Customer Reviews

The Convent

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

"O Convento" is a very strange movie, but is a enchanted movie also. Let-me try to explain this. If you don't like philosophy keep distance of this movie, but if you like some philosophical concepts from Nitzche, (specifically Zarathustra) you need to take this. It is not just another "just to fun movie", instead of this, is a movie that make you think about the evil and the goodness.
And, last but not least, you get a movie with Catherine Deneuve and John Malkovich but pay attention in a very impressive performance of Luis Miguel and the beauty Leonor Silveira that compose Piedade with delicate. Luiz Miguel and Leonor Silveira outperform Malkovich and Deneuve.

The only major problem: The sound isn't very good and some takes aren't good illuminated.

A memorable film, very odd, and more than a little creepy. Interestingly set at an medieval monastery in Portugal, this little fable of good and evil has an opaque plot and relatively slow pace that some will find frustrating.

The monastery has descended into devil-worship, and its leader has strayed from proper reverence for Lucifer. (SPOILER ALERT: THE NEXT SENTENCE EXPLAINS THE UNDERLYING PLOT OF THE FILM.) Catherine Deneuve's character arrives on the scene, and takes care of the problem; she is Satan disciplining a follower. The interest in the film, other than the setting, very atmospheric music, and good acting, is the unexpected way the dark angel appears as an apparently unthreatening woman, and punishes her wayward disciple.

First of all, I have no idea why this movie is called The Convent. It takes place in a monastery.

This is one of the most sincerely bizarre films I have ever seen. Moodily photographed at an (real) abandoned monastery on the Portuguese coast, this chamber drama of six characters (three couples) is a throwback to the Faust and Eden stories, both at once, and seems, despite the literary and Biblical antecedents, completely fresh and unexpected, peppered with offbeat humor and framed with a sometimes mournful, sometimes terrifying musical score by the Russian composer by Sofia Gubaidulina. (If you fall in love with the music, as I did, the pieces are called "Officitorum" and "The Seven Last Words of Christ" and both are available on CD in excellent recordings. "Officitorum is a LONG, wildly expressionist violin piece which ends in the more formal and haunting part showcased in the movie.) The international cast speaks English, French and Portuguese indifferently.

To people with a little patience, a sense of playfulness and an eye for the strange and beautiful, this film is a real Halloween treat. After having watched the movie, you don't remember it so much as a movie. You remember it more as a dream. Days later you'll ask yourself: Did I see what I thought I saw, or am I imagining it?

Frankly, I'm thrilled The Convent gotten this new inexpensive DVD release.

If you are looking for action, well explained plot and millions spent on computer effects - keep looking. This film is not for you, as it follows from previous reviews, you'll be very disappointed.

But if you wander around seeking a real pleasure for eye and mind - you've found it. It is very quiet, chamber, and definitely not straightforward. It is rather a sequence of brilliant etudes of light and color played by wonderful actors. Art of cinema at it's best.

This review is more of a reaction to the negative reviews. The music was actually really good and effective. Especially the scene where Baltar and Malkovich's character are looking out over the landscape. It was very refreshing to finally hear some music in a movie with real originality, complexity, and heart.

A memorable film, very odd, and more than a little creepy. Interestingly set at an medieval monastery in Portugal, this little fable of good and evil has an opaque plot and relatively slow pace that some will find frustrating.

The monastery has descended into devil-worship, and its leader has strayed from proper reverence for Lucifer. (SPOILER ALERT: THE NEXT SENTENCE EXPLAINS THE UNDERLYING PLOT OF THE FILM.) Catherine Deneuve's character arrives on the scene, and takes care of the problem; she is Satan disciplining a follower. The interest in the film, other than the setting, very atmospheric music, and good acting, is the unexpected way the dark angel appears as an apparently unthreatening woman, and punishes her wayward disciple.

DO NOT SEE THIS FILM IF YOU DO NOT ENJOY THE SADO-MACHIAVELLI-MASORETIC
VERSION OF THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERNOVILLE. DO NOT SEE THIS FILM IF YOU HATE
VAUGUE LITERARY, PHILOSOPHIC, KLEE COLORS AND ALLUSIONS THAT LEAD TO NOWHERE. DO NOT SEE THIS FILM IF YOU DO NOT ENJOY WATCHING ACTORS WHO WALK AND SIT VERY INACTIVELY IN SILENCE. DO NOT SEE THIS FILM IF YOU HATE DIALOGUE THAT LEADS NOWHERE AND SPUTTERS OFF INTO THE NEBULOUS FOG AND
HAZE OF THE ETERNAL ABYSS. DO NOT SEE THIS FILM IF YOU INTERMITTANT CAMEO APPEARANCES OF WOODY ALLEN BEHIND A WEEPING FERN ANNOY YOU. DO NOT SEE
THIS FILM IF YOU HATE LATE 20TH CENTURY CLASSICAL MUSIC AS A SOUND SCORE. DO NOT SEE THIS FILM IF YOU DREAD NOT SEEING OR SEEING INTUITIVE REASURANCES THAT REALITY AND A FRIENDLY TV COMMERCIAL IS JUST MOMENTS
AWAY TO RESCUE YOU FROM ETERNAL DAMNATION. PLEASE HANG IT ALL FOR HEAVENS SAKE
DO NOT SEE THIS FILM!

Of course this movie will appeal to those certain ethereal space-cadets that sit around drinking brandy and pondering the existential mind of the rat. You know something's afoot, when you enter a Convent with an upside-down Pentagram on the wall and the Munsters Uncle Fester (Baltazar) and Rosie O'Donnell (Berta) greet you. Even creepier is the super-freaky Baltar who immediately has a "woody" for Deneuve, and doesn't hide that fact that he's gone Ga-Ga over her; probably from the lack of women around the joint.

There are these comical musical moments as Malkovich (Professor Michael Padovic) and Deneuve (Helen) approach the caves (chapels). I mean, really something out of Scooby-Doo. A particularly funny scene is when Baltazar (the lackey) recoils away from a cave and says with his back to the visitors "This....is....the last....of the chapels" What the heck? The introduction of Piedade (chick) does not bode well for Malkovich. She looks like a very happy, smiling "serial-killer."

There's the door-slamming scene between Michael and Helen which is also funny. It'll remind you of a guy watching ESPN or playing and video game; completely ignoring his wife who's trying to get his attention. You guys out there know what I'm talkin' 'bout.

Strange, freaky movie that you'll enjoy with a bunch of guys getting drunk on non-alcoholic beer. Yes, we who don't understand such films are fools. But we don't walk around with our panties in a bind.

The only good thing about this movie is reading the other customers' reviews:
I was laughing out loud as they are spot on: This movie is hilariously dull and ridiculous....I remember actually PAYING to see this at a film festival, thinking that with Deneuve and Malkovich it had to be ... interesting at least. Turns out the most interesting thing about this movie is how and why it was ever made.....now, THERE'S a theme for a movie!
On the other hand, if you suffer from sleepness nights this will save you a doctor's prescription and a glass of pills, so it might come to use...
You have been warned.

This movie is: incredibly pretentious, boring, confusing, and just plain stupid. As Holden Caulfield said, "Don't go see it unless you want to throw up all over yourself." Yes, it is that bad.
I don't even know where to begin with the plot. From reading the back of the case in Blockbuster, it sounded interesting. An American professor and his beautiful French wife travel to a former convent in Portugal. They are there to investigate a theory that Shakespeare was actually Spanish.
So, it sounded interesting enough. Plus, it starred John Malkovitch and Catherine Deneuve, so I rented it. Big mistake. The whole Shakespeare-plot thread isn't ever really fleshed out, and most of the movie deals with the couple's marriage. This in itself is fine, it's just the WAY it deals with it; there are (seemingly) 10-minute-long shots of statues, hallways, etc. all set to a horrible, horrible, horrible score. There's scenes where the couple take turns stepping outside their rooms and slamming doors. And to cap it all off, the caretaker of the convent is actually... the devil?? Or so it would seem--we come to realize this by his psychotic, hyena-like laughter when he's hitting on Deneuve, and also by the fact that he stands in front of pentagrams.
Does this sound stupid? Well, take whatever you're imagining, and add bad lighting, and you've got "The Convent."