The Children of the Century (1999)

Overview
"The Children of the Century" (original French title "Les Enfants du Siècle") is a French biographical drama produced in 1999, directed by Diane Kurys. It features Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel in the roles of George Sand and Alfred de Musset, respectively. This movie is mostly based upon the tumultuous real-life relationship in between these renowned 19th-century French authors.

Plot
The movie opens in 1832, during the peak of the French Romantics' period. George Sand, an audacious writer who favoured men's clothing for comfort and wore a pseudonym to mask her femininity, wanders away from her stopping working marriage and shows up in Paris. She quickly satisfies Alfred de Musset, the most enjoyed poet of his generation, at a literary celebration. In spite of remembering their initial encounter as unfulfilling, they participate in an enthusiastic, yet tumultuous love affair.

Fans in Different Directions
Their love affair is filled with low and high, representing the psychological turbulence of the Romantic date. Where George is a female ahead of her time, preferring both freedom and love, Musset is a man wrecked by his impulses, finding inspiration in the arms of passion and his bottles of Absinthe. Despite their love, George's demand for flexibility and Musset's self-destruction develops a chasm in between them.

Love to Ruination
George and Alfred retreat to Venice in an attempt to separate themselves from Parisian society and to recover Alfred's health. Their enthusiasm, when burning, diminishes due to their particular artistic personalities and Alfred's growing dependency on alcohol and drugs. George's stopped working attempts to stabilize her love for Musset and her commitment to her work, alongside Musset's unrelenting need for attention, result in their relationship's disastrous end. George leaves a severely ill Musset in the care of a doctor in Venice and returns to Paris to look for solace in her craft.

The Aftermath and Artistic Immortality
In Paris, George continues to check out and reveal her concepts about love and flexibility through her novels, accumulating both recognition and criticism for her adventurous beliefs and unconventional behaviour. On the other hand, Musset, crushed and alone in Venice, channels his experience into his poetry. In the end, their romance's wreckage ends up being the foundation of their literary works, eternalizing their relationship in the annals of Romantic literature. The shared discomfort of their separation discovers expression in their respective art, bestowing upon them literary immortality.

Reception and Conclusion
"The Children of the Century" invites its audience to ponder the tempestuous love and pain of 2 luminaries of French Romantic literature. The superbly enthusiastic and heartbreaking performances by Binoche and Magimel successfully handle to catch the quintessence of the Romantic period. It minutely dissects the great line in between love's anguish and the euphoria of creative creation, making it an interesting watch for art and literature lovers. The essence of the film potentially rests in George Sand's compelling proclamation, "I compose what I see, what I feel, in the name of every female ...".

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