Crappy film

An action-packed slog

Absolutely Fantastic

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

***SPOILERS***Very loosely based on the Greek myth of Tiresias, Tiresia is a non-op transgender woman and prostitute. The plot is really harrowing. Tiresia is forced into prostitution by her own brother, kidnapped by an "admirer" who is apparently a rose-loving priest, tied up, isolated, blinded by her captor having her eyes punctured with a sharp instrument, dumped and left for dead, nursed back to health (albeit permanently blind) by a young woman who eventually turns out to be an opportunist, and finally killed by the apparently-selfsame priest. Through all of this vile treatment, she tries to make the best of things. In return for her inhumane treatment, the gods grant her a gift. I don't feel this movie had much to say. It just seems to be a catalog of atrocities visited on a human being. There are some inaccuracies concerning the transgender experience - or at least she is not typical of transgender women - in that I don't believe even a blinded transgender woman would wish to have her hair cut or wish to discontinue hormones and live as male or even androgyne. It is not clear that transgender Tiresia is in fact transsexual per se, but she is constantly referred to as transsexual. (She is not a transvestite though, since she takes hormones.) The movie is haunting, and it does not demean transgender people and Tiresia will be a sympathetic character to many, if only because she is a victim who, mostly, refuses to let this define her, a person who tries to adapt.

This is one of the most incompetently directed movies I have ever struggled through. The subject material is worthwhile, and it could and should have been a good movie.Unfortunately, again and again, scenes that have little point, for example Anna simply walking up a street, are filmed at some length, while important points in the plot , which ought to have been given some space, appear to have finished up on the cutting-room floor, so that the continuity is a shambles.The street-walking scenes in the Bois de Boulogne near the beginning go on and on, as do the early scenes of Tiresia's captivity, and are so tedious that the first time I tried to watch the film I gave up out of sheer boredom. When the film was re-screened on TV I managed to watch it all the way through, but only by fast-forwarding through the scenes where absolutely nothing was happening, or where the same information was given over and over, such as Tiresia's explanations about her/his precognition.The two roles (or it is one?) played by the male lead appear to have many viewers confused. Some commentators wonder why he played two roles, whereas others, like myself, took it that the abductor and priest were the same person. I did wonder why Tiresia failed to recognise him (and vice versa?) but I accepted that as just one more clumsy error in a pretentiously bad script.Given a better script, a competent director and a professional editor, this could have been a film worth watching.

I'll never forget this movie I've seen with my boyfriend by chance, one night, on cable TV. Beginning with the highest symphony ever made (Beethoven's 7th), a burning volcano, then the cold and frightening voice of Lucas (one of the best french actors)...you just have to let yourself go in this symphonic movie, in between calm and tough unexpected moments of violence. So you stay nervous till the end, and even if you know a part of the key of the mystery before its end, it doesn't matter, as the actors keep you under their control. I wont tell more about this piece of pure art, to keep its secret. Just watch it, no matter where and how !

Why did this film keep me up until 6 AM this morning?? Why is this film still playing over in my head? The plot(based on a Greek mythological tale) in itself is conceptually humanistic, and decidedly modern in its themes. The plot plays out in a modest tempo, allowing the viewer to soak it all in. The film has a multitude of richness. Something shines, something shocks, something frightens, something speaks, something is seen. One of the most interesting works of cinema I have seen in a number of years, Tiresia is a challenging, disturbing yet rewarding watch. The visual language is compelling(some scenes are staged to look like an oil painting painted by Velasquez taking a surrealistic turn, others look like sketches from a Dali nightmare) but the real heart of the film beats out of the sublime performances. Brave actors who put their bodies and soul on display. Parts of the film leave you feeling voyeuristic, like watching something you know you shouldn't be but can't turn away from. Highly Recommended for those who prefer a steak of a film to a bucket of stale popcorn.