Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Ketrivie It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

Ariella Broughton It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Aryana Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

stuart-12777 A beautifully crafted film about a genius with a gentle soul set in a time of war and recession. The sense of period is brought to life in this heart warming tale of Seraphine de Senlis. Anyone who has ever laid under a large tree as the leaves rustle in the wind or near the waters edge as the sea laps the shore, will appreciate the calm and beauty contained in this wonderful film.

Turfseer Séraphine is a French-Belgian production about the housekeeper turned artist of the same name, who first gained fame between the last two World Wars. Creating films about famous artists are difficult since they're inherently not very dramatic. Highlighting the beauty of the artist's creation is one thing but designing a full-fledged drama concerning the artist and his/her interactions with the people they knew, could be problematic.While I would not call the story of Séraphine a gripping tale where you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat, it does manage to hold your interest, despite its languid pace. It's in fact, a very well- crafted biopic, that features some sensational cinematography.The story is rather simple. Séraphine is a devoted Catholic, middle-aged housekeeper who also happens to be a talented painter. She collects some of the ingredients for her paint from unusual sources including wax from candles in her local church, soil from plants and blood from a dead pig. One of the lodgers in a house she services is Uhde, an up and coming art critic and collector from Germany, who recognizes Séraphine's potential, despite disparaging remarks made about her artwork by the local gentry. Uhde even buys a few of Séraphine's paintings but eventually loses all his art possessions when World War I begins and he's forced to flee France, back to Germany.When Uhde returns to France between the wars in 1927, he looks Séraphine up again and notes her skills have improved a hundred fold. Now she's creating large works of art on giant canvasses. For a time, Uhde is able to have Séraphine's artwork shown in well-known galleries and pays her money where she's able to rent her own apartment. The onset of the Depression causes the art market to collapse and Uhde is no longer able to provide Séraphine with financial support. This perhaps precipitates the onset of her mental illness and eventually Séraphine has to be hospitalized. Her treatment at the hospital is not good and she falls deeper into psychosis. Uhde finally is able to sell some of Séraphine's paintings by around 1935 and uses the proceeds to make her more comfortable at the hospital. As noted above, 'Séraphine' is a slow-moving affair. Nonetheless, the method by which she creates her paintings, her religious zeal and her unusual relationship with Uhde, is enough for us to remain interested throughout. It's revealed at the end of the film that Séraphine never left the mental hospital and died in 1942. Uhde who was both gay and Jewish, was forced to hide in the South of France while the Nazis occupied the country. He died in 1947, two years after the end of World War II.

gsygsy Yolande Moreau, magnificent in the role of a lifetime, and Laurent Brunet's stunning photography provide - along with the artworks of Seraphine herself - reasons enough to see this film. Overall, the simple-story-simply-told feel of the movie started to loosen its grip on me at the start of its second hour. I think this may have been because the screenplay spends so much time on Uhde's rediscovery of Seraphine at that point, after the disruption of WW1. I mean no disrespect to Ulrich Tukur, who is terrific as Uhde, but I don't think it was the best use of screen time. Did we really need to dwell on someone arriving in Chantilly by car, having Uhde pick that person up in his own car, have the person - who turns out to be a journalist - interview Uhde at some length? It was interesting without being necessary, and contributed to a real dip in the movie's energy. Once Ms Moreau reappeared the film was on course again. Maybe, then, we did have to leave her in order to return to her, but in my view the time away was not handled well. Hence 6 out of 10 for a work that, on the basis of its central performance and its cinematography, and indeed on the merits of its remarkable first hour, might have reached even greater heights.

JustApt This extraordinary biographical film tells the dramatic story of French paintress Séraphine de Senlis. The tale starts in the summer before the First World War when a known German art collector and critic Wilhelm Uhde accidentally finds out that his servant woman is an amateur artiste painting in naïve but highly innovative and original style. She was doing so because she had a vision of divine being who has told her to begin to paint pictures. Where does genius end and madness begin? Or are they just two sides of the same phenomenon? Questions poised by this artful drama hardly have the answers. To say that Yolande Moreau playing the role of Séraphine Louis is unique is to say the least. Camille Claudel is another brilliant movie in the same vein.