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Silk

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Silk

R

Released Sep 14, 2007

1h 49m

Drama

Romance

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

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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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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Maitland McDonagh

Time Out

Rated: 2/5

Nov 17, 2011

Full Review

Anna Smith

Empire Magazine

A flat story, lean characters and a miscast lead make this a poor facsimile of period epics like Farewell My Concubine.

Rated: 2/5

Nov 23, 2007

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Anthony Quinn

Independent (UK)

Tremulous eroticism a-go-go, but it's all completely lifeless.

Rated: 1/5

Nov 9, 2007

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Toni Vall

Cinemanía (Spain)

Neither more nor less than exactly what it was expected to be. [Full review in Spanish]

Rated: 2/5

Nov 5, 2020

Full Review

Brandon Fibbs

Christianity Today

It is worse than a straightforward bad film, it is a middling, stagnant film that could have been extraordinary.

Rated: 2/4

Feb 28, 2008

Full Review

Joseph Proimakis

Movies for the Masses

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

Rated: 1/5

Jan 14, 2008

Full Review

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James K

A simple but beautiful love story, well acted and filmed.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

05/04/23

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Audience Member

Highly elegant, carefully photographed, richly casted and exquisitely costumed albeit a bit hollowly plotted.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/20/23

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Audience Member

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...

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/22/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Dreary, slow, dull and depressing is all you need to know.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

01/14/23

Full Review

Audience Member

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.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/23/23

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Audience Member

One of the worst movies I have ever seen. I would give it less than one start if possible.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

02/26/23

Full Review

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François Girard

Director

Keira Knightley

Helene Joncour

Michael Pitt

Herve Joncour

Kôji Yakusho

Hara Jubei

Alfred Molina

Baldabiou

Miki Nakatani

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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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