I thought this would be well liked by women. But I see from the voting breakdown that it was very poorly rated by women and girls. Of 22 girls under 18, 15 gave it a one. That's amazing!
Anyone have an idea why?
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I'm a 22 year old woman and I think it's one of the most perfect movies ever made, in my opinion.Hear, Hear!
I don't think a girl under 18 could even understand most of the literary references or the human relationships in this film. I know I wouldn't have. Under 18? Aren't they watching the Jonas Brothers and not sitting through a long old black and white film?
shareAren't they watching the Jonas BrothersI believe you're thinking of "a girl under 12."
I was about 17 when I first saw the film, and it broke my heart. It still does, every time I watch it. Definitely one of the most extraordinary films I've ever seen.
shareI'm a woman and I love it.
shareI'm female and I first saw this movie at 15 and am 23 now and love it. It's one of my favorite movies ever. M
y guesses why most young women wouldn't like it because first of all, it really isn't a happy film. Second, in most romantic American movies, the female protagonist is the girl next door, she always gets her man and if there is some kind of other alluring female character, the male protagonist eventually finds out that she is flawed. Never happens in this movie; she's never knocked off her pedestal. Young American girls don't want to see a character like Garance be loved because she's not the down to earth girl next door and they can't relate to that. It's almost a jealousy that they could never project the kind of allure that Garance does and they could never live up to her character, unlike the quirky girl next door type.
The "girl next door" character is shown to be decisively bested by a middle-aged woman who was never on a pedastel here-indeed, Garance is the core of the film with all the men revolving around her. It's interesting that Maria Casares, who played Nathalie, is best-known for very different characters once her career got going- Death in Orphée and Hélène in Les Dames duBois du Boulogne
shareOne poster claims that the votes have been skewed by a cynical campaign to knock this movie out of the top 250, to help "Pirates of the Caribbean" get in there. I don't know how true that is, but if so, that would be a shame.
In any case, I can understand why ignorant, thoughtless people would not appreciate this movie. The same people who could rate "paradise" a 1 would probably say think the ode to joy was boring, and hamlet a snoozer. How many teenyboppers have the imagination and intelligence to see the world from the perspective of Garance? Especially when Nathalie is thrown over by her husband for her? If Garance is Ginger, Nathalie is Mary Ann, and for the ignorant teenybopper Mary Ann is a more sympathetic character.
Then there is the problem of Baptiste. While Garance is loved by all four men, Baptiste is the only male character who is loved by both women. He hardly conforms to the stereotype of the American romantic lead. He is weak and passive, taboo for an american hero. Thus the conventions of american romance are violated on both fronts: the male character at the center of female romantic attention is unromantic, and he rejects the "good girl" and prefers the fallen woman.
enfants is one of the greatest movies ever made, but it does take intelligence and emotional depth to appreciate. I pity the fools who don't get it. They don't make the a-team.
I'm a girl who's 19 and though I liked the movie I may understand why loads of women particularly didn't like it.
I hated the way Baptiste and Garance acted towards Natalie and her son. It was horrendous, espically the end. There was no thought at all put into them because Baptiste and Garance's "love" was the ONLY thing that mattered in the world which was incredibly selfish of both of them. Baptiste may have loved Garance, but he (and her!) had to face the facts. He was already married for six years. They had a CHILD. Baptiste, in the end, proved he was more than willing to walk out on them both just for Garance. Their selfish ways would make me angry enough to give this movie a 1!
Just put yourself in Natatlie's place, and you could possibly understand.
The movie was very good. Nice plot and everything...but the main characters can still piss you off enough to dislike the movie at the end of the day.
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An unhappy ending and / or unsympathetic characters do not, in and of themselves, make a movie a "bad movie". A score of 1 is saying that a movie is beyond "bad", all the way to completely horrific. It is the counterbalance to a 10 being a masterpiece. Rating something that is at its core a tragic love story a 1 because the central characters have a "fatal flaw" that creates the tragedy would mean that you would have to rate Othello a 1 *because* the title character is overly jealous. Neither makes any sense.
I find it incredibly shallow to rate a movie as a 1 in the face of great cinematography, production, acting, and dialog, plus a story that rivets attention throughout ...... all because you thought a couple characters did something that you found reprehensible. If you said that the characters' behavior left a bad enough taste in your mouth that it reduced your rating from 9 to 7 (or something similar), I could see that as being reasonable. To give an otherwise great movie a 1 just for that strikes me as being petty and (like I said before) extremely shallow.
I am yet to see it, but one thing that makes me dislike movies is when I'm forced to watch them for school. Every single movie I had to watch and study for school, I hated. I doubt many girls under 18 would actively seek this out to watch (or be in a mindset to like it).
Everybody betray me! I fed up with this wurhld!
Interesting insight, Dave. So maybe a lot of those votes were from forced viewing.
Those are my principles, and if you don't like them ...well, I have others.
-Groucho Marx
I would have to disagree also. I am a 27 year old woman and I first saw this movie some time in high school, when I was about 15 or so. It was showing on TCM in the very wee hours of the morning and I was so enthralled by it that I forced myself to stay awake to see the ending. I could not stop watching! It is still one of my absolute favorite films. I tell people about it whenever I get the chance!
shareHi Bruce, this might be a good thread to delete, or at least update the original post of. There is no substantial gender difference that I'm aware of. The voting is rigged. See elsewhere in the thread for mention of this. This is typically why you get huge spikes of 1/10 votes. This thread is promoting the idea that women don't like the film as much as men, which there's no evidence of.
share