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Better Late Then Never

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

With the obvious exception of yet another Masterclass in Acting from Isabelle Huppert there isn't too much to enjoy here, at least on the surface. Huppert plays a real character, Madame Maintenon, initially the mistress and then the wife of Louis the Fourteenth who took it into her head to found a school - the Saint Cyr of the titles - to 'improve' some 250 young girls selected from around one thousand applicants. One of the first tasks was to iron out provincial accents and aim for an Gallic equivalent of Received English and this is where the native French speakers have a bonus inasmuch as they can follow the progress from Regional to National accents whilst to those obliged to rely on subtitles the accents sound pretty much the same. There's other stuff going on here, not least the secular/religion conflict but it tends to be obtuse and there are too many 'five years later' captions and not enough straightforward storytelling. Huppert fans will like it anyway but the rest may find it hard going.

A bit difficult to understand, it takes much time, not only once to watch the film. Fine points of french history and language are not visible (and not particularly interesting) for me, because this film is about the relations between humans, human and God, human and its conscience. From this direction the film is terrifically impressive and deep… Also if you like films a sort of "The Fine art of love: mine ha-ha": extremely romantic, but with such dramatic end, that you weep bitter tears after the last shot then it's definitely for you. P.S. I'm so sorry for my terrible English.

It's a pity I have to write in english here, I have the words in my own language but maybe not in shakespeare's. The movie tells about how Mme de Maintenon (last wife of king Louis the fourteenth) has created a young girls institution called Saint-Cyr. It is actually an excellent subject to understand the philosophical and religious questions of the Baroque, but for this time, well, it's just a not very good yet well intentioned film. Isabelle Huppert does her part all right (it's not her best acting anyways), Jean-Pierre Kalfon is a possible king Louis, but that is all, the rest of the cast is not professional enough to hold a bad script. Often in the film, writings tells us "5 years later", "one month later", "one summer day", and that is good, we'll understand nothing without them. It's a pity there is not more of that to tell us also who's who, what means what, what place is what, why a people going out of a room closes the door in front of him (in my world he can't get out then), why the horses rides are circular, why why why... The language used is not well chosen : it's sure not the languages of the times, not our times eigther, it is too much "written" but not well written. A funny idea was to show the little girls coming from the whole country using their local language (the 'patois'), the uniformization of the french language was one of the great chalenges of the 17th. The characters are not good, much too romantic, I'm not very happy to have spent one and a half hour watching this. The public will keep in mind some historical points, maybe, but it's not more intersting and less fun than "angélique marquise des anges". Historical movies like "tous les matins du monde" are much more intersting, they try (and fail or not, how to say ?) to catch the exact spirit of the ages. a 6/10 because I love very much Isabelle Huppert.

Good intents sometimes render questionable results. Having this said, I must add, that it applies to the story, not to the quality of the film.In the period of Louis XIV, the Madame de Maintenon uses her social position, gain as a courtesan, to build up an approved school for noble daughters, whose parents have fallen in poorness. She wants to educate them as free spirits to enable them more choices than she has had, but fails to some degree.I just happened to see it by chance, and did not expect too much, since I had to see it in French with subtitles. But even without understanding the language more than made possible by Latin knowledge, I was able to enjoy it and to notice even the different dialects of the smaller girls.This beautiful movie encompasses several issues of other movies I liked: The main idea is alike the one of Dead Poets Society, where the concept of free education against the rules also leads to unforeseen results. The strong relation of the two younger leads reminded me of Heavenly Creatures, whereas the drastic turn in religious questions was nearly as heavy as the one of Sue Bridehead in Jude, although in my opinion the latter was played more convincing by Kate Winslet.In general, the acting was well done. I really recommend this movie for everyone who likes DPS and/or tragic period pieces.