That was an excellent one.

Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

This is probably the worst movie I have seen in a really long time, and if you're looking for a film with a protagonist who's motive is unclear this is the film for you. I literally have no clue why Anna did anything she did and I have no clue what this film was actually about. I almost felt like I'd sat down in the middle of the film, and I'd been watching from the beginning. There is no payoff in this movie either, when the credits rolled I was mostly just annoyed that I'd wasted an hour and a half of my life. It wasn't scary, the scenes were disjointed and seemed to be put together almost randomly. The editing looks like whoever did it barely tired. The acting was horrible and there was very obvious ADR work that was also done terribly. So, if you're looking for something for a crappy movie night, this is a great pick.

This is an artsy flick made in a typical French – that is, sluggish – style. If you are in for anything resembling a horror movie, or simply a structured and reasonable movie, you'll hate this crap from the depths of your soul. However, if you are interested in modern arts – that is, mental masturbation – you might be gripped by the beautiful cinematography, the suggestive music, the hazy symbolism and the plot's patent absurdity.After some effort at piecing the puzzle, you'll unveil the dull, repulsive humanist ideology conveyed by the director in the form of a condemnation of both Nazi human experimenting and French vilification of the bastard children fathered by German occupants after the second world war.

I just finished watching this and after reading some of the brutal reviews and message board comments, I felt that I really should write a 'brief' review.First off, when all was said and done I didn't really find the film ultimately that satisfying; but, I think I am objective enough to say that mainly it is due to my personal taste and NOT because it is a bad film. I really wish people would be a little more fair when writing about these movies and separate the fact that THEY did not like it with whether or not it indeed was a bad film.Overall I truly felt that the director worked his @$$ off in this film and put his heart and soul into it. Also, THIS WAS HIS VERY FIRST MOVIE! So, c'mon, compared to the mountain of drivel that passes for Horror these days, graded fairly and comparatively, it was very well made. Very nice cinematography and direction as far as planning out every move meticulously and blending the lighting, sound, stormy atmosphere, etc. He also elicited competent performances from his actors too. BUT... for me personally anyway, here is the clincher... The pacing was WAAAAAAAAY off and the buildup WAY to long and the truly effective bits and visuals WAY too spare and subtle. If he had tightened up the pacing just a little and (I KNOW this next bit is gonna sound REAL Hollywood) livened up the visual scares a little, and would have given us much more visceral Gothic imagery and / or more startling clues (I mean COME ON, just one vague file folder and just about NOTHING else!???) Basically I feel that to make the film FAR more effective he needed to add some SUBSTANTIAL elements to drive it a bit more. I DON'T mean shallow jump scares, etc. (although a few more would have helped a little) Just look at THE master of this kind of film, Guillermo Del Torro. Now, that guy is very subtle too, BUT, and it is a VERY BIG BUT like Mariah Carrey's, he knows how to pace a film and ratchet up TRUE suspense and eerie atmosphere. I honestly think this director here has some excellent insight and quality to his film making, BUT I think he dwelt WAY too much on the drama between the ladies instead of building a better story. It was so melodramatic at so many points I was really thinking that a woman had directed it (NOT meaning at all to be unkind to women directors, etc., but merely that women directors USUALLY tell stories from a much more emotional and dramatic perspective then men do) So, the bottom line is, IF you have the time to kill and you are very, Very, VERY patient, you will see some very good technical film making; but, don't expect TOO much of a punch from the story itself. BTW, I really liked the ending; now THAT is exactly the kind of thing he needed much more of! He just needed a bit more in the way of disturbing imagery, subtle but more evocative of the atmosphere a film like this should have.

Saint Ange is a slow paced and atmospheric French horror movie that has got quite a lot of negative critics. Even though the critics are not completely wrong and have some valuable facts, I think that the movie was at least acceptable if not somewhat intriguing which is justified by my rather positive rating.On the negative side you have the fact that there is not much horror in this movie. The opening sequence is great and the weird ending sequences are well done and one or two times you have a somewhat supernatural phenomenon that may surprise you. The rest of the movie focuses on the characters and the locations and even though this is necessary for the story, it gets a little bit boring from time to time. This movie would have needed more thrills and tensions.On the good side you have the solid acting of the three women that stay at the Saint Ange orphanage. The development of these characters is very important to understand the highlight of the movie which is the ending. I'm sure that many critics didn't like this movie because they thought that the ending was strange or surreal but these people didn't get the real sense of the movie as there is much more behind it than it seems but I don't want to reveal too much and suggest you to watch the movie and make up your own mind. In fact, the director said that the movie is rather open to interpretation and can be understood in many different ways. I think this is a strong point of the movie.This is the main reason why I suggest the readers of my contribution to ignore both very negative and very positive critics of this movie. They should not be influenced or have any expectations and watch this movie until the very end and do the effort to think about what they have just seen. It's not so twisted and complicated as it seems, Asian horror cinema for example is way more difficult to approach but also way better in my opinion. Those who expect a thrilling horror movie may be disappointed but those who like slow paced psychological crime or drama movies might actually like this.