User Reviews

I watched this because my favourite French actress, Audrey Fleurot stars in it and she's magnificent as the tormented flame haired heroine Adrienne. However, all the cast are fantastic, the period detail and costuming excellent and the horrific fire scene in the first episode, which happens in real time, devastating, upsetting and thrilling all at once. The story is a fin de ciecle tale of the rich and the poor set in Paris and filmed in some the most beautiful houses I have ever seen on film. The story is a "page turner", well paced, gripping and with characters you care about. I wanted all the women whose stories are told after the dreadful fire, to have happy endings. If you are looking for a French "Downton Abbey" this may be a bit gory and there are a few tasteful sex scenes although minimal nudity. The 18 certificate is presumably for the injury detail after the inferno, which is pretty grim. I watched the whole 8 episodes in two sittings. Recommended for anyone who likes bodice ripping historical drama although this series did have a feminist twist, most of the men either being weak or hissably villainous! Overall, extremely good Gallic drama with very high production values. 9 out of 10.

The first episode had such an effect on me. Once the fire starts I couldn't look away. It's terrifying and you can sense their fear. The fact that this really happened is so sad. Some scenes are extremely hard to watch, but it's well done. The men are infuriating, especially those at the charity bizarre!

Here's the deal: I watched the 1st episode and thought it was terrible EXCEPT for the cinematography. It's French and dubbed in English... TERRIBLE ENGLISH! So, I went to my old standby, IMDbTV, to check the reviews, as I often do. I saw one review in particular that insisted it must be watched with the original French speaking actors' voices and subtitled in English (for me). This review stated that the English dubbing is so terrible and hokey that it has a terrible effect on the performances and story line. Well, I went back and did this for the 2nd episode and could not stop watching from that moment on! WHAT A HUGE IMPROVEMENT! This is a great binge-worthy show and I fell in love (or hate where appropriate) with the actors. This is well written, superbly acted and filmed beautifully. After watching it this way for a few minutes, I was completely immersed. Watch it the right way and you'll thoroughly enjoy it!

First of all I have to say that I have no criticism, whatsoever, of this series. I am a student of the French Language so I recommend watching it in French with sub-titles, as watching it dubbed loses more than half of the atmosphere.

This is a fictional tale set in the aftermath of a genuine event of 1897 when there was a huge and terrible fire at a charity event in Paris which claimed the lives of 125 people, most of whom were aristocratic ladies. The story revolves around the lives of three women who survived the fire: one unscathed but affected, one badly burnt and disfigured and one who is uninjured but................well! Wait and see.

The drama is set in Paris in 1897 and the producers have done a great job of capturing the atmosphere of the city and the era, the attitudes of the people and the relationships between the different sociopolitical groups. The dramatic pace of the series is well maintained and there is a certain degree of "cliffl hanger" at the end of each episode, to the extent that I will admit that I was forced to "binge" watch it.

The plot is relatively simple but with a few twists and turns in a rather "Dickensian" fashion which results in a nice classical structure of having a beginning, a middle and an end. However, it is not without some excitement and a fair amount of tension. OK! So some will say that the ending is predictable, so what! I loved it.

The "18" rating is totally unjustified and the description "strong sex" has obviously been applied by a Sunday School teacher who has yet to experience sex of any kind. There is, perhaps, a view of one or two female bottoms & one nipple. but that's all, although there is some rather tender, and carefully edited, lovemaking.

I rate this as a thoroughly entertaining piece of drama, well worth watching. It is well acted and extremely well produced with good scenery and atmosphere. Overall I was left feeling happy and glad I'd watched it.

I'm not a huge fan of French movies (subtitled) or love stories; however, this movie has changed both of those perspectives completely! With a cast of wonderfully portrayed characters, I was spell bound for two days watching this series to its eighth episode. In a time of political upheaval, silent, strong women are pitted against the bravado of their wealthy husbands, but with promise of a new day of reason, and compassion on the horizon among the young and the working class. My blood boiled as the perfect villain slithered his way through each episode, and I wept, as much, through the sensitive love scenes (thank you for keeping the nudity scarce--always felt it detracted from the plot). Thank you for releasing a series that kept me thinking about what was important during this time period and the wonder of excellently written twists in a plot. I can't wait for the second season. Please keep it classy like the first.

As an intermediate French student, it's really difficult to find interesting content that is easy enough to understand: This series is perfect. Watch it in the original French with French subtitles turned on (happily an option with Netflix). The speech is fairly clear, not too fast and not heavily accented.

The beautiful costumes, set design and cinematography in this historical drama make up for the fairly predictable plot and uninspired acting. Compared to the mindless dialogues contained in most French language courses, this is a truly entertaining step up.

It got better with every episode, the final scene left me in tears. Loved this show, and although I know it's a mini series that ended with episode 8, I would love a second season just to find out how my now beloved characters will go on with their lives.

The 6 stars I give this series is based upon overall production values. The sets are really fantastic. superb cinematography. As an historical eye on late 19th century France it feels accurate; the divide between rich and poor, the hatred for Germans nicely conveyed The locations are generally not Paris, but I suspect are Bordeaux, never the less, they are pleasing. The story is awkward, repetitious to the extreme. The casting is spot on, the direction passable, the problem is taking a two hour story and making it an 8 part min-series. A pity, as I think this could have a great theatrical run.

Apart from that, (the title SHOULD be The Charity Bazaar), please watch this in the original French with subtitles. Actually, watch ANY show in it's original language with subtitles as ALL THE DUBBING is horrendous. I agree with all the other reviewers, good story, good acting apart from the HUGE plot hole with Adrienne running all over Paris with her distinctive red hair aflame for all to see. Gee, hubby recognised me? Go figure? The rest is top notch.

My wife and I had mixed feelings about this series.

First the good news.

The first and last episodes were excellent. The first portrayed so well what happened during the fire and especially the panic and how so many women were left behind in the rush for the excellent and trampled by men. That women were the overwhelming number of victims in the fire is well documented so this seemed to be very realistic.

The final episode was so good first and foremost because it was the final episode (note sarcasm!) but to be fair also because it did wrap up reasonably well the three story lines.

Also worthy of praise was the acting of the three lead females. Audrey Fleurot is always a joy and adds to almost any series she appears in (with one notable exception that comes to mind that was an absolute disaster: Series 2 of Witness; even she couldn't rescue that rubbish). Camille Lou stunning as April and Julie de Bona does well with the difficult role of Rose.

The scenery is beautiful but given this is Paris you could hardly go wrong. The costumes gorgeous. The directing I couldn't fault.

Now the bad news.

It is very difficult to watch this series and that for two main reasons.

Firstly, the plot lines really take some effort to believe and, frankly, many of the plot twists we just didn't buy. The Rose/Odette thing which is the key to one of the three stories we just found impossible to believe. I'll say no more about that as I don't want to spoil this.

Alice, Julien and Victor? Unconvincing.

Adrienne and her husband. Not sure.

But the second reason we found it difficult to watch? We just found almost all the men just so horrible that it was painful having to endure them as characters. The aristocracy (as far as the men were concerned) is portrayed as being totally heartless and if not evil then certainly not angels - but given the way the men acted during the fire this is perhaps a natural continuation of that theme. The lower classes of course are the angels and hardly a bad one to be found among Victor and his friends (of course Marc-Antoine has his henchmen but they are pretty much stereotypes as was he).

We essentially cringed our way through episodes 2 through 7 because of this and were happy when each episode ended and even breathed a huge sigh of relief when the series concluded as it meant we had to endure no more.

A sequel? I hope not although they clearly left the door wide open with the opening endings. We certainly won't be watching if there is one.

Stumbled upon this series by accident whilst choosing something to watch on Netflix. Kept my attention throughout! Good performances, good storyline. Binged watch all 8 episodes in one day. I recommend it.

I was attracted by the publications that Camille Lou posted on her social media, and waited from November to December 26th as it came out on Netflix to finally get to watch it. The actresses and actors were in general beautiful, and along with the historical atmosphere in the series, it was enjoyable to watch it to kill time. The plot of the series is a really good idea but I found its structure was a little badly organised. I could understand what did the screenwriter want to shape of the roles like Julien or Marc-Antoine, but I think in reality the result was not good enough. In the second half I just wanted not to give up, and I made it. The ending contained nothing surprising. It's not totally unworthy watching but just not good enough.

I am only on episode 2 but I don't think I will go on. This "historically-based" show is slack not just with events but costumes and dialogues. These women should all be wearing serious corsets, people! (why, this was the era of 18-inch waistlines with murderous corsets, pups) and they definitely are not: they are strutting about loosely and running around amok- those are not bodies restrained by corsets. Linguistically, the dialogues (I happen to be French, so my complaint here is not about the dubbing since I am listening to the show in French, and my husband is reading the English subtitles for himself) are grotesquely not period-correct; In the first episode already, at least 3 characters -all social origins confounded- bark "Y'a un probleme?" for alternatively "what's wrong?" or" If you don't like what you see, move over". "Y'a un probleme", baby, is 2019 ubiquitous slack TV-speak, not 1885 urban dialect. No Emile Zola inspired work here: it is lazy writing, and that doesn't bode well for the rest of the script. Compare the shlock Bazar dialogues to the polished writing the BRIDGERTON series offers . Bridgerton's language respects and uses the intricacies of 1770 speech for our delight, because it actually adds fun for us, 21st century viewers, to marvel at the contrast between the modernity of the characters' actions and their antiquated language. Bazar, at the opposite end of this viewing experience, is a flat lazy mess.

Camille lou (someone who I had never heard of before) absolutely captivates your attention through out this intensely dramatic, tightly woven tale of four women and their families set in period France. The French mansions and scenery are gorgeous, beautiful cinematography, and a villain you really hate and keeps you on edge. class warfare, love, politics, revenge and revolution .. thoroughly binge worthy

I liked this a lot...interesting because this really happened..it held my interest all the way thru all episodes. Would like to see a season 2, but that would probably then go into using "fiction" to make more episodes. Any bare bottoms that you see is extremely brief & entirely in context for the scene. There are a couple of men in this series I would have slapped very hard.

This series delivers what it promised: a classic melodrama set in old time Paris. While the tragic fire really happened, what follows is basically a story of love and rebellion with all the relative tropes. It's full of stereotypes but it's entertaining and it can offer a great experience if you just accept it for what it is and go with the flow.

A very entertaining series with three women leading the way, with, of course, the usual men-and occasional woman- getting in the way. Do not confuse the story with the real fire of history, or any of the characters with real people. The plot devices are soapy but most of them work due to the great acting, script and cinematography.

The one plot line that just doesn't work because it's so transparently bad is the one with the woman whose face is partially burned but hardly enough to disfigure her or disguise her. Her use of a thin see through veil is a joke, and she should have been given a mask, but I'm guessing that the actress and the Director didn't want her hidden from us. So we're to believe "they" can't recognize her while we can. Voila!

It's about a terrible tragedy that happened just before the 20'th century. The cinematography, the atmosphere thats full of suspicion, the lovely and beautiful dresses and costums it really is something to behold, but the story is rather dark and bold, and very realistic in a world ruled by men. It's about three strong and delicate women, that survived the bonfire at the Bazar but also centres around the devastating and gruesome fate many victims (mostly women) of the destructive fire endured. Hundreds of people were burned, scarred for life and permanently robbed of their beauty and youth. Rather gruesome in a world where it matters most.

I did end up enjoying this show, even though it soon became a soap opera with the beautiful ingenue falling for the Bad Boy, though I couldn't blame her - as her fiance had such a puss (until the end, when his face finally softens and I felt sympathy for him). As all have said, only watch this with subtitles, the French is so beautiful as are the costumes and the houses!! Gorgeous. I greatly admired the actress playing Madame Huchon and will check out other movies that she is in. The children also were perfect. The one problem I had that caused me to yell at the TV was Adrienne, who is mostly on the run throughout the whole series, always has her distinctive, flaming red hair flowing for all to see. Dye your hair and pull it back. Of course that would take away the visual, but I found it too much, even for a story where you had to suspend belief to fully enjoy.

Great acting and cinematography and scenery.. The only thing to improve it the ending could have been somewhat different but that's my opinion. This is a French tale to the max. Thank Netflix. It was most entertaining.

Costumes and setting are sumptuous but the dubbing into English I think must lose something in translation because the conversations leaned stilted. The word choices sounded like bad machine translation.

As far as the story, the first episode is really the best, the fire sequences are great and the introduction of the three main protagonist characters, whose lives are about to become intertwined/changed, is a good hook. Subsequently, the story gets less tight and more melodramatic, making it more talky which made the terrible dubbing really grating.

First, I have to say the English title is ridiculous, almost offensive. To refer to a fire that took place because of negligence and killed 126 people (mostly women) as a "bonfire of destiny" is absurd. Why they chose to call it that is beyond me. They could have just translated the French title to "The Charity Bazaar" (which is the event that was taking place when the fire started). Now about the series. With each episode, it becomes less and less about the fire and more and more about the fictional stories. The fire is simply a trigger to the fictionalized stories. And what stories they created! It's just one soap opera type storyline after another. A mafia head, a rich family gone broke needing to marry off their daughter for money, secret affairs, rich woman falling in love with a man living in poverty, a dead woman is actually alive, a living woman is actually dead, there's even a secret rendez-vous by horse back! (None of these are spoilers, it's not hidden from the audience) All the cliches you can think of rolled into one mini series. Just when you think they're all in there, one more cliche is thrown into the story. I mean, one character is burned around one of her eyes we're suppose to believe she's unrecognizable. Really? So if you're looking at your friend from the side you wouldn't be able to recognize them from the profile of their face? Or their mouth, their eyes, their chin... I started skipping through the episodes by episode 5, it just got to be too ridiculous and I wanted to get to the end. Only to be disappointed by that as well.

There are some redeeming qualities to the series. The actors are excellent (watch it in the original version with subtitles, the voice actors for the English dubbing are horrible), the cinematography, the sets, the costumes, and the kids were excellent as well. If you're going to watch, go in with low expectations.

Such a good watch. Keeps you on edge of your seat. Watch it on Netflix in the original language with the subtitles! Do not watch in English.

This will have you captivated from the first episode. I've never seen a first episode quite chilling and compelling as the first of this.

The characters grow and you want to root for them or root for their demise, whichever the case....

Great watch!

A very interesting and captivating show; the pace is kept up throughout as the three storylines play out simultaneously. The characters were well cast and well acted, and it didn't lose too much in dubbing. Costuming and cinematography were beautifully done.