Seraphine (2008) Trailer and Quotes (from English Subtitles)
Here is the trailer for the 2008 award-winning film, Séraphine, starring Yolande Moreau in the title role. The film tells the story of the poor cleaning woman whose art was discovered by German art critic, Wilhelm Uhde (played by Ulrich Tukur) while he was staying in the town of Senlis. The movie is in French. We’ve collected some quotes from the English subtitles, up to the part where Uhde has to leave France because of World War I.
Duval: Who’s he?
Séraphine: Madame Duphot’s new tenant.
Duval: What is he, a Boche?
Séraphine: Don’t know. Give me some white.
Duval: I’m not a bank, you know.
Landlady: You owe me two months rent, Séraphine. Don’t you think that’s enough? Just you wait.
Séraphine: You know, m’sieur, when I feel sad, I go for a walk in the countryside and I touch the trees. I talk to the birds, the flowers and the insects, and it passes. I swear, it passes.
Wilhelm Uhde: What’s that?
Séraphine: Drink.
Uhde: Later. I’m busy.
Séraphine: No, now.
Uhde: (drinks some). It’s strong.
Séraphine: I made it myself. It’s my energy wine.
Uhde: I’ll finish it later. But I’d still like some tea.
Mother Superior: I’m glad to see you doing so well. Are you lacking for anything?
Séraphine: Time, mother. Cleaning takes up all my time.
Mother Superior: And, in there? (touching Séraphine’s head). Is everything better? Are you sure?
Mme Duphot: Shall I tell you what I think, Séraphine? You’re wasting your time. These apples are anything but apples. Aren’t they, Anatole? Anything but apples.
Anatole: You think so? Not me?
Mme Duphot: What do you mean, not you? These apples… (to Séraphine) they are supposed to be apples?
Séraphine: Yes, madame.
Mme Duphot: They could just as easily be plums or peaches.
Anatole: They look like apples to me.
Mme Duphot: (to Séraphine) Go back to your cleaning. You have better things to do.
Uhde: (picking up Séraphine’s apples painting) Who painted this?
Mme ??? That? I forget. Help us do justice to my baked alaska. It won’t stay alight forever.
Uhde: Tell me who painted this?
Mme Duphot: Séraphine
Uhde: What do you mean?
Mme Duphot: Your… I mean… our cleaner. She worked at the convent. One day her guardian angel commanded her to become a painter. My son insisted I hold on to it.
Uhde: I’ll buy it from you.
Séraphine: It’s very kind of monsieur to say that his friends said kind things about my work.
Uhde: You can’t spend your life cleaning when you have gold in your hands
Séraphine: “Be ardent in your work and you will find God in your cooking pots,” said St. Teresa of Avila
Uhde: I’m not very religious you know.
Séraphine: But the Blessed Virgin. Monsieur believes in the Blessed Virgin at least?
Uhde: It depends on how I’m feeling… but I believe in the soul. Definitely. I believe we humans have a soul. It’s what makes us so sad compared to the animals. Animals are never sad, are they?
Séraphine: They are. Animals are sad. If you take her calf from a cow, she cries.
Uhde: It’s an intriguing texture. This red, for example. What is it?
Séraphine: It’s secret. I have my little secrets. I keep them to myself or else they wouldn’t be secrets.
Séraphine: I don’t want your money. I can’t be bought. I won’t be taken in by promises. Save that for Anne-Marie.
Uhde: What does Anne-Marie have to do with it?
Séraphine: She can’t wait to get her clutches into you.
Uhde: You’re not making sense.
Séraphine: I have eyes to see and ears to hear.
Uhde: You really think Anne-Marie….
Séraphine: Monsieur thinks someone of my rank isn’t able to understand things as well as him.
Uhde: Not at all, Séraphine. Not at all.
Séraphine: Lies.
Uhde: Don’t talk to me like that.
Séraphine: You think you’re better than me because I wash your linen, your dirty shirts and underwear and mop the floor you walk on in your fine shoes.
Uhde: Let me explain. If I hurt you, it was unintentional. If my compatriots find me here, I’ll be considered a deserter and shot on the spot. I don’t think I’m superior to you. Not at all. (Laughing). Anne-Marie! Anne-Marie, Séraphine, is my sister!
Séraphine: Your sister?
Uhde: Yes, my little sister. Anne-Marie Uhde. I will never marry a woman, Séraphine. Never.
(Someone throws a rock and breaks the window): Go home, filthy Boche.
Youtube also has many videos featuring Séraphine’s art.
@Cece, I just finished watching Seraphine. Thank you for that. I enjoyed it very much and watched it to the end :):)
On her wikipedia page it says Uhde told people she died in 1934. I will have to read more on the story. I really wonder why he did that.
How about that scene when Uhde and Anne-Marie tried to explain the Depression to Seraphine? LOL.
I’m glad you watched Séraphine to the end, lol! Yeah, the Depression lecture — that was heartrendingly funny.
As to why Wilhelm Uhde stated in his writings that she died in 1934, it’s a mystery; nobody seems to know. I read Séraphine: La vie rêvée de Séraphine de Senlis, not a clue in the book either. People speculate that he felt she died when she quit painting after been committed. But that happened in 1932, not 1934. Anyway, qui sait? Camille Claudel suffered the same fate and died a year after Séraphine. So very sad.
In 2005 they planted a tree in her honor in a cemetery in Clermont de l’Oise, with a plaque that reads: “Ici repose Séraphine Louis Maillard sans rivale, en attendant la résurrection bienheureuse.”
Yes, very sad. Couldn’t help but wonder if her story may have been different if not for WW1 and the Depression, Malchance.
I saw that Camille Claudel movie with Isabelle Adjani a long time ago. I should go look for that “One Deadly Summer” Adjani film. I remember I taped it and the end was cut off and I still have not seen it.
In my opinion, I think regardless of the wars and the Depression, she was doomed from the beginning due to mental illness. Despite the depression (which she did not understand), people tried to feed her but she wouldn’t eat their food for fear of being poisoned. Paranoia was already creeping in — an eventual meltdown and confinement was unavoidable.
I’ve never seen “One Deadly Summer”.
yes, you are no doubt right about Seraphine. The shabby treatment she got for most of her life coupled with her religious superstitions must have been a big part of how she reacted to being “discovered.”
Hey, they have One Deadly Summer / “L’Eté Meurtrier” on youtube. I’m finally going to get to see the ending!