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Editorial Reviews
Review
"The Hedgehog is an enchanting grown-up fairy tale about the redemptive power of love" --The Philadelphia Enquirer
"The Hedgehog is about the discovery that change is always possible and that it's never too late to embrace love or life". --Michael Sullivan, The Washington Post
"A Sweetly Hopeful Experience" --Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times
"The Hedgehog is about the discovery that change is always possible and that it's never too late to embrace love or life". --Michael Sullivan, The Washington Post
"A Sweetly Hopeful Experience" --Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times
"The Hedgehog is about the discovery that change is always possible and that it's never too late to embrace love or life". --Michael Sullivan, The Washington Post
"A Sweetly Hopeful Experience" --Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times
"The Hedgehog is about the discovery that change is always possible and that it's never too late to embrace love or life". --Michael Sullivan, The Washington Post
"A Sweetly Hopeful Experience" --Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times
Product Description
Inspired by the beloved New York Times bestseller, The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barbery, The Hedgehog is the timely story of Paloma (Garance Le Guillermic) a young girl bent on ending it all on her upcoming twelfth birthday. Using her father's old camcorder to chronicle the hypocrisy she sees in adults, Paloma begins to learn about life from the grumpy building concierge, Ren‚e Michel (French Twist's Josiane Balasko). When Paloma's camera reveals the extensive secret library in Ren‚e's back room, and that the often gruff matron reads Tolstoy to her cat, Paloma begins to understand that there are allies to be found beneath the prickliest of exteriors. As the unlikely friendship deepens, Paloma's own coming of age becomes a much less pessimistic prospect.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
39 of 40 people found the following review helpful
By E. K. Bolin
Format:DVD
bluntreview (dot) com says: France is usually the place to find small amazing films. This is no exception. The Hedgehog tiptoes through a few lives. The lens and players quietly sharing moments that ultimately ad up to a film that leaves you feeling...literally feeling. And these days saying a film raised an emotion (other than excitement due to an energetic edit or hyper sound system) says a lot.
Story goes...Little Paloma (Garance Le Guillermic) is facing another birthday. She will be twelve. She has decided not to be twelve. She is planning to kill herself as she feels death is nothing. Paloma is a deeply introverted brooding - but charming - child.
She is also a rich child in a rich home. Her family is busy with their own dramas (imagined and real). They know Paloma is there, but not who she is.
With her father's old video camera Paloma begins to document what she has determined will be her last 165 days. A child of Nietzsche-esque tendencies Paloma is a suffering being who feels she is destined to grow into nothing. She shall be just another being stuck in the rut of life, as exposed as some insignificant little goldfish wallowing in a privacy-free bowl.
Above her own swanky apartment home's level a neighbor has died. In their place comes a gentle Japanese man (Togo Igawa).
Unlike the other residents, he is immediately intrigued with the building's janitor Renee (Josiane Balasko ). The two seemingly yin and yang souls dare to cross "classes." A reserved kinship is explored; friendship and "what ever they want it to be."
Young Paloma has also just recently noticed Renee. Not simply as subject matter for her film, or the building's frumpy janitor, but as a woman with a secret...
The young girl playing Paloma, Garance Le Guillermic, is like a French Dakota Fanning; talented and adorable. Hollywood is sure to "discover" her and treat her as they've done Keira Knightly. Hopefully, Garance will get through her assigned stylist's whims, the studio's gobbstopping-money-centric machine and find herself still interested in doing these kinds of thoughtful films.
Josiane Balasko, who plays the somewhat invisable Renee, is a veteran in foreign film. And her decades of experience shines like a creme brulee on a table of store-brand sugar cookies. That is not to say her costars are weak (not at all). Josiane is just the clear scene stealer - and she hardly speaks!
Igawa is an elegant gentleman you will recognize, though you may not recall from where. Head over to IMDB.com and see for yourself.
In every aspect, The Hedgehog is wonderful. The acting all around superb, the sets and location marvelous; I could have done without the fish murder...but still. Director Mona Achache has an exceptional eye for bringing out the loudest statements with the smallest of voices. Get to this film, order this film, see this film. It will remind you not every film is a generic studio-driven farce remarkable only in the egos before and behind the lens and bottom-line profits.
Snack recommendation: Ramen noodles and tea
Story goes...Little Paloma (Garance Le Guillermic) is facing another birthday. She will be twelve. She has decided not to be twelve. She is planning to kill herself as she feels death is nothing. Paloma is a deeply introverted brooding - but charming - child.
She is also a rich child in a rich home. Her family is busy with their own dramas (imagined and real). They know Paloma is there, but not who she is.
With her father's old video camera Paloma begins to document what she has determined will be her last 165 days. A child of Nietzsche-esque tendencies Paloma is a suffering being who feels she is destined to grow into nothing. She shall be just another being stuck in the rut of life, as exposed as some insignificant little goldfish wallowing in a privacy-free bowl.
Above her own swanky apartment home's level a neighbor has died. In their place comes a gentle Japanese man (Togo Igawa).
Unlike the other residents, he is immediately intrigued with the building's janitor Renee (Josiane Balasko ). The two seemingly yin and yang souls dare to cross "classes." A reserved kinship is explored; friendship and "what ever they want it to be."
Young Paloma has also just recently noticed Renee. Not simply as subject matter for her film, or the building's frumpy janitor, but as a woman with a secret...
The young girl playing Paloma, Garance Le Guillermic, is like a French Dakota Fanning; talented and adorable. Hollywood is sure to "discover" her and treat her as they've done Keira Knightly. Hopefully, Garance will get through her assigned stylist's whims, the studio's gobbstopping-money-centric machine and find herself still interested in doing these kinds of thoughtful films.
Josiane Balasko, who plays the somewhat invisable Renee, is a veteran in foreign film. And her decades of experience shines like a creme brulee on a table of store-brand sugar cookies. That is not to say her costars are weak (not at all). Josiane is just the clear scene stealer - and she hardly speaks!
Igawa is an elegant gentleman you will recognize, though you may not recall from where. Head over to IMDB.com and see for yourself.
In every aspect, The Hedgehog is wonderful. The acting all around superb, the sets and location marvelous; I could have done without the fish murder...but still. Director Mona Achache has an exceptional eye for bringing out the loudest statements with the smallest of voices. Get to this film, order this film, see this film. It will remind you not every film is a generic studio-driven farce remarkable only in the egos before and behind the lens and bottom-line profits.
Snack recommendation: Ramen noodles and tea
22 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
This very French, life-affirming film about the unlikely friendship between a precocious 11 year old determined to end her life on her 12th birthday and the gruff super or concierge of the Parisian building in which her family lives caught me by surprise. Based on Muriel Barbery's "The Elegance of the Hedgehog," this film gets everything just about right as the young girl discovers that life itself holds secrets if one risks connecting with another. Even if that person has a harsh, gruff exterior. This terrifically entertaining movie plays with darkness, light and grace.
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
By L. Calcano
Format:DVD
I read the book and today I watch the movie. Both are excellent, something rarely seen. It's a story about waking up to life, sprinkled with colorful and deep reflections. Highly recommend.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
See below
Wonderful movie! The book was chosen for our bookclub and I was told that the movie was a must see! Great acting and very good story.
Published 10 days ago by E. A. Bevilacqua
5.0 out of 5 stars
Spectacular
Great adaptation from the book. In fact, the movie deepens the narrative beyond the book. The acting was spectacular, especially from both Garance LeGuillermic (Paloma) and... Read more
Published 29 days ago by Allard E. Dembe
4.0 out of 5 stars
A fine movie - though the Japanese references could be too obscure
I mostly agree with R. Swanson's review, it was hard to like Paloma, and I wonder if some of the elements that people who've read the book complained are missing could have made it... Read more
Published 1 month ago by MH
5.0 out of 5 stars
Elegant
If you liked the book "The Elegance of the Hedgehog" you will love the movie "The Hedgehog". Read more
Published 1 month ago by Brian A. Lewis
5.0 out of 5 stars
Josiane Balasko Is Magnificent in the Title Role
I simply loved this movie, and the character of The Hedgehog/Concierege/Mme. Michel. What a tour de force that only the French could create. Read more
Published 2 months ago by The Hedgehog
1.0 out of 5 stars
oeuvre d'art mutilé
This wonderful film is horribly mutilated in the DVD version. My wife and I saw it in a theater and thought it delightful. Then we saw it again in this chopped-up version. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Paul Edward Wulterkens
4.0 out of 5 stars
A success...mostly
This film, based on the novel The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery, is delightful and captures the quirkiness of the characters very well. Read more
Published 3 months ago by S. Holman
5.0 out of 5 stars
I LOVED it.
Sublet yet profound. A great combination. The same day I watched this I watched, "A Single Man" with Colin Firth. Read more
Published 3 months ago by M. Veatch
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good film adaptation of the book influenced by the Japanese and...
This is an interesting adaption of "The Elegance of the Hedgehog", a fine novel by Muriel Barbery. The novel was a philosophical treatise on the meaning of life in the Parisian... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Igor Biryukov
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Art House Gem
Because The Hedgehog was a glimpse into only a few lives it easily became very personal because of the intense characters. Read more
Published 4 months ago by 5700feet
