Last weekend I saw Seraphine, a French film about a little-known early 20th centuryartist who worked as an on-her-knees housecleaner and scrounged chemicals to mix her own paints -- so her colors are unlike anyone else's and still vivid today.

Her paintings of repetitions of fruits or flowers are somehow mesmerizing, and I had read that the cinematography iswonderful. You really get a sense of thecountryside and small-town France. Since I lived it all those years ago, I was very interested.

On my way out of the Landmark La Jolla, I ran into a couple who asked what I thought of the movie. I said it was BEAUTIFUL and then started to tear up -- the ending really got to me! And so of course I had to research the history. Seraphine is played by an incandescent Yolande Moreau, 2009 winner of the French equivalent of the Oscar as Best Actress. The film itself was named Best Film.

Ah but Seraphine herself ... Born in 1864, the product of a convent, her art noticed for only a brief period. And then she was relegated to a French asylum, where she existed for years until she died at 78 in 1942.

Positively,
Carolan