The Children of the Century
The Children of the Century
| 12 September 1999 (USA)
The Children of the Century Trailers

True tale of the tumultuous love affair between two French literary icons of the 19th Century, novelist George Sand and poet Alfred de Musset. But their affair falls apart during an excursion to Venice, Italy where Musset is distracted by drugs and Sand by a handsome doctor.

Reviews
WasAnnon Slow pace in the most part of the movie.
Skunkyrate Gripping story with well-crafted characters
Maidexpl Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast
Skyler Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.
MartinHafer While this movie wasn't exactly faithful to the lives of George Sand and Alfred de Musset, it is difficult to imagine the movie being technically better. They really got the period represented well and the cinematography is lovely. The problem, then, is I doubt if this movie should have been made in the first place. I found BOTH real-life characters to be among the most annoying and pointless characters I have ever watched. It's hard to care about people when they are like Musset--selfish, boorish and showing all the signs of a Borderline Personality Disorder. And, likewise, it's hard to care about a woman so fundamentally screwed up that she MUST have this worthless jerk in her life! Now that I think about it, it's like taking a couple who are featured on the Jerry Springer Show, giving them gobs of money and sending them back to the 1830s to live. It's just really hard to care about spoiled, rich idiots. Stop whining about your lives--you pampered fools--get real jobs and stop spending your life in search of hookers and drugs--or trying to win back this guy who seems to be trying to win the "pimp of the year" award! Frankly, after the movie was over, I just wanted them all to go to #$*@!! Next time, spend the time and effort and talent involved on doing a biography on someone who is interesting and not grating like these two knuckleheads. Their literature may be great (though after seeing this film, I'll never try reading it), but as human beings they were both sadly lacking.PS--Although in the movie Alfred de Musset and George Sand broke up when it appeared to be around 1834 and he seemed to die unknown to the French public a year or so later (or at least a short time later), he did not die until about 20 years later and had been pretty prolific with his writing after their breakup. So much for presenting the story faithfully.PPS--Don't let your kids see this boring movie, as it is very graphic. Alfred de Musset goes from brothel to brothel boinking everything that breathes. Gee, I could sure see why Sand wanted him for a lover!PPPS (wow)--Don't feel too sorry for Sand. Despite the rather monogamous image we see in the film, she had a long string of affairs with very famous men. By the time the real Musset died, she'd slept with more than her share of men (and, some say women as well--but that's open to speculation).
jackdanube If you have any interest in French Romanticism, or romanticism in general, see this film. The story is taken from both Musset's & Sand's accounts of the affair that took place. If a film is to be made about a poet, use the poets feelings and even words at the most opportune times, this film does that, and then some. This film is well crafted, from every aspect of its making. The performances by Binoche & Magimel are both riveting and heart wrenching. If this love were a battle, the filmmaker would most definitely taken the side of Sand. As the truth of this affair left Musset's heart dispirited until his death. Even his friends, like Eugene Delacroix, have said that his pen was a poison that infected his reader like a virus. But all histoire aside, as a film, this is an exquisite piece of work, that is both heart-breaking and entertaining. In the words of the central characters, "Shame on you, who are the first to show me treason. The horror and anger, which made me lose my reason."-Alfred de Musset "The angels are no more pure than the heart of a young man who loves truthfully."-George SandAbove all watch this film and judge for yourself.
tatyanna_patten-1 If Romanticism, as a movement, can be defined as an "infinite longing" which combines passion and erotic tension with death, despair, and the cycles of nature, then Kurys film portrayal is aptly named and her protagonists--Alfred de Musset and Georges Sand--are indeed children of their century.The key to understanding the point of this film is to think of it as a painting. It does not give you an insider's view of the relationship between these two literary giants; it does not break down their psychology; and you do not even understand why you, as an audience member, should like either of them. Yet their obsessive love was a monument for the first major artistic movement of the 19th century. Kurys paints them as Delacroix would--in all their lurid color, capturing the details of high emotion without explaining a thing. As painting on film, Les Enfants succeeds as wildly as any Romantic dreamscape and, thus, captures the mood of that era and the sentiment which spawned it more perfectly than 1,000 words on the subject.
frankgaipa I actually found this less engaging than "Star Trek: Nemesis" that I'd seen earlier the same day. At least I knew why Picard and Data wanted to love their respective dangerous doppelgangers. Kept thinking in the French film, this is paced just like too many American costume dramas. What on earth's happened since "Peppermint Soda," etc.? Now I see, though, in Imdb's listings, at least part of the problem. Kurys' "Les Enfants du siècle" was 135 minutes. Her American distributor's "Children of the Century" is 109, minus the time to run its logo.Wait for the dvd. Maybe it'll reverse the damage. "Cet amour-là" is a much, much finer great writer/younger man film.
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