AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Anoushka Slater While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Haven Kaycee It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Paul Sutton This is an appallingly inept film made by a production team who did not respect or even understand the source novel. It is a book about hate and poverty and pain. The whole point of the novel is that the mother corrupts the boy into being as slyly evil as she is. The director plays this as comedy! complete with dropped trouser gags, crass blue lighting, and ubiquitous crashes of thunder to complete the farce. The whole is completely miscast by a team of poor players who have the subtlety of sledgehammers. The film is full of crass moments which aren't in the book, such as the dreadful wink-wink wraparound. The ending has been changed! and made happy! Watch instead the 1971 version, which is true to the spirit and the themes of the original novel, with perfect settings and a magnificent cast, playing with the right amount of seething resentment and ripening rage. The only flaw with the 1971 film is that it is too short.

nathalie_chapron Vipere au poing is one of the classics of French literature. It is studied at school, and I defy any person who starts to read it to finish it unscathed. It is the story of the relentless hate of a mother towards her children. It shows that the aim of her life is to destroy their spirits, to break their wills. And there is no happy ending, she really hates them.To be able to play this "tour de force" you need a first class actress. I admire very much Catherine Frot, but unfortunately for her, I had seen before a first version of this book, filmed for the French television in the 70s, and Mrs Sapritch made this role hers for life, at least for me. It did not stop me from also buying this film in DVD, as it is always interesting to see how two different set of actors, 30 years apart, manage around the same idea. So, my advice is see them both and make your mind up. Regretfully, the 70s version is only available in French and in region 2 (Europe) DVD.

Nicholas Rhodes Although not generally a fan of turn-of-the-century reconstitutions, I admit to rather enjoying this film because of its plastic beauty, sets, dialogues and choice of actors. I am a great fan of both Jacques Villeret and Cathérine Frot, because they both have curious and instantly recognizeable faces as well as orally attractive accents when they speak. The film, a childhood biography illustrating the incomprehension between a mother and her children, comprises a fair number of scrumptious dialogues, comic situations, and well filmed sets. The theme music too is not unpleasant and blends in well with the events. The "voice-off" technique is used - for me this is very reassuring and puts me straight into the story - in cases where this technique is NOT used, I sometimes waste a certain amount of time around the beginning wondering exactly what is going on and asking questions about the identity of each character. Of course Cathérine Frot, such a nice lady in real life, gives a remarkable performance as a domineering, heartless and vicious mother, especially with her two older children. Jacques Villeret, softer and more gentler does provide her with some support but is not as radical as his ideas. There are comic situations in the film, especially where Jules Sitruk is telling off God for having let his grandma die and asking him not to make the same mistake again and let his mother die asap because he hates her. He also has a thing going about the quantity of chocolate he is nibbling while praying and how much God should be letting him eat. Technical details of the film show that it was in part filmed in the UK, purportedly in the Dorset area, although the novel is set in the Nantes area close to Brittany. Certainly worth a watch, available on DVD in France with French only subtitles, the film will appeal to those who like filmed Novels and period pieces from the beginning of the 20th century onwards.

dbdumonteil A good (but not great) adaptation of André Bazin's autobiographic novel which I urge all the users who saw the movie to read.Philippe de Broca does not feel at home in this gloomy story ,he who shines in comedies or adventures yarn ("Cartouche" "L'homme de Rio" ).And the made-for-TV version is imprinted in my memory as it must be in any French's.It had the definitive Folcoche (Folcoche= Folle Cochonne= Mad Swine):Alice Sapricht was so terrifying that any actress who would take on the part would be fatally compared to her.Catherine Frot does an okay job,but Folcoche was ,is and will always be Alice Sapricht whose ugliness worked wonders.On the other hand,I'm pleased to see that one of the late Villeret's last parts was worthwhile, a thousand miles from the obnoxious "Iznogood" .Good performances also come from English Cherie Lunghi ,Pszoniak and Paul Le Person.In the French literature ,"Vipère au Poing" recalls "Poil de Carotte".These two books feature the most terrifying mothers who ever were.And they were not invented.Both Bazin's and Jules Renard' moms were respectively Folcoche and Madame Lepic !