gavin6942
It's late 17th century. The viola da gamba player Monsieur de Sainte Colombe comes home to find that his wife died while he was away. In his grief he builds a small house in his garden into which he moves to dedicate his life to music and his two young daughters Madeleine and Toinette, avoiding the outside world.The first thing that struck me about this film was the title. Although it has a translation as a subtitle, the proper title is the French one, even for the American release. That is rather uncommon, and would tend to scare people away, so it was a brave decision on someone's part.And the second thing is Gerard Depardieu. As I understand it, this was still a couple years before American audiences knew who he was. It is easy to see how he went from national (French) fame to international. He is clearly the breakout actor in everything he does.
kushka53
A turgid, exhausting film filmed with overwrought acting. Watching Depardieu was an embarrassment. It was a waste of my time. Some beautiful music but a repetitious soundtrack and thin story. Beautifully lit, tho'--so many scenes were Vermeer paintings on celluloid. The director may be a jazz musician but he doesn't know squat about film making. For film making that attempts to tell a story that involves classical musicians I'll take Amadeus any day! And so gloomy!! Wow, watching this film was like being at a funeral on Xanax, half asleep, and surrounded by nothing but sadness and eye rolling. It was a real downer.
Cristi_Ciopron
Tous Les matins Du Monde is extremely delightful,satisfying and fulfilled not only as colors, frames, photography, music, calligraphy ,but also as script,dialogs,acting.Corneau's proficiency of the plastic is amazing.The calming images are not a less important "character" in this movie than the music.Some colors are delightfully warm;others are cold. Its Callophily and calmness of mind is that of the Dutch painters.(Some of the frames are direct,explicit quotations and do homage to their pictorial sources.)Still,the "substance" is meaningful and as rich as the "style" (if this dichotomy could be acceptable).Tous Les matins Du Monde is not at all empty formalism,but an inquiry into the heart's depths.This depth is not fake;its secret warmth touches the heart;the things said about music are not conventional.The plastic is Dutch.Ste. Colombe is sullen,Dumpish,brutal,peeved and surly,but his daughters (Manon and the younger Toinette) are sunny and sweet-tempered.Madeleine/Manon's eyes are piercing.Marais is a vulgarian;ambitious,cruel,in-satiate,he has,at first,no far-sightedness,but is greedy and trivial;hot-blooded,but superficial.Little by little,through music,through life,he humanizes.The final,touching "Marais",played by THE Depardieu,is humble;truly humble.Now,he tastes,he sips the essential.(It is very relevant that both Marielle and G. Depardieu have sensual,earthly faces.)He gives his mind to music.This Marais is the one called by the very ill Manon who wants to pay him out.Ste. Colombe puts confidence in Marais,after he gave it him hot several times.Who would have thought that Marais and Ste. Colombe will come to be,now,two of a kind?The contemplation,the deepening gets the concreteness of an act of feeding.Marais meets two exceptional human beings:Monsieur De Ste. Colombe,and his elder daughter,"Manon" (Mrs. Anne Brochet).Marais' misfortune is to be unable to love people.Manon's misfortune is to be too able to love. Ste. Colombe's happiness is to love (his wife,played by Mrs. Caroline Sihol).It is obvious that Tous Les matins Du Monde is a movie about the human heart,about the hidden coherence of the life,about the secret roundness of history when life is lived in search of objective and firm values.Tous Les matins Du Monde is one of the very few movies successful in expressing a highly developed interior life.Horrid things are narrated in a suave,heart-rending way.The music we listen to,the plastic quality of the frames we see,the acting we watch,the dialogs we hear--The movie's meanings are shown,and don't need to be explained here.Mrs. Anne Brochet acted in Cyrano De Bergerac as well.Mistake not. Those pleasures are not pleasures that trouble the quiet and tranquility of thy life.--JEREMY TAYLOR.Mental pleasures never cloy; unlike those of the body, they are increased by repetition, approved of by reflection, and strengthened by enjoyment.--COLTON.Some of the fathers went so far as to esteem the love of music a sign of predestination; as a thing divine, and reserved for the felicities of heaven itself.--SIR W. TEMPLE.Music should strike fire from the heart of man, and bring tears from the eyes of woman.--BEETHOVEN.
Isabelle Michelet
France -17th Century. Little known 17th Century viol player and composer Monsieur de Sainte Colombe regarded public performance as an act that corrupted the purity of music. Since his wife's death, he had lived in isolation with his two daughters Madeleine and Toinette –until a young musician, Marin Marais, convinces him to teach him viol. The ambitious pupil, aware of the unique quality of his master's music, will stop at nothing to get hold of the scores. The entire movie is played in rhythm with the viol -slow, melancholic, pure, beautiful. Action addicts should not even try to watch. But art lovers will have a delightful time.
