saucyjack1968 This film is beyond beautiful and beyond heartbreaking. After 19 years, it still tears the heart right out of me. I first saw "Camille Claudel" while it was on it's Oscar campaign in 1990 for "Best Foreign Film" and "Best Actress - Isabelle Adjani". I hadn't really begun to appreciate foreign film yet so I had no idea what to expect. What I saw was an angel beyond description giving one of the greatest acting performances I had EVER seen, still to this day. This film is heart-wrenching in it's beauty and romantic tragedy. In fact it makes art of it. I went back to the theater to watch it six times, I even dragged friends along. Yes the film was brilliant, but what I went back to see was perhaps the most beautiful woman I've ever seen on the big screen. Isabelle Adjani's beauty in this film is breath-taking and her performance is one of the most intense and deeply moving in history. I have this film on VHS and DVD. I still love to watch it.

Idioteck-1 Can we get a round of "Bravos" for Isabelle Adjani's tour De force performance as sculptress Camille Claudel? This is a richly deserved nomination for a foreign-language actress. The many layers she presents are stunning... Claudel was a very young woman when August Rodin (Gerard Depardieu, also great)took her under his wing. Stubborn and possessed of a magnificent gift for artistic vision, Claudel was not what most at the time considered a serious artist. Rodin even used her to do his work, taking all of the credit. They fell into a deep, passionate love affair, which ultimately would be Claudel's undoing. If anyone does French, period-film obsessive love the best, it's Adjani! (Check out the Story Of Adele H., if you don't believe me!). She ages from eager young visionary to jaded, drunk old hag. Dissolving into paranoia, some quite valid and some just plain crazy, Camille has some of her greatest scenes toward the end of the film, especially when she tells a gallery owner that she is afraid to leave the house because she's afraid she will be "robbed". It's haunting, brilliant acting. Showing the viewer how hard it must have been to be a female artist during this time, the actress shines.She was the Courtney Love of the turn of the century painters set, and Adjani does her justice completely. The detail of the period, the costumes and the sets, help move this visually appealing tale along swiftly. I was really caught up in the recreation, it was stunning. The studios of artists, the country homes of the wealthy, it was all just wonderful to look at.

snoozer1 What is it about French *EPICS* that makes them so dreary? 'Camille Claudel' suffers from the same intrinsic problems as its predecessors ('Entre Nous' comes to mind). Too much style ... not enough substance. Make no mistake folks ... this is a very lavish (read expensive) production. Perhaps that is the problem. Too much time and money spent on production design and cinematography and not enough time on script development. This is supposed to be a character driven piece yet somehow the 'story' just gets lost in all that grandeur. It's only during the last 3rd of the film do we we actually get to see any sort of 'performance' from Isabelle Adjani. For the rest, both her and Depardieu are minnows lost at sea in a maze of bloated film sets awash with moody lighting.Yes .. the cinematography IS breathtaking so kudos to Pierre Lhomme. I beg to differ with other reviewers about the musical score tho. It's one of the worst i have endured in recent times. More often than not it seems to be totally out of place (and out of context) to the scene we are witnessing ... almost as if it had been scored without actually *seeing* the film.I cant help but feel how this story would have been handled by a director with some understanding of the nature of art, but more importantly ... the ARTIST. Those having seen Jacques Rivette's 'La Belle Noiseuse' will understand. And for those interested in Depardieu driven historical pieces, seek out (the hard to find) Le Colonel Chabert. He's performance in that film is exquisite.This is an overly melodramatic film and a sad waste of money. They could have made 3 films for what this one must have cost. Not recommended.

George Parker "Camille Claudel" is an earnest biopic which tells of her rise to prominence in Paris as a student (and mistress) of renown sculptor Auguste Rodin, their love/hate relationship, her struggle for independent recognition as an artist, and her eventual descent into madness. A subtitled French film, "Camille Claudel" deserves high marks on all counts with sterling performances by all and all the trappings of late 19th century life in Paris. If the film has a flaw, it is the almost 2.5 hours is spends on the historically obscure, esoteric, and decidedly unpleasant subject which is likely to wear on, if not wear out, the casual filmgoer interested in entertainment. Not for the many, "Camille Claudel" will play best for patrons or students of French art, art history, sculpting, etc.; for those with an interest in Rodin and/or Claudel; and, of course, fans of the principals. (B)