Matrixston Wow! Such a good movie.

Actuakers One of my all time favorites.

TaryBiggBall It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Stephen-34 Chardonne's novel is a masterfully written tale about two characters as they spiral through and explore love as life's most essential element. The director captured it beautifully as a tone, a feeling, and as an overall impression of how the characters react to their journey. Unfortunately, he left out the milestones, those transitions a character makes, inwardly, as outward events bear in on them. The audience is asked to make gigantic leaps of logic as the character's trust in and dependence on Love changes, evolves with age. Mind you this is a three hour epic, so it is not for want of time that the production misses the mark, only the screenwriter's discipline, and here, again, the director got involved where he ought not be.

lhhung_himself Without any sugar coating - this is a just a very poor and poorly made film in spite of the high production values and fine cast. The 3 hours seem like an eternity. Yet, with all that time, the main characters and their motivations are not well developed, and too many minor characters were introduced without allowing us time to learn much more than their names. Also, especially at the beginning of the movie, the jerky camera-work was overused and used poorly making me dizzy more than anything else. It ruined an otherwise nice ballroom scene.Let me add that I *do* like slow paced films without linear plot that take their time to meander with interesting characters that come and go and nice eye-candy cinematography. Maybe with some better editing, a tighter screenplay and some better camera-work this would have worked. As it was, I kept wanting the protagonist to die so that the film would finally end.

eliepoliti I just saw this picture and it gave me the impression of Assayas trying to give us a symbolic message on globalization, French versus American markets, and at the end he delivers a movie about the film industry itself.As they say, do it for the French market!Cinematography is at its best, rhythm of images goes perfectly along character´s feelings at the moment.Beautiful ball sequence and very good explanation on ceramic and china industry at beginning of 20th century, breath taking swiss sceneries.I WW sequence is also very well done.Emmanuelle Beart and Isabelle Huppert are splendorous,La Huppert appears less but is much more intense.Also got the impression that novel had much more to offer than the 3 hours film version, but this is film, anyway, and script is script.Beginning and ending with a death scene, love is the only worthy thing in life.

George Mpoukatsas This exquisite three hour film, set in France, begins at 1900 and ends around 1930, covering in the way three decades in the life of an idealistic man, Jean Barnery, who, although began as an protestant priest, ended up becoming an industrialist in his family porcelain factory. Through the life of a complex character, a full web of compromises, illusions, deceptions, tragedies, and mistakes emerges, capturing accurately the conflictual transformations of the era as a relation to the hero's personal journey. Despite its novelistic structure that sometimes diminishes its dramatic power through big time lapses, the film manages to retain its own life and conviction through careful development of its main ideas that pervade the whole story: The unavoidable compromises, the vicissitudes of life, the difficulty in applying your ideals, the emotional fulfillment and the problems of commitment, the futility of things. Easy answers are not provided, sometimes questions are more important. Exquisitely directed by the talented Olivier Assayas, and wonderfully performed (Emanuelle Beart and Charles Berling give subtle and nuanced performances, capturing perfectly the transitions in their characters' emotional state) the film, contrary to other period pieces, never lags despite the length. A must see for people interested in a serious piece of filmmaking.