Product Details

• Actors: Judith GodrÃ..che, Marcel Bozonnet, Ivan Desny, Malcolm Conrath, ThérÃ..se Liotard
• Directors: Benoît Jacquot
• Format: Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled
• Language: French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: FIRST RUN FEATURES
• DVD Release Date: February 15, 2000
• Run Time: 78 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00003G4IJ
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #104,500 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "The Disenchanted" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

DISENCHANTED - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Parisian girl leaves adolescence behind, June 24, 2000

By 

Dennis Littrell (SoCal) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Disenchanted [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This is a charming little film made in the agreeable French tradition of Vadim, Techine, Kieslowski, et al, in which the film itself reflects the director's adoration for its pretty young star. In this case we have Director Benoît Jacquot adoring Judith Godrèche, who plays a poor but principled 17-year-old Parisian girl disenchanted with her life, in particular with the choices she has in males. Her boyfriend tells her she should sleep with somebody ugly. Just why isn't clear. He is referred to as "whatshisname." She meets an interesting man, Alphonse, played by Marchel Bozonnet, but he is too old for her and, at any rate, still enamored of another. And certainly she doesn't want her mother's lover, referred to as "Sugardad," who is in his sixties.

Godrèche herself is as natural and unself-conscience as a child. Dressed mostly in thin house dresses that cling lightly to her body, she displays the clear eyes, the clean jaw line and sculptured arms of youthful innocence. The camera adores her face and stays with her throughout. Clearly she is good and good to look at, but I would not say she is as enchanting as Krzysztof Kieslowski's Irène Jacob (La Double vie de Véronique (1991); Trois Couleurs: Rouge (1994)) nor as talented as Juliette Binoche in Andre Techine's Rendez-Vous (1985). And of course not nearly as sexy as Brigitte Bardot in Roger Vadim's And God Created Woman (1957).

But comparisons are odious. This is a good film in its own right. The treatment suggests a short story from a literary journal, original, with quiet, unexpected tableaux of daily life leaving one to ponder. The climax appears without one's knowing it until the film begins the closing credits and then one understands what happened. There is a dark symbolic element throughout suggesting the bondage to the material world that comes when a girl is no longer a child.

Vietnamese-French actor Hai Truhong Tu is excellent in a small part as Godrèche's Chinese friend.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars About A Child Who Was Never A Child, June 27, 2008

By 

SORE EYES - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Disenchanted (DVD)

17 year old Parisian, Beth, lives in poverty with her sick mother and little brother. When Beth's good looking boyfriend suggests she get some experience and sleep with someone ugly-the uglier the better-Beth comes to the realization that her life is probably going to be one of continual disenchantment. She seeks solace in a man who might be like her idealized Rimbaud-a heart broken writer living in a sparse apartment-to no avail. She dumps her indifferent boyfriend who has now become incensed that his sexual object has spurned him. At her mother's insistence,"I've done worse things for you", Beth sleeps with Sugardad, a 65 year old "doctor" and her mother's lover-for the money to leave her existence behind. As her mother prosaicilly puts it before Beth leaves the apartment to go to the doctor's house, "You're no longer a child". One doubts Beth ever was.

Typical of French films, the story arc here is not strong and the references are subtle, so know what you are getting. This is not a loud American film. As Beth enters Sugardads apartment, she goes into his examination room and adjusts the examination table to prone position to suggest the sexual encounter that is about to happen. And though everyone says Beth is no longer a child, we watch as Beth dances on the carpet while waiting for Sugardad to answer a call, placing her feet toe to heel as if balancing on a curb she's trying not to fall off of. Sugardad's examination room is covered in cobwebs, but his phone is ringing off the hook-an allusion to the fact that her mother is a morphine addict and Sugardad her dealer.

The acting here is wonderful and the story charming. I enjoyed this film, but it isn't uplifting. However, it is a lighter and more beautiful version of the completely gutting "Lilya 4-Ever".

3.0 out of 5 stars Girl On The Loose--Not Still A Child, Not Quite a Woman, February 11, 2011

By 

K. Harris "Film aficionado" (Albuquerque, NM) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Disenchanted (DVD)

The French film "La Désenchantée" provides a unique coming-of-age tale that, much like its central character, doesn't exactly know where it's going--or, more precisely, doesn't really get anywhere. And yet, strangely enough, I liked this slight film of sexual exploration. The lead is a seventeen year old girl blossoming into womanhood, but while she's viewed as an adult--she retains a childlike quality in her impulses and decision making capabilities. This is a classic example of a disaffected youth who believes she holds all the answers, but realizes that growing up may be more complicated than expected. The film starts with a terrific premise! In a fight with her abusive, but good looking, boyfriend--she is challenged to have relations with another man. She sets out to make good on the dare and picks up a local boy immediately. The remainder of the film plays as a "will she" or "won't she" tease not just with this conquest, but with a middle aged man who picks her up and with her mother's john.

Judith Godreche is both appealing and infuriating, and she is quite believable as a girl in turmoil. I was intrigued to see what she might learn from her experiences, if anything, but the film is really quite open ended. It may be a bit difficult, in the end, to root for her--but there are moments that really had me hoping. Ultimately, though, you suspect this is just the beginning of a cycle it might be impossible to escape. The film doesn't provide any long range answers--it finishes as arbitrarily as it begun. But this candid look at life in Paris has an unsettling quality that I appreciated even as I wasn't fully satisfied at its conclusion. KGHarris, 2/11.