My Favorite Season

Audience Reviews

View More (25)

Audience Member The only thing I can say is WHAT? I enjoyed this picture due in large part to Catherine Deneuve and Daniel Auteuil's chemistry. The storyline was all over the place leaving the viewer confused by the time the movie was over. Deneuve and Auteuil were great together leaving me to wonder why they were cast as brother and sister. With the exception Marthe Villalonga, who played the family matriarch, Berthe, there was no need for the adult children and the boring husband in the story. The only outsider is the son's on and off girlfriend, who also happens to work in the family's law firm but why should we care. She was just a plaything for the children of Deneuve's character and the wooden husband played by Jean-Pierre Bouvier. I mean the scene where the girlfriend is dancing naked during the Christmas Eve dinner entertaining both brother and sister is just silly. Maybe it is because the French are not uptight with sex and naked bodies that makes this scene too gratuitous and unnecessary. It was confusing and stupid for me to watch. Why did Mr. Auteuil's Antoine have a falling out with Ms. Deneuve's Emille? Mr. Auteuil was acting like a long lost lover to Ms. Deneuve instead of her brother. Like Gerard Depardieu, Daniel Auteuil is a gifted actor who enables Ms. Deneuve's great acting to shine. Catherine Deneuve is a timeless beauty and a significant French actress of the late 20th century. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 01/28/23 Full Review Audience Member Even if you hate the implied incestuous relationship, My Favorite Season is still a genuine exploration of the elderly loneliness, the study of a dysfunctional family and a formidable attempt to catch up with the good old days. With the magnificent Daniel Auteuil having presented this complicated role vividly, coupled with the ever gorgeous Catherine Deneuve, the film won't leave you in disappointment despite the slow revelation. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/25/23 Full Review Audience Member Subtle with dense characterization and nuanced performances... Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/26/23 Full Review Audience Member Un excellent Téchiné sur les relations frère/sœur et la gestion du vieillissement de leur mère (magnifique Marthe Villalonga), tous les sentiments familiaux y sont auscultés avec beaucoup de finesse. Du très bon cinéma français. A voir. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/23/23 Full Review Audience Member Easily my favorite Techine. The novelistic, episodic texture of his films, the deceptively simple camerawork, the prominent place of nature or the outdoors (for a sensibility so dark and melancholic, there's a surprising amount of sunshine in his films), all are present in this feature, in a nicely balanced dynamic. Fact is, what probably makes Techine so difficult a sell to Americans and to a wider audience is what makes him so special to those who can appreciate what his films can offer--the subtlety, the self-effacement, the seeming aimlessness that disguises a wider appreciation for the knotty complexities of life. One can say Ma saison preferee is all about a brother and sister (Daniel Auteuil as Antoine, Catherine Deneuve as Emilie) attempting to fit the care for their ailing mother (Marthe Villalonga as Berthe) in their busy lives, but it's so much more than that--it's about sibling intimacy (more difficult to render interestingly on the big screen than sibling rivalry); about parent-child disconnect casually accepted; about retaining or failing to retain one's childhood sense of wonder (and what is lost and gained as a consequence); about love long unrequited, or at least unconsummated. Techine's visual effects are equally unforced, elusive almost, acting like quicksilver fish in the way they flash and glimmer and vanish--the opening image, for example, of Berthe shutting out the breathtaking French countryside as she bangs close the windows of her house; or the old woman who suddenly breaks out in song, then is led away in slow motion; or Antoine's sudden vision of an empty bed, an open window, and the horror he knows waits for him on the street below. Wonderful film, an absolute masterpiece. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/31/23 Full Review Audience Member The best form director Techine and one of my best of all time! The writing and the acting are just incredibles! Auteuil and Deneuve at their peak. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/24/23 Full Review Read all reviews

My Favorite Season

My Rating

Read More Read Less POST RATING WRITE A REVIEW EDIT REVIEW