Rating: 
Summary: Tragic, multilayered, and sweepingly romantic.
Review: "The Widow of Saint-Pierre" is one of those brooding, romantic costume dramas that only the French seem to do well these days. Far from being escapist fare, it is a dark, often profound meditation on the human condition and the vagaries of the human heart. In 1849, on the remote French island of Saint-Pierre off the coast of Newfoundland, an illiterate fisherman commits a drunken, senseless murder and is sentenced to the guillotine. But since the island has no guillotine, the governor must send for one--a process that will take years. Meanwhile, the fisherman is imprisoned in the island fortress; the wife of the garrison commander takes pity on the condemned man, and sets out to rehabilitate him, with the help (at first reluctant, later wholehearted) of her loving husband. Soon the captain and his wife are defying the governor in their attempts to help the condemned man--with tragic consequences. "The Widow of Saint-Pierre" works on several levels: as a romantic drama; as a denunciation of capital punishment and the cruelty of confusing the letter of the law with justice; and as a brilliant delineation of the nature of love, courage and self-sacrifice. Eduardo Serra's photography of the wintry landscape of Saint-Pierre (actually Nova Scotia) is marvelous, and the acting deserves the highest praise. By now, of course, everyone knows how exquisite Juliette Binoche is, and she is as good as ever here. But the thespian honors in this movie go to Daniel Auteuil, an actor of masterful subtlety and power, who makes Gerard Depardieu look like a double order of "jambon a' l'os."
Rating:
Summary: Tragic, multilayered, and sweepingly romantic.
Review: "The Widow of Saint-Pierre" is one of those brooding, romantic costume dramas that only the French seem to do well these days. Far from being escapist fare, it is a dark, often profound meditation on the human condition and the vagaries of the human heart. In 1849, on the remote French island of Saint-Pierre off the coast of Newfoundland, an illiterate fisherman commits a drunken, senseless murder and is sentenced to the guillotine. But since the island has no guillotine, the governor must send for one--a process that will take years. Meanwhile, the fisherman is imprisoned in the island fortress; the wife of the garrison commander takes pity on the condemned man, and sets out to rehabilitate him, with the help (at first reluctant, later wholehearted) of her loving husband. Soon the captain and his wife are defying the governor in their attempts to help the condemned man--with tragic consequences. "The Widow of Saint-Pierre" works on several levels: as a romantic drama; as a denunciation of capital punishment and the cruelty of confusing the letter of the law with justice; and as a brilliant delineation of the nature of love, courage and self-sacrifice. Eduardo Serra's photography of the wintry landscape of Saint-Pierre (actually Nova Scotia) is marvelous, and the acting deserves the highest praise. By now, of course, everyone knows how exquisite Juliette Binoche is, and she is as good as ever here. But the thespian honors in this movie go to Daniel Auteuil, an actor of masterful subtlety and power, who makes Gerard Depardieu look like a double order of "jambon a' l'os."
Rating:
Summary: A must see film!
Review: Are you tired of sitting through torturous hours of poor plots, bland cinematography, and distasteful acting? Watch "The Widow of Saint-Pierre" and have your heart and mind captured by the awe-inspiring cast. Once again Juliette Binoche delivers a stunning performance. Not suprising, Daniel Auteuil uses his amazing power of subtley to create a character of true quality. Overall, you won't go wrong with an investment in "The Widow of Saint-Pierre!"
Rating: 
Summary: Boring & pretentious
Review: Auteuil & Binoche are so "liberal" & "liberated" in this movie they should be driving around in Volvos! The costumes are beautiful & the location is great, but the plot & characterisations are embarrassingly contrived to meet a contemporary politically correct agenda. Certainly a far far cry from Kusturica's own masterpiece Underground. To be avoided unless you're a terminal insomniac.
Rating:
Summary: The Many Widows of St-Pierre
Review: Early on, a comment is made that there are many widows in the neighborhood. It is an oddly pertinent observation.
Too many reviewers have written about pre-revolutionary France, Canada, and how the story must be totally unrelated to reality - wrong on all counts, also English spelling, recognition of famous actors on-screen, and basic comprehension of literature and art.
The story is quite realistic and perhaps historical, and, the behavior of Neel - where else would he go in an island of snow, or isolation? If sobriety does his character such good, perhaps he is truly remorseful, and grateful for the undeserved years given him. It was a given that Mme. La wasn't just another Republican, as it were, with vulgar bourgeois mores and tastes, and shallow tri-colore-wearing patriotism. In showing Neel humanity, his humanity was developed, not without a bit of recidivism when provoked, but he was reformed enough for it to be obvious to the rest of the islanders. Part of the tension is between the reformation of Neel, and the typical bureaucrats [invented in France for export to the White House] failing to take any initiative or possessing imagination at all.
The actual guillotine is in a museum on the island, and the islands are still part of the French Republic, not at all Canadian - the only place in the region using Euros. I guess you'd need to go to the Falklands, if you were to find another in this hemisphere! The French had been completely revolted, and Napoleon had begun strutting his stuff long before the century of the film. The French had even beaten us to ending slavery by this time!
Considering the facts' placement in history, surely the story could have unfolded much as the movie portrays.
Rating:
Summary: About crime and punishment
Review: Great movie This film beautifully display a great part of Canadian history. This historical movie depicts the rough life of French colonist who are giving the a very tough job of executing a man. In a larger sense, the compelling movie questions crime and punishment. How does a man change simply because he is caught and found guilty of a crime? How can crime be committed by good people? What is the value of restitution to the community or to the victims compared with the value of killing the guilty?
Does a community need the blood to appease and to violenty release it bloodthirsty nature by sacrifice. A sacrifice of the scapegoat, the guilty, to in reality pay for the crimes of society? A society answers these questions and accepts joint guilty of killing a guilty man when the benefit of restitution is oblivious.
Great acting by Auteuil, the sacrificing brave captain, who also becomes an ironic scapegoat of his wife passion for true justice. She, 'his future widow', is unable to make sense of punishment for punishment sake.
Action in the movie is little slow but the movie has enough great scenery, history and suspense to carry one to the end.
Rating:
Summary: About crime and punishment
Review: Great movie This film beautifully display a great part of Canadian history. This historical movie depicts the rough life of French colonist who are giving the a very tough job of executing a man. In a larger sense, the compelling movie questions crime and punishment. How does a man change simply because he is caught and found guilty of a crime? How can crime be committed by good people? What is the value of restitution to the community or to the victims compared with the value of killing the guilty?
Does a community need the blood to appease and to violenty release it bloodthirsty nature by sacrifice. A sacrifice of the scapegoat, the guilty, to in reality pay for the crimes of society? A society answers these questions and accepts joint guilty of killing a guilty man when the benefit of restitution is oblivious.
Great acting by Auteuil, the sacrificing brave captain, who also becomes an ironic scapegoat of his wife passion for true justice. She, 'his future widow', is unable to make sense of punishment for punishment sake.
Action in the movie is little slow but the movie has enough great scenery, history and suspense to carry one to the end.
Rating:
Summary: Perfect love makes perfection in all.
Review: I find it odd that when reviewing the reviews of this film that people seem to either give it perfect or abysmal scores. The dichotomy of opinion is probably a direct result of the skill and immense power of Leconte's images, (especially those that his chosen actress affords us).
Leconte is a master and quite possibly the greatest living auteur currently making films. His movies often contain a refreshing difficulty that gives one hope that images still mean something, that film is still worthy of being explicated, that someone still cares enough to think that much without being overly clever such as the Coens and Anderson. I shouldn't say still. I should say is and will be, as Leconte is on a different level than any who has ever worked including Kieslowski (the master of images). I enjoy how Leconte has said that although it was his second period piece he approached the film as if that had nothing to do with it, learning from "Ridicule". I should point that out I have no problem with "Ridicule" and the fact that it is a period piece has a great deal to do with the presentation, but I can see what he meant. Like I said, I enjoy the statement, but I should also point out I'm a jerk.
Binoche and Auteuil are two of my favorite actors and this film shows them at their virtuosic best. They deliver amazing performances of a truly passionate couple who both hold unconditional love for the other which in itself contains ultimate trust of decision and character. Possibly more Auteuil's for Binoche's but the sympathy generated by his character fuels her as an equally sharing partner, making any difference negligible. There is a third character, Neel, but he is there only to accentuate the relationship between the other two.
The movie, quite simply is about unconditional love and what it means to love unconditionally. There is a subplot of equal merits (mainly concerning Neel) about the belief in redemption, and what it truly means to believe in redemption. In short it is about the consequences of action through belief, more so out of the love for another than those of moral ground or stance. Some people are not willing to accept the belief that actions can or should occur solely out of sympathy for another. Some people will never allow themselves to love unconditionally. Some people will not understand or even like this film.
Binoche deserves a prize that doesn't yet exist for her most exquisite performance. Leconte deserves recognition for what he has done and what he has given us with this film, certainly one of the best I have ever seen.
Rating:
Summary: Portrait of the Romantic Attitude
Review: I think this ranks as one of the all-time great studies of romanticism. I would place it alongside Truffaut's Story of Adele H. & Scolas Passione D'Amore as yet another masterfull study of the romantic attitude. The setting of this drama is the remote island of Saint-Pierre which is under French rule and the time is in the months before the French Revolution. In short this film is about the dawning of romanticism. In the first scenes of the film a murder is committed by two drunken sailors. The men are hauled off to the islands prison/garrison to await execution--en route one dies when the wagon transporting the two convicts is pelted by rocks by the islands inhabitants and the horses bolt causing the wagon to topple. The other convict must await the arrival of a guillotene from a nearby island to meet his final moment. It is then we meet the man in charge of the prison/garrison in the person of a wayward Captain played by Daniel Auteil and his equally wayward wife played by Juliette Binoche and the film truly begins. The prisoner proves to be the perfect conduit through which these two can express their own brand of rebellion. The first to act out of accord with accepted norms is the wife. She can not stand to see the man locked away as he awaits his execution day so she being the wife of the man in charge gets her way when she asks that he be allowed to assist her in her garden. Having accomplished this she begins to openly parade the convict around in plain view of all. This is both an act of pity but also an assertion of her own sense of right for she believes the man though he did a terrible thing to be inherently good and she is vehemently against his being executed. Parading him around in public the villagers get to know him as well and public sentiment is swayed. Eventually no one on the island wants the man to be executed. That is no one but the petty officials who overlook such matters with an ear to current happenings in France herself. The petty officials want to use the prisoner for their own ends. His execution will prove that law and order still prevails in the island provinces if not in France herself. It is these petty officials that the Captain disdains most of all. The Captain arrogantly confronts one after another of them and openly mocks and challenges them. His is a wayward temperament which finds it comes most alive when the enemy is nearest. And for him the enemy is the states beauracracy. He seems to be a man in search of a fight and for him the prisoners fate becomes his personal cause. The stories and fates of the convict, the captains wife and the captain are thus intermingled and the resolution of this three way story is a profound one. Each of the three adhering to their own ideals to the end. Patrice Leconte tells achingly beautiful and original stories(Monsieur Hire, Hairdressers Husband). They are all quite different from anything you've seen and different from each other. A director to become familiar with if you haven't already.
Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful Beast
Review: It's been suggested that this film be watched on a stormy night. Well, tonight's a stormy night, so I decided to watch this movie. While "Widow" isn't quite that entertaining, it is very intriguing. The scenery is completely captivating and provides the perfect backdrop for Leconte's tale. I enjoyed immensely watching the leads, Binoche and Auteil. For me, their passionate relationship kept this movie energized. And the suspense of Neel's fate kept me guessing. Near the end of this movie, I, like the townsfolk, starting rooting for Neel to be spared. How appropriate then, that a heavy rainfall started crashing down when the movie reached its conclusion. Somebody up there understands this movie all too well and I believe I do to. Note: I watched a dubbed English version and though its easier on the eyes it loses some translation with voice-overs. You cannot hear the expressiveness or tone of the "Real" actors' voices hence their acting is purely visual and somewhat odd. I would have preferred to hear Binoche & Auteil's real voices and read sub-titles, at least theirs and the entire cast's acting in the movie would have been more "fluent".
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