect. I'm curious to know what others think:Does the professor actually make a visit to Piedad's room? Or is it a dream, as she describes? How do you read the professor's reaction when she describes her vision? "I should stay far away from this lunatic." or "She and her delusions are sooo hot." -- are a couple of options.How to interpret Piedad's flight into the forest -- is she doomed to fall prey to desire, does this demonstrate the flaw in "goodness"?What other movies by this director would you recommend? Are there similarities among them?

This film is absolutely beautiful -- a picture of cinematic craft, and has a complexity that is rarely found in American films. Contrary to what others have said, this film has a fantastically developed plot. It is sad that the others who have reviewed this movie found it to be lacking.If you don't know Goethe's Faust, don't bother watching it. If you are so numbed by Hollywood that you can't stand to watch a movie without nudity, gore, blood, explosions, or sex, don't rent this movie. If you don't like to discuss nuance in films after watching them, don't watch this movie. If you hate French people, don't watch this movie. Rent something with The Rock in it instead.To the others who reviewed The Convent, I would say bad films do not win prizes at Cannes. This movie is brilliant, and is the epitome of what art film should be.

This is one of the worst movies I've ever seen. There is no plot, no action, no laughs, no "food for thought". Further, the characters are terribly dull and the acting just mediocre. From the very beginning, I never did understand what was going on. And after about 15 minutes, I didn't care. The ending was the silliest thing I've ever witnessed. Anyone who says this is a good movie must either be getting paid or else is trying to impress someone. No one, and I mean no one, who enjoys movies could find a single redeeming quality in this bomb.

Great premise: American academic (John Malkovich) and lovely French wife (Catherine Deneuve) travel to Portugal so he can research his theory that Shakespeare was really a Spanish Jew cast out in 1492 or on the run from the Inquisition. He winds up at a disused monastery (not a convent; there is no convent in the movie, despite the title) cared for by Satan worshipers, the viewer subtly becoming aware of this due to a big inverted pentagram hanging in the office of the "guardian" of the monastery, Baltar. Whether Malkovich and Deneuve are aware of this, or care, is unclear. Baltar gets the hots for Deneuve, while Malkovich is thrown together with the lovely young archivist (who seems to be a token non-Satan worshiper), but nothing comes of either pairing. Characters yak at each other, this tedium being broken by the greater tedium of extended silences, and then the yet greater tedium of extended silences with the screen virtually still. Despite the great setup, no gore, no nudity, all very tasteful eurotedium. Inconclusive conclusion. Ninety minutes wasted.