''Children of the Century'' () is a 1999 French biographical drama film co-written and directed by

Diane Kurys Diane Kurys (; born 3 December 1948) is a French director, producer, filmmaker and actress. Several of her films as director are semi-autobiographical. Personal life Kurys was born in Lyon, Rhône, France, the younger of two daughters. She is a ...

. It is based on the tumultuous love affair between two French literary icons of the 19th century, novelist

George Sand Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin de Francueil (; 1 July 1804 – 8 June 1876), best known by her pen name George Sand (), was a French novelist, memoirist and journalist. Being more renowned than either Victor Hugo or Honoré de Balz ...

(

Juliette Binoche Juliette Binoche (; born 9 March 1964) is a French actress. She has appeared in more than 60 films, particularly in French and English, and has been the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Juliette Binoche, numerous accolades, ...

) and poet

Alfred de Musset Alfred Louis Charles de Musset-Pathay (; 11 December 1810 – 2 May 1857) was a French dramatist, poet, and novelist.His names are often reversed "Louis Charles Alfred de Musset": see "(Louis Charles) Alfred de Musset" (bio), Biography.com, 2007 ...

(

Benoît Magimel Benoît Magimel (; born 11 May 1974) is a French actor. He was 14 when he appeared in his first film, and has starred in a variety of roles in French cinema. At age 16, Magimel left school to pursue acting as a career. In 2001, he won the Best A ...

Plot summary

The story begins as

leaves her marital home and arrives in Paris with her two children. Meanwhile, the young poet and dandy

is busy making a name for himself both as a womaniser and a talented poet and critic. Sand and Musset first meet at a literary dinner and quickly recognise in each other a like-minded love of literature. At first their relationship remains platonic, but soon the pair embark on a tumultuous affair that will lead them to Venice and the creation of their finest works of literature.

Cast

Robin Renucci Robin Renucci (born 11 July 1956, in Le Creusot, Saône-et-Loire) is a French people, French film and television actor and film director. Acting filmography * ''Eaux profondes'' (1981) : ''Ralph'' * ''Les Misérables (1982 film), Les Misérabl ...

François Buloz François Buloz (20 September 1803 – 12 January 1877) was a French ''littérateur'', magazine editor, and theater administrator. He was born in Vulbens, Haute-Savoie, near Geneva, and died in Paris. Originally employed as a chemist, ...

Stefano Dionisi Stefano Dionisi (born 1 October 1966, in Rome) is an Italian actor. He has performed in more than sixty films since 1986. He is best known for portraying the 18th-century Italian castrato opera singer ''Farinelli Farinelli (; 24 January 17 ...

as Pietro Pagello *

Karin Viard Karin Viard (; born 24 January 1966) is a French actress. She made her film debut in '' Tatie Danielle'' in 1990. She has appeared in films such as ''Delicatessen'', '' L'Emploi du temps'', ''Adultère, mode d'emploi'' and ''La parenthèse encha ...

Marie Dorval Marie Dorval (6 January 1798, Lorient, Morbihan – 20 May 1849) was a French actress in the Romantic style. Early life and first marriage Marie Thomase Amélie Delauney was born on 6 January 1798 to Marie Bourdais, who was sixteen year ...

Denis Podalydès Denis Podalydès (; born 22 April 1963) is a French actor, scriptwriter, and theatre director of Greek descent. Podalydès has appeared in more than 140 films and television shows since 1989. He starred in '' The Officers' Ward'', which was ente ...

Charles-Augustin Sainte-Beuve Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve (; 23 December 1804 – 13 October 1869) was a French literary critic. Early life He was born in Boulogne, educated there, and studied medicine at the Collège Charlemagne in Paris (1824–27). In 1828, he ...

Isabelle Carré Isabelle Carré (born 28 May 1971) is a French actress. She has appeared in more than 70 films since 1989. She won a César Award for Best Actress for her role in '' Se souvenir des belles choses'' (2001), and has been nominated a further six ti ...

as Aimée d'Alton *

Patrick Chesnais Patrick Chesnais (born 18 March 1947) is a French actor, film director and screenwriter. Life and career Patrick Chesnais was born in La Garenne-Colombes, Hauts-de-Seine. He was educated at the '' Lycée Pierre Corneille'' in Rouen. In 1989 ...

Gustave Planche Jean Baptiste Gustave Planche (16 February 1808 – 18 September 1857) was a French art and literary critic. Life and career Already in his time as a medical student, Planche frequented artistic circles. This did nothing to promote the success of ...

* Olivier Foubert as

Paul de Musset Paul Edme de Musset (7 November 1804 – 17 May 1880) was a French writer. He was born in Paris, the elder brother of Alfred de Musset. Paul de Musset's career centred largely on the life and achievements of his more famous brother. In 185 ...

Marie-France Mignal Marie-France Mignal (born 3 April 1940), is a French actress. She is the co-director of the Théâtre Saint-Georges, with France Delahalle. She is known for her work in television, cinema ('' Weekend at Dunkirk'', '' The Two Orphans''), and in ...

as Madame de Musset *

Ludivine Sagnier Ludivine Sagnier (born 3 July 1979) is a French actress, known to international audiences for the films ''Swimming Pool'' and ''Peter Pan'' (both 2003), and the Netflix series ''Lupin'' (2021–present). She has also appeared in the English-langua ...

as Hermine de Musset * Robert Plagnol as

Jules Sandeau Léonard Sylvain Julien (Jules) Sandeau (; 19 February 1811 – 24 April 1883) was a French novelist. Early life Sandeau was born at Aubusson (Creuse), and was sent to Paris to study law, but spent much of his time in unruly behaviour with oth ...

Michel Robin Michel Robin (13 November 1930 – 18 November 2020) was a French film, stage, and television actor. A sociétaire of the Comédie-Française since 1996, he also appeared in 120 films from 1966 to 2018. He won several awards for his acting, ...

as Larive * Mathias Mégard as

Eugène Delacroix Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix ( ; ; 26 April 1798 – 13 August 1863) was a French people, French Romanticism, Romantic artist who was regarded as the leader of the French Romantic school.Noon, Patrick, et al., ''Crossing the Channel: ...

Arnaud Giovaninetti Arnaud Giovaninetti (3 July 1967 – 25 January 2018) was a French actor. His father Reynald was a composer. Born in Amiens in 1967, Arnaud Giovaninetti was raised in Amiens and attended the and CNSAD. He was married to actress Judith d'Aleazzo ...

as Alfred Tattet * Pascal Ternisien as Boucoiran *

Victoire Thivisol Victoire Thivisol (born 6 July 1991) is a French film actress. She first gained acclaim as a child coping with her mother's death in '' Ponette'', becoming the youngest actress to win the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival. ...

as Solange * Julien Léal as Maurice * Jean-Claude de Goros as Capo de Feuillide

Background and production

The film was shot on location in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

Nohant Nohant-Vic () is a commune in the Indre department in central France. It is located near La Châtre, on the D943, approximately southeast of Châteauroux and consists of two villages, Vic and Nohant, extended along the road. Geography The c ...

and

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

from August to December 1998. In an interview with ''

The Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It was launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is Ireland's leading n ...

'', Kurys revealed that she was shooting in the actual rooms Sand and Musset had occupied in the

Hotel Danieli The Hotel Danieli is a palatial five-star hotel in Venice, Italy. The central wing of the hotel was built as the Palazzo Dandolo at the end of the 14th century, by one of the Dandolo families. CNN cites it as one of the top five "lavish hotels" ...

, and Binoche revealed that Sand's estate had loaned the production some of her possessions including a

sapphire Sapphire is a precious gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum, consisting of aluminium oxide () with trace amounts of elements such as iron, titanium, cobalt, lead, chromium, vanadium, magnesium, boron, and silicon. The name ''sapphire ...

ring and jewel-encrusted dagger. Musset's account of the affair, in his book ''La Confession d'un Enfant du Siècle'', was Kurys' starting point for her screenplay. Binoche's attraction to the part was due to "Sand's combination of strengths and weaknesses".

Soundtrack

The soundtrack album to accompany the film was released by

Decca Classics Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis (Decca), Edward Lewis after his acquisition of a gramophone manufacturer, The Decca Gramophone Company. It set up an American subsidiary under the Decca name, which bec ...

. The original music, composed by

Luis Bacalov Luis Enríquez Bacalov (30 August 1933 – 15 November 2017) was an Argentine (naturalized Italian) film composer and musical director. He learned music from Enrique Barenboim, father of Daniel Barenboim - conductor of the Berlin and Chicago or ...

, was recorded in January 1999 by the Rome Symphony Orchestra, and featured Fábio Zanon on guitar and Leonid Kuzmin on piano. The film also features music by Ernst Eichner,

Robert Schumann Robert Schumann (; ; 8 June 181029 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and music critic of the early Romantic music, Romantic era. He composed in all the main musical genres of the time, writing for solo piano, voice and piano, chamber ...

, and

Franz Liszt Franz Liszt (22 October 1811 – 31 July 1886) was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor and teacher of the Romantic music, Romantic period. With a diverse List of compositions by Franz Liszt, body of work spanning more than six ...

, among others. The album was supervised by

Murray Head Murray Seafield St George Head (born 5 March 1946) is an English actor and singer. Head has appeared in a number of films, including a starring role as the character Bob Elkin in the BAFTA award winning and Oscar-nominated 1971 film ''Sunday B ...

Release

Premiere

''Les Enfants du Siècle'' made its world premiere out of competition at the 1999

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world. Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around ...

, before being released in French theatres on September 22, 1999. The film made its North American debut at the 1999

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the most prestigious and largest publicly attended film festivals in the world. Founded in 1976, the festival takes place every year in early September. The organi ...

. The film made its UK debut as part of the ''Martell French Film Tour'' in September and October 2000, followed by a conventional cinematic run starting on April 6, 2001.

Critical reception

The film garnered a middling reception, with

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

giving it a score of 43% based on 42 reviews and an average rating of 5.2 out of 10. The site's consensus states: "This romance is more soapy than historically compelling."

Versions

The film was released in two versions with different running times. The long version as released in France on September 22, 1999, has a running time of 135 minutes. It begins as Sand abandons her husband and arrives in revolution-torn Paris and Musset's father dies of

cholera Cholera () is an infection of the small intestine by some Strain (biology), strains of the Bacteria, bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea last ...

. A shorter version was released in Germany, the UK, and other territories, with a running time of 105 minutes. It begins at the literary event where Sand and Musset met and ends with their final meeting. The longer version goes on to show Sand's attempts to see the dying Musset, and ends with her reading her letters to him by his tomb. The film was released under the English-language title ''Children of the Century'' in the US by Koch Lorber Films, but retained its French-Language title while on release in the UK, Canada, and Australia. The film was distributed in the UK by

Film Four Film4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned by Channel Four Television Corporation launched on 1 November 1998, dedicated to broadcasting films. The standard-definition channel is available on Freeview and Freesat ...

, in Canada by

Alliance Atlantis Alliance Atlantis Communications Inc. (commonly known as Alliance Atlantis) was a Canadian media company that operated primarily as a specialty service operator in Canada. Alliance Atlantis also had offices in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Halifax, Los ...

, and in Australia by AE Classics.

Books

Two books were published in conjunction with the film: ''Les Enfants du Siecle'' (), a novelization of the screenplay by François-Olivier Rousseau; and ''Sand & Musset'' (), a large format coffee-table book exploring the history of Sand and Musset and the production of the film, co-written by Jean-Pierre Guéno, Roselyne de Ayala, and Diane Kurys, with lavish illustrations by Maxime Rebiere.

References

External links

* *
Film Four - UK Distributor

BBC Films Review (UK)

Film Review (UK)

British Film Institute listing
{{George Sand 1999 films 1999 romantic drama films Romantic drama films based on actual events Films directed by Diane Kurys Films produced by Alain Sarde Films scored by Luis Bacalov Cultural depictions of George Sand French romantic drama films Biographical films about writers 1990s French films 1990s French-language films French-language romantic drama films