The Eighth Day (1996)

Everyone we meet influences our thinking, modifies our ways, a little bit of that person rubs off onto us. "The Eighth Day" takes up this theme (Compare "Rainmaker"). In this film Harry (Daniel Auteuil) a businessman expert in sales psychology meets up with Georges (Pascal Duquenne), a Down's Syndrome child on the run. Winning performances from both these actors give this film its main strength. The opening sequence is excellent where Georges relates his theory on the creation of the world and in the closing scene we discover what God created on the eighth day. There are some moments in the story that are very frustrating for Harry. For example, Georges who is completely uninhibited demands a pair of expensive shoes and hasn't enough money. It's the kind of scene where you laugh through your tears. I liked the scene where the Down's Syndrome group on a trip to the Art Gallery escape on a bus and gate-crash the Paradis fun park. The most humorous of all the embarrassments is the scene where Harry and Georges pass a horse-float on the highway and, looking back, Georges gives the driver a rude salute. But there are some gentle scenes as well, especially the impressive use of close-ups of hands - hands feeling the sun,wind and rain, hands reaching up, hands reaching out and clasping in love and friendship. This is true cinema which touches the heart. There are very moving scenes where Georges proposes to Nathalie, where Georges cradles Harry's head in his arms, where Georges keeps calling for his dear Mom, where Georges teaches Harry to laugh..I felt there was a profound message in the film that life is beautiful- the very presence of grass (Did you know it cries when you cut it?), the trees overhead, the song of birds, the little insects - all nature's miraculous creatures. They are all there to be enjoyed if we but lie back (like Harry and Georges) look around us and listen......A beautiful film.

Fmovies: This film is about the unlikely friendship between a businessman and a man with Down Syndrome.

The character development in this film is excellent. We get to believe that Harry is a businessman who neglects his family, and Georges is an innocent man who craves loving and care from the "normal" society. Acting is excellent, and the Cannes best actor award is well deserved.

The fantasy scenes in the film highlights the fact that Georges misery towards his abandonment by his family, and his desire to be treated like a normal person. The song that gets played repeatedly also reinforces this message. The film shows that people who are mentally handicapped are good natured. We have been treating them with discrimination and neglect, a fact that is highlighted by the scene where Georges gives a present to the waitress in the kitchen). If we get to understand and share these people's world, both we and the mentally handicapped can become very happy.

I was so drawn into the film and the characters' emotional experiences. It is a touching film for good natured souls.

This film is about 2 worlds colliding- the one of a yuppie motivational speaker on the fast track, the man Harry, and the other of another man, Georges, who has Downs Syndrome.

The cinematography alone is so fresh and exciting- as a visual feast alone the film is worth watching. But the story! Takes you by surprise- its richness and depth.

I just viewed it last night and the scene of the ballet class inside the "mental institution" was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen via a television or movie screen.

I also haven't laughed so hard in a long time. The laughter of Harry is infectious. Enough to break through Georges hard shell...

The Eighth Day fmovies. The number of times I've had tears in my eyes when watching a movie are few. And there is only one time when I have really cried and that was when I saw this movie. This movie has some kliches but I really don't care. I cry even as I write this and it was quite some time since I saw it. It is perfectly acted and all the production values are good, but what really matters is the simple and wonderful message. We all know it in our hearts, but it is not always easy to remember that the only thing that really matters in life is LOVE in all it's forms. It's only when we love that we're truly alive. I know how sentimental I sound and I promise I'm not usually like that. I'm quite a cynic. This movie has brought out stronger feelings of both sorrow and happiness in me than any other movies and it will probably always be the first movie I recommend others to see.

With 'Le Huitième Jour' director Jaco van Dormael tells us a moving tale of two complete strangers (who couldn't be more different from each other), whose paths cross as they travel opposite directions. After this odd encounter, together, both take turns heading towards each other's destinations but with heartbreaking results. However, this journey allows them to find something they didn't know they were looking for.

Let's get the flaws out of the way: Certain scenes may feel a little dramatic but it still remains within the tone of the film, never looking out of place. Even though Harry and Georges are the primary focus of the film, some of the important supporting characters are poorly developed, especially Georges's hating sister and Miou Miou's Julie.

But those minuses aside, is 'Le Huitième Jour' a road movie (the landscapes are dazzling)? Is it a study of two characters? Is it a 'buddy' movie (certainly not the typical Hollywood kind)? Is it a dramedy?

It's poetry. The film, in a way, moves from one genre to another but it flows beautifully. The balance in humour, and intensity is first rate. The jokes work well and the timing is just right. I did find the ending to be a tad too dramatic.

What Georges shows the viewer is that, while people desire similarities, it is our differences that make us unique. Yet, that is the very reason why Georges is rejected by the 'real world'. What Harry further shows is that none of these supposed similarities that people look for in each other matters because acceptance, respect, being open to possibilities and being true to oneself are what will bring the greater joy.

'Le Huitième Jour' is stunningly filmed and wonderfully acted. Pascal Duquenne and Daniel Auteuil are superb. Duquenne delivers a very natural performance and Auteuil is terrifically restrained. They are well supported by Isabelle Sadoyan, Michele Maes and the two actors who play Harry's daughter.

'Le Huitième Jour' engages you right from the start. It's funny, intense, enlightening and reaches straight for the heart.

Foolishly, without bothering to learn any more about it than that it involved Daniel Auteuil and a guy with Downs Syndrome, I avoided this classic til a couple of days ago when they were offering the video for silly money. Let me put my ten cents in with every comment I have read here immediately and state categorically that this film is a JOY. Okay, you know going in that a major character is handicapped so you figure that at some point the movie is going to manipulate your emotions and you're ready for that but, like most things, it's all in the wrist, and this one has an extra metatarsal. It is, of course, the salesman who spends his life lecturing on how to manipulate the buyer who is himself manipulated by Georges - nice touch naming him after the 'normal' one of the two buddies in 'Of Mice And Men', where the retarded Lenny is looked after by George - the irritating, exasperating, impossible lovable guy who walks into his life after Harry nearly ran into his. Okay, to make this work you need to create a character who is the complete opposite of Georges, a guy literally too busy making money and being successful to stop and smell the roses. A guy who misses his daughters dreadfully since his estranged wife - it's not clear if they are divorced or just separated - took them away yet is so busy that he completely forgets to pick them up and leaves them waiting alone at the train station; who opts to attend a conference on his daughter's birthday, you get the picture. Georges misses someone, too. His mother, who is dead. Time and again in his loneliness and hurt he conjures her up and we see the great love they shared. This then, is the back story and the scene is set for what Hollywood used to call a 'meet-cute'. Here, Auteuil, in despair, his mind in a turmoil, driving through the rain runs over something large which he failed to see. Turns out to be the dog that had attached itself to Georges who has lit out from his residential home after watching all the other residents being picked up by relatives. Now all that is left is for Georges to 'change' Harry, to humanise him if you will and this he does in spades. This is a film chock full of laughter and tears and the fact that a leading French actress Miou-Miou agreed to play what is little more than a cameo as Harry's estranged wife speaks volumes for the quality of the writing. Now and again the cynicism surrounding the gongs of filmdom, especially the Oscars, get it right and how appropriate that BOTH these superb actors copped the 'Best Actor' nod at Cannes. 10/10