Savage Souls (2001)

Must See Movie...

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

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

I think it may bloody well be. Although it's hard to be sure, since he was a very prolific director and much of his work still remains unavailable or hard to get on DVD or even VHS, it's certainly far worse than anything else I have seen by him so far. It's quite obvious that he was nothing more than a hired hand for this film, and had no real personal involvement in the whole project. He tries a couple of his camera tricks, but he cannot bring the ASTONISHINGLY pointless and empty script to life. The fact that there are no user comments for this movie since 2004 (!) is an indication that it's destined to be buried and forgotten, even by Ruiz devotees. The photography is beautiful and Laetitia Casta looks EXQUISITE and gives a very good performance, but I still felt tempted many times to just shut the movie off and be done with it. I didn't, but only because that's my unbroken rule. 0.5 out of 4 stars.

Come on, i rented this movie on dvd full of excitement as I am a huge fan of independent movies and european cinema in general. I also am a fan of John Malkovich and i really like Laetitia Casta ; but i can't recall a single moment in my whole life that i felt sooooo boooored! It's terrible! The only elements i liked was the music (that's nothing special really, just very nice) and the beautiful and excellent photography!

A well acted and respectful adaptation of Giono's masterpiece. Ruiz takes the internal and complex ambiguity of a women's soul and frames and reflects her struggle in the backdrop of the refined beauty of Provence. The truth about Thérèse we may never know but the truth about Ms. Casta's talent on screen is without question.

This movie gave an academic soul like my own the urge to read Giono's book. A critic at Liberation pans the movie for being too linear and academic, while the critics at Le Monde were more enthusiastic about it -- correctly pointing out that a number of very key logical connections in the story were omitted in the film. This tactic keeps the viewer from having a firm grasp of what is happening in the story -- particularly if your native language does not happen to be French.The opening scene with the old women (les veilleuses) is virtually incomprehensible unless one has a very solid grasp of idiomatic French -- for the non-natives I recommend either reading the book first or seeing a subtitled version. The story of Thérèse (played by Monique Mélinand and Laetitia Casta) develops from the gossip at the vigil.The story becomes easier to follow once the camera leaves the old women, but just...The filming is done in a style that reminds me of Peter Greenaway, with lots of long shots and bright colors (for which the viewer is quite eager by this point of the movie). Towards the end of the film there is a scene which in itself is worth the price of admission: Eric Gautier and Raoul Ruiz apparently spent a very long time on this scene filmed in 4 below weather on the side of a mountain in Luse. The result is stunning. I am not sure that it is an intentional nod towards Bergman's Seventh Seal -- perhaps it is just the carts but the color and fury of the storm were enhanced with this weird memory of death playing chess with a man...John Malkovich. Brilliant body language. This is a good thing, because his French is quite incomprehensible at a couple of points in this film. This may have been intentional -- his character's motivation is meant to be unfathomable, why not his speech as well? After the role he played in Les Miserables for France 3, it is clear that he can speak French very clearly (apparently he worked closely with a coach -- the result was a very good Inspector Javert). In this movie, though, my friend (a French prof) and I were very glad when he started counting in English.Laetitia Casta is quite good in the movie. With the exception of a badly botched kiss at the beginning of the movie, she seems very credible in the role and fits as seemlessly into the skin of an 89-year-old as that of a youngster.To sum up... the movie is long, and difficult to understand. It is not a cheeseburger. I do think it will be richer the second time around and so I will wait to give it a rating until then. The work that went into the movie is worth at least that much effort...