Reviews

At the risk of sounding hyperbolic, I wish to convey that I view this movie as one of the greatest ever made. (That is, if you can cope with it). Un Coeur is an exquisite and worthy swan song for veteran filmmaker Claude Sautet.

I know people who do not like this movie and charge its precepts as self-indulgent, stodgy, and other such indictments. Of course, everyone is entitled to his or her opinion. For me however, the scene in which the character played by Ms. Beart is rehearsing Ravel with her quartet and the character of Mr. Auteuil stares her down as only a man from France can do; with a heady combination of lust, reluctance, and sobriety- that scene takes 'psychodrama' to a new level. C'est froid, ca!

There are only a handful of movies at the top of the mountain of Parnassus. For me, this is one of them. Bravi.

Julien Donkey Boy is a profoundly heartening anomaly in American cinema. It lacks the ubiquitous gunshots, explosions, and requited love that are so hideously redundant in the vast cesspool of Hollywood-style movies. This movie represents a step FORWARD. This is a step towards DEPTH and towards quality. Among other reasons, this is why it is a FINE film.

This movie is something of a pastiche. Many people simply do not or can not handle the fact that it is not 'plot-driven' or that Ms. Julia Roberts is nowhere to be found, forever grinning like a wax doll. (Haven't we seen enough of her teeth anyway?). That is fine. Perhaps the more patient of that group could stand to see this movie a second time.

In the traditions of the finest ART, this movie presents more questions than it does answers. What will come of Julian? Is he in fact incestuously involved with his sister? What is up with the curiously fascistic relationship between the German father and his athletic son?

The casting of Herr Herzog and Ms. Sevigny, however, with a score of Puccini, amounts to nothing less than an amazing aesthetic experience worthy of the audiences of Claude SAUTET or Pier Paolo PASOLINI. Bravo to Mr. KORINE. I hope that there is more work of this caliber coming down the pike. As a fervent snob (how could you tell?), I take pleasure in making exception for this extraordinary achievement. FIVE STARS! I would not recommend this movie to young children or Republicans. ENCORE! ENCORE TUTTI! Until the day I die, my brother and I will always be shouting, 'DON'T SHIVER, BE A WINNER!' Thank you, maestri Herzog e Korine.