Too many fans seem to be blown away

Let's be realistic.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

If there is one film I could call pretentious and indulgent it is "Dix-Sept Fois Cecile Cassard." The whole 1:45 running time of this film is one long, slow and episodic telling of the depression suffered by a woman after her husband dies presumably for her. There are scenes which very long-winded and even tense, but several lead to absolutely nowhere, like Cecile walking along then into the river, or her son fixing the toys in the play room. You absolutely do not understand what this woman Cecile is thinking of or why she is behaving so bizarrely. The music used is very good and some camera angles are quite imaginative, however the rest of the movie is just one pointless waste of time.

European cinema is often characterised by craftsmanship, care for detail, whether in the acting or the composition of each shot. This film is no exception - in fact is is exceptional in its portrait of grief, its communication with the more desperate and isolated feelings within each of us - something that is achieved with the dexterity of Dalle's performance and the care with which the film is put together. (Minor spoilers follow) Dix-sept fois Cécile Cassard draws us in from the very beginning. Dalle is in bed. In the doorway we see the dim figure of a male, pale, naked and full frontal. Gradually we become aware that his image is rather less than substantial - he is a ghost perceived by Cécile Cassard (Dalle) who is recently bereaved. Her husband has committed suicide so that there will be money from the insurance to look after her and their young child. She descends into a spiral of despair - reminding us of her character in Betty Blue. But this is no crazy woman. She is aware of her own loss and how deeply it is affecting her - even to the point where she knows she has become a liability to her son. After flirting with death herself, she slowly awakens to everyday life, to the beauty of spontaneous human warmth. The same music repeated in different stages of her emotional journey is at first jarring, then painfully harsh, then uplifting and resilient. Although it does not have the commercial appeal of Betty Blue, Dix-sept fois Cécile Cassard has an integrity that is at once more meaningful and poignant.

a portrait of a woman in 17 fragments, a woman who has just lost her husband, a woman who leaves behind her a life in the provincial city of Tours where every person, every object and every gesture holds memory of a love she cannot bear to have lost, a woman who proceeds forward, a bit blindly, as she essays to remove a great distance that has between her and her heart, which has become, in her mind, an unsafe place. beatrice dalle incarnates this woman, cecile cassard, giving a beautiful performance worthy of recompensation. perhaps even the cesar for best performance for this year. she doesn't merely act well, she inhabits this woman: dalle doesn't lie when she tells us, as she often does, that she lives a character while she is making a film.the director, christophe honore, not forgetting that it is he who illicits dalle's wonderful performance, demonstrates a masterful command of visual storytelling in remembering that, in film, pictures have a more important weight than words in advancing a narrative story-line. much is heard in the french press and on television that this is an experimental film, a film without a linear narrative. no, in fact, the film is a conventional narrative at heart for it follows a linear journey of a woman as she strives to refind herself. and it is a beautiful story, mixing pain and loss with laughter and love. i look forward to more films by him in the future. also of note is a good soundtrack by alex beaupain and les lily-margot and the beautiful cinematography by remy chevrin: they achieve a perfect symbiosis, such as in the opening sequence, the scenes at the abatoir-factory in Toulouse, and the dancing scene between dalle & romain duris, who plays the director's alter-ego of sorts, in the hotel where cecile first stays in Toulouse.

After the death of her husband, Cecile Cassard (Beatrice Dalle) seems unable to cope with her everyday life and fears to be harmful for her young son. She settles down in another town (Toulouse) while the little boy is raised by a woman friend of Cecile. The movie shows "moments" (17, hence the title) in her life. Scene after scene, as she goes along, she comes back to life.The movie is slow paced, too slow most of the time, and relies on moods created by colors, sets and anecdotes chosen by French director Christophe Honore. The overall atmosphere is rather dark with some touches of bright colors. Dialogue is poor.Beatrice Dalle, once a sex symbol (37.2 Degrees in the Morning - 1986), was disappointing in her acting and her look didn't help. She was boring to watch and she had a lot of screen time.Two wonderful scenes were worth seeing though: they were both infused with the talent of Romain Duris, who stole the show each time. The first one was the Merry Christmas scene, when Matthieu (Romain Duris) shows up at Cecile Cassard's new home and offers her to make three wishes; the second one was when he sang "Lola" at the picnic party. Cinematography was absolutely beautiful and Romain Duris so mesmerizing. (5/10).