El baile de las locas

About the 19th century psychiatry treatment of women in le hospitale salphetriere in paris, france. Its a well made jump back to the past, where womens destiny where the mens decision, a fathers decision, a brothers decision or a husbands decision, if you were apart from the common term of normality, they could put you in a house for madwomen with a blink of an eye.

Acting is superb, though the story might feel a bit shallow and it-ified, where the caracter build is purely towards the main caracter, i feel far more shouldve been spent on the copatients and doctors, who many of them where real life caracters..

staging of the sets are impecable, youe drawn into a miljoe of darkness and madness, the musical score that contains lots of deep cello tones do enhance the tragedy of them lost soles in the socalled human care business, thank god things have cchanged to the better, but still humanity has a giant leap to take to make psychiatric care and medicine perfect.

Its a french edition of the typical dickensian british take on the mental ill a good take thinks the grumpy old man, but not perfect.

In reading some of the other reviews, I see people looking for answers to parts of the story that are really 'subplots' of the main story. This is a story of female bonds & friendships - particularly an understanding & friendship between two women who, due to opposing 'sides' in the foundation of the plot (I won't specify, as it would contain spoilers), would not be friends had it not been for a mutual understanding & an open-mindedness of a caring person working in a facility filled w very few individuals of that nature.

It is also a story of friendship among women who were suffering the victimization of the times & the misunderstanding of what it meant to be so easily mislabeled as mentally ill.

It's a beautiful story & I don't know if reviewers who are looking for solid 'answers' are used to American cinema & don't respect or understand what MAY just be cultural film differences; or it may just be the idea that the story is really just about friendships, sacrifice & freedom, not a story ending in a nice, satisfying fashion - folding up neatly in the end simply for viewer satisfaction.

There are subplots in the movie that will be left unanswered & while that might be frustrating to some, they ARE simply subplots that leave the viewer in a position to decide for oneself what may or may not have followed in the storyline.

I highly recommend this, although it's not action packed along the way there is something very beautiful about the entire story.

So I watched a French movie (with French audio and English subs to try and keep it authentic as much as possible since I do not speak the language) for the first time, ever. And I am left stunned by it. The acting is top-notch and on point always. Since I have gotten to experience kinda similar treatment in hospitals (MS patient living in a "third world" country) the emotions were relayed rather easily. I also really liked the underlying karma story at the end. All in all, a roller coaster of emotions and I do hope souls that have passed on are indeed watching over us (got a few myself). A must watch in my book and I thank the CNN article that I glanced over this morning mentioning it. Totally worth the time spent watching it. One of those unexpected and hard to find rare gems.

A great movie. Good story, great acting and just the right length. Amazon did will with this one. Almost makes want to watch another French movie.

I don't know anything about French actors but whoever played Eugenie is equal to the best in America.

Lou de Laage is Eugenie, a headstrong woman who is committed to an insane asylum in 1885 France by her wealthy and domineering father. Victor Hugo's funeral opens the film and Eugenie was amongst the large crowd.

The young woman goes into fits and claims to communicate with the spirits of the dead. She finds a long lost necklace of her grandmother's while in such a state. Somehow, this event does not convince the rest of her family of her ESP like abilities.

At the asylum, Eugenie is subject to all kinds of atrocious "therapies," including ice baths and a month long stay in a what looks like a dungeon.

De Laage is magnificent in the lead and she can be seen as a doctor in postwar Germany in The Innocents. The actress deserves more widespread recognition.

The Mad Women's Ball is difficult to watch but a very good movie.