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The Eighth Day
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"First there was nothing. Then there was music and then He made the sun." Jaco van Dormael's The Eighth Day begins by charting the creation of the earth seen through the eyes of Georges (Pascal Duquenne), who has Downs Syndrome. "On the third day He made records, and on the fourth, TV." It is Georges' irrepressible imagination which lies at
the heart of van Dormael's original and inspired film.
A chance encounter one night between Georges and overworked businessman Harry (Daniel Auteil) sets the scene for a carefully-crafted examination of love, loss and the rediscovery of life. Here are two people who would never normally meet; a clash between order and anarchy, blindness and perception. Harry has one reality: his alarm clock, The Future Bank, the fact that his wife has left him. Society has moulded him so thoroughly that he has lost himself. Georges meanwhile has a whole universe of realities and an infinite capacity for love.
Duquenne and Auteil deservedly shared the Best Actor prize at Cannes earlier this year for their emotive performances in The Eighth Day. While the film is at times almost overwhelmingly poignant, it is also brilliantly funny - after all, in a previous life van Dormael was a clown with Belgium's 'Big Flying Circus'. The scabrous humour so vociferous in Toto le Héros has been reigned in here, but is equally eloquent. Charming and utterly moving, see The Eighth Day now, before the Hollywood remake with Dustin Hoffman.
Reviewed by Monika Maurer
Reader comments about The Eighth Day
Rebecca Bontempo (clbto@bellsouth.net) writes:
The movie touched me on several levels. I rented this the first time, not knowing at all what to expect, being the recent parent of a little boy named Lou who has Down Syndrome. The ending was terribly depressing, and I pray and know that the Good Lord will suround my child with adults who will offer him a loving life, so he will not feel the need to take his own.
Steffen Nowack (nowackst@aol.com) writes:
Ein Film, der nach mehrmaligem schauen noch Gänsehaut, Schlucken und Schluchzen hervorzurufen kann. Und wie ich es selber mehrfach erleben konnte, vermag er in dieser Weise selbst "hartgesottene" Menschen zu berühren. - Schön zu erleben, wie hier von außen betrachtet und von innen geschaut wird. Für mich jedenfalls in vielerlei Hinsicht einer der überzeugensten Filme der letzten 10 Jahre um so ein so grundlegendes Thema wie Freundschaft!!! Übrigens: Warum gibt es eigentlich noch nicht die tollen Filmmusiken auf CD?
sam (Email address withheld) writes:
This film moved me like no other has and I'm not the kind of person to be moved easily. My older brother has downs syndrome and he's been one of my best friends for the 19 years I've been alive. I see a lot of him in Georges with his unconditional affection. A Beautifuly crafted film.
Hosein Mohammadzadeh (mohammad@yahoo.com) writes:
There was nothing. Then there was music and then He made the sun.Then...
and in ninth day there was The Eighth Day.
I never forget it.
Hosein Mohammadzadeh (mohammad@iasbs.ac.ir) writes:
There was nothing. Then there was music and then He made the sun.Then...
and in ninth day there was The Eighth Day.
I never forget it.
Fay Green (fpg@ntlworld.com) writes:
Here I am again, years after seeing this movie, desperately trolling through the internet in the hope of finding a dvd, a video, anything. My favourite movie of all time, shown a bit, then lost forever? Devastating. The world is missing a treasure until this magnificent film is set free from its undeserved disappearance and put back into the public domain. Unbelieveably good, makes tears well up in your soul while you are at the same time smiling. It will date and begin to look contrived as we become ever more sophisticated, but some moments of it are sheer movie genius.
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