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Silk

Play trailer Poster for Silk R 2007 1h 49m Drama Romance Play Trailer Watchlist
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7% Tomatometer 56 Reviews 29% Popcornmeter 10,000+ Ratings
French silkworm trader Hervé (Michael Pitt) is married to the beautiful Hélène (Keira Knightley). When an outbreak of disease ravages European silkworms, Hervé must travel to Japan to retrieve healthy eggs. After a long journey, Hervé finally arrives at a village where he can buy them. Here he becomes infatuated with a young concubine (Sei Ashina) and goes to great lengths to see her again. But, when war breaks out in Japan, the concubine flees, forcing Hervé to return home to his wife.
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Silk

Silk

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Critics Consensus

Silk contains a simple love triangle story but director Francois Gerard goes to painstaking lengths to turn it into a protracted and wearisome art film.

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Critics Reviews

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Anna Smith Empire Magazine 11/23/2007
2/5
A flat story, lean characters and a miscast lead make this a poor facsimile of period epics like Farewell My Concubine. Go to Full Review
Anthony Quinn Independent (UK) 11/09/2007
1/5
Tremulous eroticism a-go-go, but it's all completely lifeless. Go to Full Review
Peter Bradshaw Guardian 11/09/2007
1/5
Dralon is more like it. Go to Full Review
Toni Vall Cinemanía (Spain) 11/05/2020
2/5
Neither more nor less than exactly what it was expected to be. [Full review in Spanish] Go to Full Review
Brandon Fibbs Christianity Today 02/28/2008
2/4
It is worse than a straightforward bad film, it is a middling, stagnant film that could have been extraordinary. Go to Full Review
Joseph Proimakis Movies for the Masses 01/14/2008
1/5
i sta narkotika tha se riksei, i stin katatonia, an kaneis to lathos na tin pareis sta sobara os otidipote allo para eykairia eksaskisis ton kanibalistikon soy enstikton Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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James K 05/04/2023 A simple but beautiful love story, well acted and filmed. See more @ExcessMale 05/14/2022 Highly elegant, carefully photographed, richly casted and exquisitely costumed albeit a bit hollowly plotted. See more 11/23/2017 Beautiful movie, not for everybody.Slow paced , sometimes doesn't make any sense at all, but the story is very moving about a platonic impossible infatuation while true love wasn't very far... See more 10/17/2017 Dreary, slow, dull and depressing is all you need to know. See more 09/13/2017 Absolutely gorgeous film to look at, which is about all you get as the story and most performances are dramatically flat. The worst offender is the completely miscast Michael Pitt as the main character, appearing both out of time and place as an Englishman, and showing absolutely none of the passion required to drive the story passion required to spark this story of conflicting desires. See more 08/26/2017 One of the worst movies I have ever seen. I would give it less than one start if possible. See more Read all reviews
Silk

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Movie Info

Synopsis French silkworm trader Hervé (Michael Pitt) is married to the beautiful Hélène (Keira Knightley). When an outbreak of disease ravages European silkworms, Hervé must travel to Japan to retrieve healthy eggs. After a long journey, Hervé finally arrives at a village where he can buy them. Here he becomes infatuated with a young concubine (Sei Ashina) and goes to great lengths to see her again. But, when war breaks out in Japan, the concubine flees, forcing Hervé to return home to his wife.
Director
François Girard
Producer
Niv Fichman, Nadine Luque, Domenico Procacci, Sonoko Sakai
Screenwriter
François Girard, Michael Golding
Distributor
Picturehouse
Production Co
Bee Vine, Fandango, Rhombus Media Inc., Vice Versa Film, Medusa Film
Rating
R (Sexuality|Nudity)
Genre
Drama, Romance
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Sep 14, 2007, Limited
Release Date (Streaming)
Dec 1, 2011
Box Office (Gross USA)
$1.1M
Runtime
1h 49m
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