Platicsco
Good story, Not enough for a whole film
Whitech
It is not only a funny movie, but it allows a great amount of joy for anyone who watches it.
Plustown
A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.
Kayden
This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama
jadavix
"Deep in the Woods" is presented entirely through short, fleeting scenes, giving the initial impression that you are watching a trailer of the movie, rather than the movie itself. Once you overcome this feeling, you settle in to watch a movie that you know isn't going to be generous in its exposition, so you'd better pay attention to these short scenes.The movie is about a mysterious tramp who enters the house of a 19th century French doctor and his beautiful daughter, played by Isild le Besco. He does magic tricks with the cutlery, and soon reveals a psychic hold over the daughter, Josephine, seemingly able to make her sick and well at his command. He also takes a strong sexual interest in her.Eventually they escape, her apparently under his spell, and submitting, perhaps not willingly, to frequent bouts of unerotic sex. After a while, she seems to change her mind in regards to this ugly, monobrow'd vagabond, and in a late sex scene where Josephine is on top, it feels like a vital turning point in their relationship.Nevertheless, the vagabond is captured and Josephine returned to her life at home. She has a baby. Is it Tomothee, the vagabond's? We don't get to find out.The aforenamed short scenes, combined with typically opaque performances from the leads, and obscure dialogue, keep us at a pretty safe distance from this one. When a police officer says, late in the movie, that a court case is no place for poems, but for the straight truth, we know how he feels. The movie is, ultimately, too lightweight to be engaging, and too distancing to make us much bother with puzzling over its mysteries.
lazarillo
This is a story set in 19th century France of a poor and seemingly simple-minded vagrant who tricks his way into a prominent do-gooders house by pretending to be a deaf mute in order to bewitch and rape his virginal daughter (Isild Le Besco). After he deflowers her, she ends up following him "deep into the woods", but is unclear if she does so willingly or because he has some strange power over her. . .It's hard to agree with most of the criticisms of this movie. It is a very ambiguous film, but it is an intriguing ambiguity rather than a frustrating ambiguity and vastly preferable at any rate to the usual Hollywood tendency of hitting the audience over the head with every blunted plot point. The idea of a woman coming to sympathize with her rapist is pretty "politically incorrect", but there is such a thing as Stockholm Syndrome, and you also have to reckon with the fact that this was set in the 19th century where women's sexuality was kept so deeply repressed that it's not hard to imagine they might fall under the hysterical sway of any man who releases it (or merely use him as an excuse to their explore own repressed sexual desires). A goodly portion of the movie does involve little but the two characters wandering around the French countryside and having sex. But I don't really find the natural beauty of the French countryside boring, and I certainly don't find the natural beauty of Le Besco's incredible body the least bit boring.Isilde Le Besco is really quite an amazing actress. There is no Anglophone actress of her talent that would take on the heavily sexual and constantly undraped roles that she does (the only possible exception being Kate Winslet). She is not conventionally pretty, but she is unconventionally beautiful, and like Kate Winslet I'm sure the crazies (who consider anorexia sexy) might call her "fat", but she is really just a naturally voluptuous young woman, and I think everybody has just forgotten what one looks like after being exposed to all these walking skeletons with fake breasts. The actor playing the vagrant "Timothee" I've never seen before or since, but he is certainly effective in this role and he does have a diminutive Rasputin-like charm to him.This movie is available with English subtitles, but it has never been released in America. Still if you get a chance, it's definitely worth checking out.
Anthony Hodge (Graphicstation)
Just saw this as part of a French Film Festival in Manila which as somewhat uncomfortable not knowing what audiences here find acceptable, though I think I only saw a couple of older audience members leave, everyone else enjoyed the show, many applauded at the end.The story was well written an and directed, the cinematography well done except for a few odd zoom-in close ups. This is not a movie for those easily offended by adult themes as there are more than a few. The leading actress and actor both gave very good performances and though the story is a little predictable, it still leads you in directions you might not expect.
dumsumdumfai
this might pretty much be a big spoiler below.Story revolves around 19th century setting, a doctor's daughter being abducted and/or not by a dumb peasant/drifer. A lot of ambiguity in the film, is he that or not? Is she that or not? Did s/he "intended" to do that or not ? Supposedly the seed of the film is based on some fictional story found in an archive that might or might not have based on true story. True or not, that might not be the point ...The setting is interesting. Perhaps true to the source and the attitudes of the time. The story revolves around whether an beggar/outcast magnetize and capture a doctor's daughter against her will. Somehow the whole thing reminds me of the Italian Devil in the Flesh. Music wise even. I saw on other film by the same director a few years back, that was more of a go-as-you-please, day in the life episode. Not sure if that is typical. This is more structured, has a purpose, it wants to tell you something ,or let you be the judge.Maybe the point of this movie is this : Who you are is a combined definition of a) How you see yourself, b) How others see you and c) Who you really are inside. And well, that all depends on how well you know yourself also ?