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L'Ennui

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L'Ennui reviews
59
9.0 User Score:

Mixed or average reviews

Based on 12 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 2 votes
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Movie Info

Genre(s): Romance

Written by: Cedric Kahn
Laurence Ferreira Barbosa
Alberto Moravia (novel)

Directed by: Cedric Kahn

Release Date:
Theatrical: October 15, 1999
DVD: December 19, 2000

Running Time: 120 minutes, Color

Origin: France

Language(s): French (with English subtitles)

Summary

RATING: Not rated

Starring Charles Berling, Sophie Guillemin, Arielle Dombasle, and Robert Kramer

A fortysomething, recently separated philosophy professor (Berling) encounters the former model of a painter who apparently died while having intercourse with her. The professor begins having sex with the teenage girl on a daily basis and becomes obsessed with her.

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...

80

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

A must-see.

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75

San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris

There's enough sexual manic depression to justify house calls from Dr. Laura.

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75

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

Kahn manages to turn his feast of flesh, navel-gazing talk and self-destructive jealousy into a thoughtful reflection on the subject.

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70

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

Such a rigorous exploration of sexual obsession that it proves to be a most demanding film.

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70

Village Voice Elliott Stein

The plump, Rubenesque Guillemin steals the show. Her understated simplicity is her strength -- this is one of the major movie debuts of recent years.

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70

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Catches you with a creepy sucker punch.

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63

New York Post Hannah Brown

Talky, overlong and, ultimately, just as predictable and repetitive as the maddening relationship it depicts.

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63

New York Daily News Robert Dominguez

Only mildly interesting.

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60

The New York Times Stephen Holden

Overly schematic, not always believable in its crude sexual mechanics and ultimately unsensual. But it lays out the laws of erotic attraction with a brutal directness that is downright scary.

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50

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Energetic acting and directing make it a less exasperating experience than it might have been.

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50

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

It's a movie about an idiot in the grip of something common place. He starts off as a garden-variety idiot and progresses to a big idiot.

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40

LA Weekly Ernest Hardy

As exasperating as it is insightful. The film ultimately falters, though, because it's so resolutely old-fashioned.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 9.0 (out of 10) based on 2 User Votes

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

David R. gave it a9:
Brilliant adaptation of Moravia, with a French twist.

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