Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

Contentar Best movie of this year hands down!

Borserie it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

Matylda Swan It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

WilliamCKH It's a great pleasure to watch a film in which the director gives time to characters to have conversation, to not be in a hurry to move things along. The two main characters, one a successful Parisien painter, and the other, a retired working class gardener, are brought together when the artist, moving back into his childhood estate, advertises for help in creating and planting a garden...zucchini, squash, tomatoes, peppers, beans,.. not really for eating, but really for the idea of a garden, for both artistic and nostalgic reasons. When the two meet, they turn out to have been childhood friends and relive some of their experiences and impressions of their childhood.Though their lives since have taken very different paths, they easily settle in with one another, meeting every few days to tend to the garden when engaging in a series of conversations about art, work, family, love, death, etc. each providing his own unique viewpoint. The successful artist, with his money and fame, would seem to have the more respected viewpoint of the two, but as the movie progress, it becomes clearer that the gardener, with his common sense, his finding joy in simple pleasures, his not overreaching his happiness, may be the one living more authentically. I found their conversations very enlightening, not so much in their content, but the fact that they let each other finish their sentences, that the artist does not let his ego get in the way of learning from his friend. Their conversations are unhurried, filled with stillness, sometimes with one engulfed in his art, the other quietly tending his garden.I was surprised how deeply the ending touched me. It was filled with compassion, showing very much how easily we all fall into the trap of and ego-driven life and that in the end, that sort of life becomes meaningless. But for the short time that were here, if we can cultivate those things which are true and genuine, our friendships, our family, our life's work, then, although fleeting, we will look at this short time given to us not with anger or sadness, but with gratitude.BTW, both Auteuil and Daroussin are wonderful in their roles!

jose angel g Jean Becker makes extremely typical french films, with lots of dialog, and masterful mise en scene. This film plays again with one of his favorite subjects, the wisdom of the uncultivated, working class simpletons, as opposed to the stiff way of life of the cultivated bourgeoisie. More or less. The story, a painter who goes back to the village of his childhood and befriends a retired railroad worker he hires as gardener ad happens to be an old childhood friend, serves well as an excuse for a series of enlightening dialogs and thoughts over class, life, struggle, love, etc. When it ends you have been entertained brilliantly for 90 minutes, and you are also left with something to think about.

mmunier Our usual group of 4 Dutch, Filipino, Chinese Malaysian, and French did enjoy so much this movie screened in Sydney these past few weeks. As said before simple but without simplicity. This was also my sentiment, I imagine my french background took my enjoyment even a little further. I can't say I never had much passion for gardening although I do appreciate nature in general. But I like animals and people behaviour; it is so often fascinating. This is what this story did for me, it brought fascinating union and mutual respect between two very different people, this in a rather natural way. I let myself go with the gentle flow of the tale and rode the few bumps here and there as life scatters them. I won't talk about the story line since I'm sure it's been read many time before these lines. There weren't a crowd either in the cinema, only one more couple and one lone other person. Yet the story took you from the start and you did not need a crowd around to help you along. It was almost like a personal experience that somehow made you feel as if you were part of this dialogue. I do much appreciate Daniel Auteuil whom I discovered for the first time with G de Pardieu in "Jean des Florettes" and "Manon des Sources" Much as happened since and for both of them but one seems to have been imunised from Hollywood and is better for it in my opinion.

guy-bellinger Suppose another civil war broke out in France some day, well, Jean Becker might start it! Indeed because of him the country is now divided into two fratricidal sides: the spectators and the critics! As for the spectators, they flock to Jacques Becker's son's films and invariably love all he has done from "les Enfants du Marais" (1998). I personally -just like everybody else except the critics - have been amused and touched by the aforementioned movie as well as "Un crime au Paradis", "Effroyables Jardins" and his latest opus "Dialogue avec mon Jardinier". Simple but not simplistic, moving without being overly sentimental, humane but not populist, Jean Becker's last picture talks directly to the heart .On the other side you have the critics. This happy few are beside themselves with a man who dares show ordinary unaffected characters rather than Paris intellectuals between themselves, who tries to make our daily lives better rather than denigrate all the values not deemed valid by their highbrow circle. But let the civil war start: we spectators outnumber the critics by far. They are bound to be defeated!As is always the case with Becker's recent movies, the story is very simple, not depending on plot twists or dramatic ups and downs to exist. However if you read the eponymous book (by Henri Cueco) which inspired the film, you will realize that the adaptation work (by talented Jean Cosmos) was no pleasure cruise. The title of Cueco's book ("Dialogue avec mon Jardinier") is telling in this respect: It has no storyline to speak of. It all amounts to a conversation between a Paris artist and his local gardener at the former's family house. Even more difficult, in the text, consisting mainly in the gardener's replies, there is no such thing as a real dialogue. You actually get to know the artist through the gardener's answers. How anti cinematographic! A carbon copy was impossible and Cosmos set about bringing on a few changes. Of course, he fleshed out the painter's character, modified a few facts (the artist is on the verge of divorce, he has a daughter about to marry, the circle of artists he used to mix with is described and satirize - hence the critics' reaction! - ; the gardener has become the artist's childhood friend, he does not a have a young daughter…) and created a subplot (concerning mostly the relationships between the artist, his separated wife and his young adult daughter). This way, although there is not much action other than an evolution in the characters' minds and feelings, "Dialogue avec mon Jardinier" functions as a true film, with a beginning, a middle and an end. But what is the most remarkable is that the dialogue of the book is transposed in full, with only a few minor additions or deletions. Such wonderful work allows Becker's last movie to attract the viewer while remaining faithful to the spirit of Cueco's original work: a sophisticated artist learns the basics of life while a John Doe is introduced to a world that totally escaped him before and enrich their minds mutually as a result.The text is served by two outstanding actors, Daniel Auteuil (as subtle and humane as he can be) and Jean-Pierre Darroussin (absolutely amazing as the down-to-earth but not common gardener).When you leave the theater you feel peaceful and happy despite the heart-breaking ending. It is the (French) critics' loss if they make all the efforts in the world to dislike such a beautiful film.