The Children of the Century (1999)

Sorry, this movie sucks

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

This movie seems to be filmed in real time -- 2 years! I had to look at the notes to discover its length is only 139 minutes. Very interesting that most girls under 18 gave this a "1" rating, as did I, a 63 year old man. All other ages / sexes seemed to rate this film between 5 and 10, on average. I think many adults must be bullied by the "literary" subject matter, and give the film an undeserved pass. Or are girls just more honest? I don't know about that, but Diane Kurys has inflicted this endlessly obsessive film on us as much as de Musset inflicts his repetitive cruelties on Sand. I simply got tired of watching the horrible dance and pushed the eject button well before the movie's end. In my opinion, Kurys is much better represented by Entre Nous, a quite enjoyable film with content I found coherent and meaningful.

While this movie wasn't exactly faithful to the lives of George Sand and Alfred de Musset, it is difficult to imagine the movie being technically better. They really got the period represented well and the cinematography is lovely. The problem, then, is I doubt if this movie should have been made in the first place. I found BOTH real-life characters to be among the most annoying and pointless characters I have ever watched. It's hard to care about people when they are like Musset--selfish, boorish and showing all the signs of a Borderline Personality Disorder. And, likewise, it's hard to care about a woman so fundamentally screwed up that she MUST have this worthless jerk in her life! Now that I think about it, it's like taking a couple who are featured on the Jerry Springer Show, giving them gobs of money and sending them back to the 1830s to live. It's just really hard to care about spoiled, rich idiots. Stop whining about your lives--you pampered fools--get real jobs and stop spending your life in search of hookers and drugs--or trying to win back this guy who seems to be trying to win the "pimp of the year" award! Frankly, after the movie was over, I just wanted them all to go to #$*@!! Next time, spend the time and effort and talent involved on doing a biography on someone who is interesting and not grating like these two knuckleheads. Their literature may be great (though after seeing this film, I'll never try reading it), but as human beings they were both sadly lacking.PS--Although in the movie Alfred de Musset and George Sand broke up when it appeared to be around 1834 and he seemed to die unknown to the French public a year or so later (or at least a short time later), he did not die until about 20 years later and had been pretty prolific with his writing after their breakup. So much for presenting the story faithfully.PPS--Don't let your kids see this boring movie, as it is very graphic. Alfred de Musset goes from brothel to brothel boinking everything that breathes. Gee, I could sure see why Sand wanted him for a lover!PPPS (wow)--Don't feel too sorry for Sand. Despite the rather monogamous image we see in the film, she had a long string of affairs with very famous men. By the time the real Musset died, she'd slept with more than her share of men (and, some say women as well--but that's open to speculation).

I enjoyed very much this film. The story is really interesting it deals also with the difficult situation of women in the first half of XIX century. Juliette Binoche is wonderful in this role, she is an ideal person for George Sand. The pictures are wonderful. The film is a bit too slow but the viewer has time to live through the emotional turmoil of Alfred and George. This film is worth seeing.

I saw this film in French with Spanish subtitles so I had to read very fast! The photography is beautiful. I had not seen either of the principal actors before but I will look for them again. Miss Binoche made George Sand a real person not just an odd woman! The actor who played Alfred de Musset, showed him as charming but weak, very well done.