tfrizzell Long and silly would-be masterpiece that focuses on the forbidden 12th-Century romance of French historical figures Abelard (Derek de Lint) and Heloise (Kim Thomson). The first is a noted tutor/philosopher who teaches young men via Catholic doctrines while the latter is a seductive and youthful lady who comes to Paris to live with her uncle (Denholm Elliott of the "Indiana Jones" trilogy fame). Naturally the two have a teacher/student relationship at first, but we all know that their carnal lusts will soon take over with tragic results. Based entirely on fact, the movie plays more like a Shakespearean-styled soap opera of dull situations and duller results. The movie drags at a snail's pace and finally overcomes the novel's meanderings late, but by that time it was too late. Even the art direction and costume design look somewhat cheap and mediocre. 2 stars out of 5.

Caitlin Yes, yes, very romantic; though I'm sorry to say very sorrowful. I'm not a man, but I know castration must feel like the worst thing in the world, especially to someone seemingly having it all: intelligence, respect, a worthy job and a great love. Not only is this movie not lacking in interest, but I enjoyed the historical feel to it as well. Naming their son Astrolabe is a little odd, granted, but these were the Dark Ages after all. Kim Thomson acted fabulously; circles around even the competent male leads...how can I really do her work justice? She really embodied all that a strong women hundreds of years ago could be, and though dynamic and loud, didn't seem to overexaggerate her talent in the slightest. Except for the maid, which seemed a little too unconvincing as a Medieval prole (everything about her screamed 1980s), all the acting was up to par. See this film if you have a thing for tasteful romance, silly and unabashed love, or simply looking for something to watch.

Robert J. Maxwell Spoilers. Abelard is handsome and a great teacher. Heloise (I can't find those accents anywhere!) is a slender passionate young woman with penetrating blue eyes and a mop of Irish-looking wiry reddish hair. "By custom," teachers are supposed to be celibate. The two meet. Uh-oh. Trouble rears its ugly head. By what turns out to be a stroke of really bad luck, Abelard winds up living in the house of Heloise's uncle and takes her under his wing to, um, tutor her. She's not what you would call inhibited in expressing her affection for him. There are a few challenging questions from her and a few surprised and charmed responses from him, and the next thing you know they're in the kip together, rolling around naked and rutting like two wart hogs in heat. Abelard never does show very much doubt when it comes to doffing the customs of the time, or the costumes either for that matter. Alas, Heloise is pregnant and is sent away to live with Abelard's sister. He remains behind, still teaching, protected by the Bishop who wants this academic magnet to continue drawing in droves of students. But there's a villain in this piece. Heloise's uncle sees to it that the same thing is done to Abelard as was done to Paul Newman in "Sweet Bird of Youth," the play, not the movie. I haven't read the written material this movie is based on, so can't compare the two, but the plot at this point seems to get pretty twisted. Heloise seems determined enough to live with Peter, even in his emasculated condition, but he decides that he wants to become a priest and would like her to join the church as well, though a less likely nun is hard to imagine.Later they are thrown together again -- as priest and nun -- as part of a group building a church in the wilderness. Then they're separated for good.It all seems so distant in time now, so far away, so "medieval." But it really isn't. Not if you've been around for a while. It wasn't that long ago in the USA that "illegitimate pregnancy" constituted a scandal. (Vide, "A Place in the Sun".) Abortions were illegal. (Not that that stopped them from being performed, to the tune of about one million a year.) It was in the 1950s that an American woman made headlines by traveling to Sweden in order to have a legal abortion. Women of means who became pregnant out of wedlock had to leave town on the pretext of an extended visit to a relative in order to bear a child. (Arguments in favor of multicultural curricula should take diachronic differences into account as well as geographic ones; that way we can get back to basics. You want to experience the "other"? Read The Iliad.) I congratulate the people who made this film. (They seem to include performers like Susan George and Simon MacCorkindale.) What they've done is produce an intelligent tale of life in medieval Europe in which the clashes involve philosophies, not armies. It's a bold stroke, making a movie like this to be released to a generation grown up on violent computer games. Abelard and Heloise are part of our cultural heritage. Their names are linked, like Beatrice and Dante, Laura and Petrarch, Romeo and Juliet, Hero and Leander, Narcissus and Narcissus. And this film about Abelard and Heloise is engaging too, not merely instructional. I'm not exactly sure what a "steamy bodice-ripper" is. If it's anything like the abysmal "Mandingo," or the blockbusting "Gone With the Wind," then this isn't an example of it, although the nudity is enjoyable. I commend too the production designer, an always underrated artist. There's a recent tendency for pictures about this period to be gloomy and dank, but here we have refreshingly brightly painted interiors, walls with wispy pastel murals, and the director gives them their due. Wardrobe too is convincing, without being in-your-face about it. I never realized how quickly and easily one could slip out of all those billowing robes and things until I saw the love scenes here. Yes, all around, sad but a good show.

BlackMonk An historically-based film focusing on the romance between Abelard and Heloise which highlights two philosophical outlooks on life.Abelard, though a first-class thinker, accepted the premise of the Church--that one's life belongs to God, that sex is evil, that happiness on earth isn't possible. But yet he acted against that premise--he fell in love with a woman of reason: Heloise. Abelard's implicit premise, the one he subconsciously held, was in fact pro-life and pro-earth. He loved Heloise because she reflected the things he valued most deeply: Intelligence, beauty, and happiness. But since those things are not valued but are in fact derided by the Church, Abelard believed that his feelings for Heloise were wrong, were worthy of guilt.Heloise, on the other hand, never accepted the anti-life, anti-pleasure, anti-earth philosophy of the Church. She scoffed at religion, challenged its teachers, and refused to accept things on faith. She held reason, beauty and happiness in high esteem. She saw in Abelard a reflection of her highest values, and, consequently, she acted to gain those values. She never felt guilty about her love for Abelard. She never apologized. She never wavered. The movie is wonderful because it demonstrates two contrasting philosophical views on life. But since the predominant view in Abelard's and Heloise's time was based on faith, mysticism and obedience to authority, unfortunately life, happiness and love were casualties. Watch this film with your lover and say a word of thanks to REASON, FREEDOM, and SCIENCE that you two don't live in the atmosphere that those two did.