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House of the Sleeping Beauties

EMAILPRINTFirst Run Features

House of the Sleeping Beauties reviews
21
7.3 User Score:

Generally unfavorable reviews

Based on 8 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 3 votes
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Movie Info

Genre(s): Drama  |  Suspense/Thriller

Written by: Vadim Glowna

Directed by: Vadim Glowna

Release Date:
Theatrical: November 14, 2008
DVD: April 21, 2009

Running Time: 99 minutes, Color

Origin: Germany

Language(s): German

Summary

RATING: Not Rated

Starring Vadim Glowna, Angela Winkler, Maximilian Schell, Birol Unel, Mona Glass, and Marina Weis

Edmond, a man in his sixties whose wife has recently passed away, is told about a secret establishment where men can spend an entire night in bed alongside beautiful, sleeping young women, who stretch, roll over and dream, but never awaken. Bedazzled by their seductive yet innocent tenderness, but distressed about the reason for their deep sleep, he delves into the mystery of the house of sleeping beauties. Based on the beautifully strange novella by Yasunari Kawabata, acclaimed writer-director Vadim Glowna has crafted a mysterious thriller about loneliness, sex, eroticism and mortality. (First Run Features)

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

75

New York Post V.A. Musetto

It would be easy to dismiss House of the Sleeping Beauties as a lewd male fantasy, but that would be ignoring the German film's deeper purpose as - in the words of the director, Vadim Glowna - a meditation on "transition, remembrance, mourning, guilt, loneliness, sex and death, eroticism and dying."

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50

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

A self-indulgent and icky film, but reasonably well made and undeniably addictive.

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30

The Hollywood Reporter Frank Scheck

Ultimately, the film doesn't succeed in its thematic aspirations, proving yet again that great literature doesn't usually transfer successfully to the screen.

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25

Christian Science Monitor Robert Koehler

With the mounting number of first-rate, even masterly foreign-language films locked out of movie theaters due to wary distributors, it's worth pondering why such laughable dreck as German actor-writer-director Vadim Glowna's House of the Sleeping Beauties actually made it through.

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25

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

House of the Sleeping Beauties has missed its ideal release window by about 40 years. It might -- might -- have found an audience in that transitional period between soft- and hard-core.

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10

The New York Times Jeannette Catsoulis

Not even the august presence of Maximilian Schell can dispel the odor of fusty smut that clings to House of the Sleeping Beauties, a clammy meditation on sex, death and the endless fascination of unclothed innocence.

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0

Village Voice Vadim Rizov

One of the year's worst releases. A second viewing of "Synecdoche" would be less painful.

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0

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Glowna presents this smoky German feature as an elegy for lost youth, but it's so tumescent with male self-pity that I couldn't wait for it to end.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 7.3 (out of 10) based on 3 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

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