English titles: Now We've Seen It All!; The Bottom Line
François agrees to have his script rewritten as a pornographic film without telling his co-writer about it. François's girlfriend is against it, and in an act of revolt gets herself hired as the main actress of the movie.
Comedy which tries to derive comicity from the rising industry of pornographic films. Despite the good cast of comedians, it is relentlessly unfunny.
Rating: 21
In a small Western town, a distinguished citizen is actually a bandit. He plans to defraud everyone in town out of their houses with the help of a gang of outlaws. The sheriff and a newcomer happen to witness the killing of the the local hardware store's owner and the kidnapping of his daughter.
Very cheap comic-bookish Western. It's strictly cliché, but there is a certain juvenile charm to it. The most curious scene is when the newlywed husband asks for help because "he couldn't find it".
Rating: 33
Informal English title: The Seventh Target
A retired journalist suffers a series of automotive attacks and anonymous phone calls. He investigates the affair with the help of the police and discovers that he is apparently not the first victim of those criminals.
I guess one could define paranoia as a disease of the mind which renders it incapable of assessing probabilities as applied to one's own life. This film is not the only one to exploit the film viewer's tendency to that kind of disease, but it is certainly an extreme example of such. Here, unlike in Kafka's The Trial, it's not a State institution but a private organization who is causing all the trouble. Also unlike the Kafka novel, here all the details are worked out in the way of an explanation, implausible though it turns out to be. The end result is less than thrilling, but maybe I am being unfair to it.
Rating: 30
Informal U.S. title: The Grand Dukes
Three decadent stage actors land a job in a comedy touring the province. The producer just wants to botch the performances in order to collect the insurance.
Not especially attractive comedy which seems to be just a vehicle for its actors. The main idea here was previously used in the 1960 Brazilian comedy Eu Sou o Tal!, which I reviewed here, and consists in that the accidents during a performance make it better than it would normally be. Here it is better -- but still unsatisfactorily -- developed than in that earlier film.
Rating: 30
A motorcycle daredevil is doing a stunt in Mexico. His promoter intends to use the event for committing a crime.
Mildly entertaining mix of drama and thriller. The dramatic bits are corny and have little interest; the sequences involving stunts and the final chase are well done.
Rating: 38
A young starlet is visiting Brazil during Carnival. She wears a necklace with a huge diamond which is coveted by several robbers.
Worthless comedy which is shoddily scripted and fuzzily directed; the film's main box office appeal derived from the musical numbers featuring some very popular singers of that era. The cinematography is vey competent, and the film has some very beautiful shots of Rio de Janeiro and at a luxury hotel where the action is set.
Rating: 12
English title: Love on the Quiet
Womanizing lawyer is caught by his wife with another woman; his wife leaves him and starts a relationship with an older man. He meets a prostitute and starts a relationship with her.
Drama which examines marriage, its exigencies and pitfalls. A man who cannot remain faithful finds in a prostitute his mirror image and only suitable partner; a woman who demands fidelity finds in a man past his prime the only partner who could comply with her demand. It's all very sensible, but also very unexciting.
Rating: 31
Second viewing; previously viewed on November 11, 1993
English title: The Crime of Monsieur Lange
The titular character is an employer at the printing department of a small publishing house, and a writer of pulp Westerns in his spare time. His employer has embezzled the funds he loaned for the company, and gets himself in unsurmountable debt; he works out a deal with sponsors which would make use of Lange's stories. Concurrently to those affairs, there are multiple love and sex stories involving men at the publishing house and at a boarding house and women at a nearby laundry.
I do not know for sure what exactly rubbed me the wrong way in this movie upon my previous viewing. There are aspects of it which are flawed, as I see them today, but I am not sure they are the same ones that I objected to earlier. The main merit of the movie is the dialogue and interplay of characters, which stem no doubt primordially from the screenwriter's work. As for the movie's alleged political reverberations, they are mostly based on very simplistic notions, some of which fail to make sense even on a very basic level. For example, the notion that you can bribe a debt collector seems absurd on the face of it; the original creditor does not care about these proceedings, and will not be moved by them; furthermore, a collector would hardly be willing to risk his job for a few hundred francs. This doesn't reach the point of ruining the movie, to be sure, but is one among several signs of political and economic naivete which permeate the movie. The film seems to be part of a leftist project which aims to denigrate capitalism and praise cooperative organizing, but it is simply foolish to imagine that this particular capitalist is representative of his entire class; no businessman would thrive by being so reckless and dishonest; as for cooperatives, I have nothing in principle against them, but it is to be noted that, after having devoted all its time to depict the flaws of a capitalist enterprise, no time at all is left to focus on the operation of its socialist follow-up. If one lets go of the more radical political notions, and also of the more naive plot details, though, the film is quite satisfactory as a melodrama and a simplified social and moral study.
Rating: 65 (up from 50)
US title: Peril; UK title: Death in a French Garden
A young man is hired to give guitar lessons to the teenage daughter of a rich couple. The girl's mother begins an affair with him; he befriends a mysterious woman who lives next door to them. He also befriends a professional killer.
Postmodernist noir with stylized dialogue and mise-en-scène, and a great emphasis on eroticism. The end result is, well, stylish, but not much more than that.
Rating: 39
Two children are kidnapped by a stranger when they are playing in the front yard. Some apparently compromising information comes to light regarding the children's mother. Another person is seen prowling around the house for unknown reasons.
Atrocious suspense story with abundant absurdities both in plot and in character behavior. The cinematography if fine.
Rating: 11
English title: Tell Me You Love Me
Three friends -- two working partners and a client of theirs -- separate from their wives at more or less the same time. They initially enjoy their newfound freedom, and so do their wives. Two of those couples do not view their separation as definitive; the third one has an incompatibility problem of a higher order.
The seventies witnessed a change in the relationship between the sexes. Of course it began earlier than that, but in the seventies things were pretty much consolidated, and there was no turning back. This movie tries to explore those changes through farce. It features three couples, each exemplifying one issue: wives as sex objects; wives as household servants; and wives as a means of concealing male homosexuality. The film tackles its subject superficially and is extremely predictable in all its details.
Film length was 85 minutes, which is much less than the different figures provided by IMDB and Wikipedia, respectively.
Rating: 31
Loosely based on the novella Candide, ou l'optimisme by Voltaire, first published in 1759.
The titular character is found as a newborn by a family of farmers who take him in and raise him. When he grows up he is still living with them as an unpaid servant of the household. The farmer's daughter falls in love with him. After they are caught kissing each other by her father, Candinho is expelled from the farm, and roams the towns in search of his biological mother. He goes through assorted adventures in the process.
Comedy in the picaresque style. Its comicity is very light and unpretentious, with some rather tame satirical bits here and there. It is not without interest, though, and may even be viewed with a modicum of pleasure.
Rating: 51
U.S. title: Man in the Trunk
This film's basic situation is probably inspired by a real story which happened in 1964 with a man named Mordechai Louk. There is an earlier movie -- Trunk to Cairo (1965) -- which reportedly also drew inspiration from that event.
A spy has his cover blown and takes refuge at a friendly embassy. He is put inside a trunk and smuggled out of the country under the supervision of an agent from that friendly country. He runs into several mishaps and into a beautiful woman with whom he had fallen in love just before he was exposed.
Mostly uninspired comedy which merges two main ideas: the titular one, regarding an unusual confinement and transportation, and the tale of a supposedly irresistible woman, who uses that feature to her advantage at every occasion, and thus becomes everyone's woman in the process. One plot point remains loose (or I didn't pay enough attention): was the woman really the one responsible for blowing the spy's cover? If so, how did it happen and how could they remain friends afterwards? But inquiring about such details in such a lightweight comedy is perhaps not reasonable.
Rating: 37
U.S. Title: The Color of Lies
Literal English Title: At the Heart of the Lie
A painter who gives drawing lessons becomes a suspect in the rape and murder of one of his students. A talk show host tries to seduce his wife. The action is set at a small seaside town where, in addition to those aforementioned events, a string of thefts of art objects is going on. As commenter dbdumonteil points out on IMDB, this film's plot is remarkably similar to 1951 Georges Simenon's novel La mort de Belle, which got a film version released in 1961.
The title gives away the theme of the movie: Truth and Lies, and how they come to rule our lives. A man who lives by the Truth is pitted against a man who lives by Lies. But are those self-descriptions accurate? A man who boasts of living truthfully could be just deceiving himself, while a man who acknowledges that Lying is an integral part of existence is perhaps fundamentally honest. Those paradoxes come to their apex when it is shown that Truth always tries to kill Falsehood, but, because it must conceal its act, what really happens turns out to be the reverse: Lies always kill the Truth and rule the world. One can enjoy the film on a more down-to-earth level, of course: as a whodunit and study of customs. As such, it is quite passable and well done, with a remarkable leading performance and serviceable supporting ones.
Rating: 60
English title: Dawn Devils
World War 2. A French commando fighting in Tunisia does some small attacks and trains for a bigger operation. A new member happens to know the leader and hold a grudge against him on account of a message which failed to be delivered. Eventually they are scheduled to take part in Operation Dragoon, in which the allies will land in the Southern Coast of France. A pretty accurate and detailed summary may be found in this page.
Passable war drama which nevertheless gets a little hard to understand at some points on account of the somewhat cryptic dialogue. Anyway the action sequences are more interesting than the contrived drama.
Rating: 40
English title: Dostoevsky
Biographical mini-series about the Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881). We get to witness his prison years, his conservative views, his several women, his gambling addiction, his health problems, his financial problems, his writing, etc.
Exceedingly well-done biopic. I usually don't enjoy this genre very much, and I frankly don't know how accurate this mini-series was, but overall I found it quite watchable and also lovely to look at on account of the many natural and urban views on display throughout the narrative. The acting was splendid too. I feel like I know more about Dostoevsky now than before I watched it.
Rating: 66
U.S. title: The Pit of Loneliness
At a French finishing school, an English student falls in love with the headmistress. There is another teacher who is always indisposed and jealous of the attention the headmistress receives.
This is similar to Mädchen in Uniform, but for some reason which is not exactly clear in my memory I liked that film a lot more than I liked Olivia. Anyway, so many films depicting so similar situations makes me think that colleges for girls used to be cesspools of unnatural desires; I suppose parents maybe looked the other way with the comforting thought that at least they wouldn't have to worry about unwanted pregnancies. In this film, the headmistress refrains from fully indulging her desires towards the protagonist, out of scruples. It is implicit, though, that she had had no such scruples with some of the other students, besides having relationships with one or more of her colleagues. The film is not explicit about her reasons, but seems to suggest that the intensity of the girl's passions, as well as her inexperience, raised a red flag on the older woman. The villain of the film is the German teacher. I guess Germans were still an easy target in 1951. Maybe one of the main flaws here is that the protagonist's feelings are aroused too soon and without a development which would make it more convincing. Or maybe the shadow of a previous better movie with a similar plot made this one feel kind of redundant.
Rating: 37
English title: A Man to Kill
A small organization locates a possible former SS officer in Barcelona. They try to ascertain his identity with the intent to kill him in case he is really the man they think he is.
Rather gloomy thriller which possibly would inspire more sympathy for its "good" guys if some scenes depicting the alleged cruel acts of their nemesis were actually shown. As it is, the film feels rather cold and mechanical. The only memorable scene is when a female character reveals her real hair. I am not sure this is memorable in a good way, though.
Rating: 34
A nobleman goes through a transforming experience (there are more detailed summaries online).
This isn't a terribly interesting film, I'm afraid. Partly, that's because the actions of the protagonist after his metamorphosis do not make much sense, despite the film's attempt, through some of the dialogue, to make us think otherwise. Well, from where I stand, giving away one's meager possessions at random is not a very rational or efficient way to end the world's "injustice". And it's the story of a man who goes from broke to destitute, therefore not exactly a paragon of self-sacrifice if you ask me. Anyway, what happens in this movie is rarely funny, and, while it's not extremely dull either, it is mostly barely entertaining.
Rating: 40
English titles: Violent City; The Family
A professional assassin is betrayed by one of his clients and by his girlfriend. He goes to prison and upon release receives an offer to join a criminal organization.
Well-filmed but poorly written crime thriller. The initial car chase is the high point of the movie. What follows seems to have been written as they went along (by a ridiculously high number of screenwriters), in such a way that sometimes we wonder whether we are watching one of those avant-garde movies where events do not follow a strictly logical order and the story repeats itself with minor variations, like in Last Year in Marienbad, or Cet obscur objet du désir, for two examples off the top of my head (but I watched those so long ago that I may be making a mistaken comparison). Also, the characters seem more like an evocation of earlier fictional avatars than any real life counterparts. As in most European genre productions, it is impossible not to sense a certain self-parodic quality. I don't understand, however, why IMDB categorizes the tarantula in the prison cell as a goof due to the fact that there are no tarantulas in Europe -- I thought he was in a prison in the Caribbean; well, maybe I was mistaken.
Rating: 38
English titles: The Scheming Women; The Plotters
The two owners of a theater are walking on a footbridge inside the premises of their theater when one of them falls to his death on the floor below. A man working for their company as a kind of production manager sends an anonymous letter to the police accusing the surviving owner of murdering his associate. It turns out the accuser covets the wife of the man he accuses. She advises her husband to get himself committed to a psychiatric institution while she tries to find proof of his innocence. But she soon strays from that purpose...
There is really not much in the way of a mystery here, things follow a more or less predictable course. The behavior of the female lead might be a little surprising to some, and might put others off a little, but movies are hardly to be expected to be psychology manuals. As a depiction of theater folks it is somewhat interesting, and as a criminal drama it is watchable but not top notch.
Rating: 45
A retired agent investigates a ring of White supremacists who resort to terrorism. The villains enjoy human hunting in the Louisiana bayous and seem to embrace a sort of Darwinist credo.
The chief baddie in this film gives a speech in which he warns of "rioting in the streets of our cities" and "civil disorder everywhere". Oh boy, where did he get such wild notions, I wonder? And in 1986, to boot. The plot is entirely along those lines, and we could objectively say that it is functional, in the sense that it provides support to a fair number of action set-pieces. Those are very watchable, with very competent second unit work.
Rating: 37
English title: Question of Love
A man is murdered as he was arriving at his house. The prime suspect is his wife's lover, a foreigner, with the possible complicity of the wife herself. The lover leaves the country, and so the two suspects face trials in different countries.
This is a very plausible and well-constructed narrative, but still not all that interesting or memorable. The culprit is not exactly hard to guess either.
Rating: 40
English title: The Smiling Madame Beudet
A married woman lives in a chronic state of boredom and develops a disliking towards her husband as she daydreams about a celebrity tennis player. Out of an impulse, she sets a deadly trap for her husband.
Based on a stage play written by two men, the "feminist" plot is not terribly interesting. On strictly cinematic terms, the job of replacing words with images sometimes pays off in psychological intensity, while other times the absence of intertitles makes it simply incomprehensible.
Rating: 39
English title: The Cigarette
A man decides to commit suicide after he deduces that his wife is cheating on him. He opts for an unconventional manner of ending his own life.
This is from a time when people thought there was such a thing as a non-poisoned cigarette. Anyway, this film is not likely to provoke many emotions in modern audiences (and I suspect it didn't even in its day). I am usually opposed to tragedies, as they feel artificial and unrealistic, but a tragic ending would at least bring some life to this dull story, in a paradoxical way.
Rating: 45
English title: Women of Ryazan.
Alternative titles: The Village of Sin; The Devil's Plaything; The Peasant Women of Ryazan
(*mild spoilers*) Life at a small rural village. Vassili is a rich farmer; his son Ivan falls in love with poor peasant Anna, an orphan. They marry. Vassili's daughter Vassilissa wants to marry poor blacksmith Nikolai, but his father forbids their relationship, so she leaves home to live with him. World War One breaks out and both Nikolai and Ivan are drafted. During Ivan's absence, Vassili rapes Anna.
Mildly interesting as a chronicle of peasants' lives and customs, with some well-filmed sequences, such as of a wedding and of a primitive amusement park. As a narrative, it has an educational slant through a somewhat manicheistic schematism: older women are gossipy and bigotted against their own kind; older men are brutes and satyrs; youngsters are pure and often victimized; etc. It's interesting to notice how some of the U.S. titles of this film didn't seem to get the film's message.
Rating: 37
A teacher has difficulties in providing for the well-being of his family. A religious minister wants to marry the teacher's daughter, but he is also poor. A wealthy student has a crush on the young woman, and starts courting her as well.
This well-made drama is quite acceptable for the most part of its duration, but towards the end becomes considerably implausible. Furthermore, there are serious problems with the way it conveys its defense of a better payment for teachers. The main problem is that the newly enrolled champions of that cause were never interested students, and that does not have anything to do with the teacher's salary; neither is it a question of morals; it is perfectly plausible that people become better through experience, but that has no bearing on their academic interest. Another problem with that last section is that the love triangle does not get a satisfactory solution.
Rating: 50
Based on the poem by J.W. Goethe, written in 1782.
English title: The Erl King
A man is riding with his son when their horse suffers a fall and the boy is wounded. They take shelter in a nearby house. The boy isn't feeling well, but the man must continue his journey. They go through a forest, and the child has hallucinations.
Rather boring translation into images of a famous poem; the images are nice to look at, but they don't capture the emotional strength of the poem.
Rating: 35
English title: She Does Not Drink, Smoke or Flirt But... She Talks
A housemaid learns compromising information about one of her employers and reveals it to another; she goes on doing that with all three of them; that entails mutual blackmailing among those employers.
Nonsensical farce which does not shy away from vulgarity but is mildly funny, though a bit too monotonous. The title is funny too, but has nothing to do with the film; the protagonist is a smoker and an occasional drinker; her talking is calculated and essential to the plot, rather than the annoying kind that is the product of an uncontrollable urge, as the title seems to imply; she indeed does not flirt but that is neither here nor there; in short, it is a deceitful title, perhaps intended at enticing a certain kind of audience.
Rating: 40
English title: The Little Soldier
(warning: *mild spoilers*) Geneva, 1958. A member of a rightwing organization refuses to perform an assassination. He is blackmailed into it, but plans to escape to another country. He is kidnapped by the rival leftwing organization and tortured. He later finds out that his girlfriend is part of that leftwing organization. She is kidnapped and tortured by the rightwing organization, which once more demands that the protagonist do the assassination he had earlier refused to do.
This is a very early film of this writer/director, and he was still somewhat bound by a narrative structure, of which he would progressively free himself along his career. Still, it is very evident that he is not interested in psychology, or in plot realism. His notion of a man who deserts from a war and subsequently goes to fight *for* that same war as a terrorist may make sense to him, but I honestly do not see how. Not only that, but he also *refuses* to obey orders within his organization. Why did he join in the first place? Well, apparently he is some kind of romantic hero. A loner who likes poetry and engages in literary quotations and philosophizing at every possible opportunity. And what about his girlfriend? In the first half of the movie she is a somewhat lethargic model from abroad and then she suddenly turns into a dangerous leftwing activist (though she somehow can't shake her lethargic looks). As an essayistic dissertation about political and assorted other themes, framed as a semi-parodic spy thriller, however, the film works reasonably well. It is well filmed and well photographed, and provides an interesting document about its time without being too boring.
Rating: 50
English title: The Butcher
In a small town, a butcher meets a schoolteacher (and headmistress) and they start a friendship. Concurrently to that, a series of grisly murders of women terrorize the town, and the police doesn't have a clue as to who is committing them.
I can't say I find all, or even most, of this film's plot and characters very plausible, but somehow it manages to engage the viewer's attention and even produce an emotional response to it. The film might appear to some to be primarily concerned about the titular character, but is it really? It is left for the viewer to decide (or not) about some more obscure aspects of his psyche, e.g., what role, if any, his war experience had in his present psychological affliction. I think, however, that the moral point of the film is made through the character of Hélène, the schoolteacher. Her ordeal is ironic: she had been scarred by a first relationship in which she was abandoned, and got wary of men subsequently. Hers is a dead end, though: even if she comes to be loved, she will not feel loved, because she lost her faith in men. Unless, of course, the man proves it to her, but then she will learn that one cannot eat one's cake and have it too.
Rating: 60
Based on the novel by Marcel Aymé, first published in 1933.
English title: The Green Mare
Two rural families develop a rivalry which grows into a frank enmity due to a wartime incident. Years later, the young daughter of one of the families becomes enamored of the young son of the other. When a letter containing references to that aforementioned incident goes missing, things take an unexpected turn.
This is one of the most outrageous films I have seen, on account of the behavior of some of its characters. It's not exactly the most interesting, let alone exciting one, but I confess I found it entertaining enough. It was criticized at the time for its unflattering depiction of peasants, and I wouldn't know whether it's reliable as a sociological study of peasant life. But what matters in fiction is plausibility, and I think the film acquits itself nicely at that. There is a review in French (by Frédéric Mercier) which I think covers a wide range of aspects of this film; it may be read here.
Rating: 51
A young man from a small town tries to make it as an actor in the big city. He has a huge advantage in his instant memory, but an equally enormous disadvantage in that he is extremely shy when he is watched by a crowd.
Very repetitive comedy which gets tiresome very early on. It's hard to find a positive quality about this movie, but the notion implied in its final section that a series of disasters during a performance can be more attractive as a spectacle than the original play being performed is kind of interesting.
Rating: 13
The boxing world champion decides to retire but changes his mind after he is challenged by an up and coming new fighter.
While the first and second movies of the franchise could claim to some social concern, though strictly devoid of any collective spirit, this movie is entirely an abstraction. The kind of reward the film offers is mechanical and, in a way, detached from reality. One has to acknowledge that it is well done, though.
Rating: 23
A British agent is sent to Brazil to retrieve some secret technological information which has leaked and is to be sold to the highest bidder. He is to make contact with a man posing as a taxi driver, but makes contact with a real taxi driver instead, who then follows him around in his mission. An enemy agent shoots the scientist who was supposed to be in possession of a microfilm with the secret information. Then two shipping company employees carry a box containing the unconscious scientist, unwittingly.
Terrible espionage satire, with some unrelated Carnival songs thrown in for good measure. The narrative is occasionally incoherent and the humor falls completely flat. I saw a restored copy of the film, which nevertheless remains badly damaged especially in the audio track.
Rating: 12
Based on the novel Sans famille, by Hector Malot, first published in 1878.
English title: Remi, Nobody's Boy
Rémi is a boy who is sold by his adoptive father to a street entertainer. Rémi's wanderings as a street artist lead him to find out the truth about his origins.
I read an abridged version of the source novel as a child, and remember being very fond of it. I was disappointed at this filmic version, though I am not sure whether the fault is entirely on the film itself or on my having grown up. Anyway, it has some beautiful landscapes and passable acting performances. As for the narrative, it is melodramatic and not very exciting.
Rating: 40
English title: The ComDads
When her teenage son runs away from home, a woman contacts one former fling, an investigative journalist, and tells him that he is the kid's biological father. As he doesn't seem convinced, she contacts another of her former flings, a depressive guy, and tells him the same. He in turn seems very excited with the idea and starts to search for the boy. It so happens that the journalist guy has a job in the same city where the boy is supposed to be, and the two men end up meeting and joining efforts in the search.
Dull comedy which quite inexplicably was a huge box-office success in France. In Brazil, on the other hand, exhibitors didn't see any revenue potential and it wasn't shown theatrically. Fourteen years later there was a remake which was slightly less dull than the original (you can read my review here).
Rating: 31
English titles: Knock on Wood; The Goat
A wealthy man's daughter is kidnapped while vacationing in Mexico. No ransom is asked, and after an unsuccessful attempt at finding her, a new strategy is proposed by one of her father's employees: seeing as the kidnapped woman is notoriously acident-prone, they should hire an equally accident-prone person to accompany the detective in charge of finding her. The theory is that, by suffering the same kind of misfortunes the young woman suffered, that person might stumble into a lead into her whereabouts.
Comedy consisting basically of the development of a single idea (expressed in the synopsis above). It's watchable but nothing extraordinary.
Rating: 42
English titles: The Escape; Out of It
May 1968. A lawyer is visiting his sentenced-to-death client when a prison riot bursts. The lawyer is wrongfully accused of assaulting a prison guard; his client escapes. Later, the two rejoin and go through several incidents while on the run.
Mildly entertaining comedy with a frantic pace. As is usual in this director's movies, everything is very well done but also very formulaic; the setting at the time of the 1968 student rebellion adds to the film's interest, although the film is not very interested in politics.
Rating: 41
English title: The Umbrella Coup
An actor, due an address mistake, thinks he is auditioning for a role when he is actually being hired as a killer. Concurrently, he has troubles with his girlfriends.
Very conventional yet also very well done comedy of errors which entertains provided one is not looking for anything terribly innovative or intellectually stimulating. The best -- or at any rate most curious -- joke is when the protagonist, while pretending to be blind, refers to a nose he discerns by touch as "anti-semitic".
Rating: 40
Henri, a veterinarian, has his first son. His wife leaves him some time later. He finds a new love.
The synopsis above does not really describe the film, which consists of the protagonist being serially annoyed by everyone he meets: his relatives, his customers, his friends, even the people who are supposed to serve him. The pursuit of that theme is carried out very conscientiously but, alas, the result, though far from unwatchable, is eminently contrived and not often funny.
Rating: 36
U.S. title: Pardon Mon Affaire, Too!
Translation of the original title: We Will All Go to Heaven
New adventures of the characters from Un élephant, ça trompe énormément. Étienne suspects his wife of adultery. The four friends buy a house in the country. And so on.
Unnecessary and uninspired sequel of sorts. I guess that in an age of sitcoms any movie which saw the possibility of begetting a sitcom as well jumped at the opportunity, even if it is in the form of a theatrical movie.
Rating: 35
Based on the novel by W. Somerset Maugham, first published in 1944.
Larry is a young American from a well-to-do family who serves in World War One as an ambulance driver. After the war he gets second thoughts about becoming a stockbroker and decides instead to search for a meaning in life, or the meaning of life, or whatever. That entails some lifestyle choices which do not agree with his fiancée's expectations.
This is a strange movie, as most people who have watched it have noticed. The main actor does not suit the part physically, and his way of verbal expression is clearly anachronistic, and often considerably out of character. The other characters are poorly written but well played. Since the general dramatic points of the plot remain comprehensible, it's hard to consider the film a total failure. The basic point of the plot seems to be that women are what prevents men from searching a meaning in life, and that may be a good thing because there is no meaning in life.
Rating: 35
Alternate title punctuation: Un éléphant, ça trompe énormément
U.S. title: Pardon Mon Affaire
Original title's translation: An Elephant Can Be Extremely Deceptive
Second viewing; previously viewed on June 25, 2013
Previous review: click here.
"A group of middle-aged friends get together for tennis regularly. Étienne is married and has never been unfaithful; his wife decided late in life to get a Law degree. He is lovestruck by a woman who comes one day to the public service facility he works at. Simon is a doctor with an overbearing mother. Daniel is an unmarried jokester with a secret. Bouli is a chronically unfaithful husband whose wife just left him." (from my previous review)
My opinion of this movie remains largely unaltered upon this second viewing. One thing that I probably should add (and which I probably hadn't noticed earlier) is how similar in premise it is to Amici miei, released the year before in Italy. I will also add (though I doubt that I hadn't notice *this* earlier) that it is rare to find such an unjudgmental, matter-of-factly view of adultery in a movie. Perhaps it's a French thing, perhaps it's a 1970s thing, or perhaps it is both.
Rating: 58 (up from 57)
Three pop singers are the object of an intense marketing campaign.
Botched satire of the pop industry. It seems to be mostly a stage musical filmed as is. While it is true that pop idols are manufactured to varying extents, this film distorts a basic aspect of reality when it implies that this phenomenon is tantamount to bad quality. Some pop groups which are entirely an industrial operation issued nonetheless good music, since good composers were hired, and those idols-to-be were chosen among people who could sing and perform. So, while it may be mildly funny to watch the humorous badness which comprise the musical aspect of this movie, this has nothing to do with show business reality. Furthermore, completely "authentic" artists may produce some very poor art, and I think we all have witnessed that one time or another. Incidentally, I guess this film might be a good example of that. Being simply the spin-off of a French equivalent of a mildly successful off-Broadway play, its only points of interest are as a document of another era and as a vehicle for some very committed and energetic performances.
Rating: 23
A woman who ten years earlier had an affair with the current President is mugged in the street and has her handbag stolen. Inside that handbag is a letter from him asking her to perform an abortion.
One of those dramas which seem to presuppose that (a) politicians are extremely important persons and (b) their privates lives are extremely interesting for the common folks. As neither (a) nor (b) are true, what we get here is in equal parts tedious and implausible. I guess the actors are the only thing here which could perhaps draw viewers to the movie. But, alas, if we don't see it, how will we know it is really that bad?
Rating: 20
U.S. title: The French Detective
Title translation: Goodbye, Cop
While posting political propaganda for a mayoral candidate, a man is assaulted by a gang who works for the opposing candidate and dies as a result of it. A cop intervenes and is murdered. The main suspect disappears and the police starts searching for him. While the candidate who employed the suspect tries to exonerate himself from all responsibility for the crimes, the two detectives in charge of the investigation find that claim hard to believe.
Largely unremarkable cop thriller which focus on the theme of police corruption. The plot consists basically of the two protagonists fighting the corrupt establishment and employing the most implausible tricks to overcome the obstacles to their investigation. The two main actors are good, and the film is eventful, professionally made and not too long.
Rating: 38
English title: The White Sheik
An Italian couple in Rome for their honeymoon gets separated when the wife sneaks out to search for her idol, an actor in soap opera photo strips. At the studio where that actor works, she is deceived into boarding a truck which then leaves for a location shooting. When the husband's relatives arrive for a family lunch, he has to make phony excuses for the wife's absence.
Though featuring a few noteworthy individual sequences -- the initial street sequences in Rome and the photo shoot mainly sticking in my memory -- the script's weaknesses are apparent by around midfilm and make for a rather unexciting second half. The characters are very one-dimensional and convey a stereotypical depiction of the lower middle class. Although far from unwatchable, it's safe to say that, hadn't this film's director and co-writer achieved superstar status among filmmakers through his subsequent films, this film would probably be forgotten today.
Rating: 48
U.S. title: Monsieur Gangster
Literal translation of the French title: The Gun-Toting Uncles
Fernand, a businessman with a criminal past, gets a call from Louis, one of his former criminal associates who is dying. Louis wants Fernand to take over his criminal organization after his death. The respective heads of the different branches of that organization are not happy with that situation. On top of that, Fernand becomes responsible for Louis's teenage daughter.
Mildly entertaining comedy with a completely implausible premise. The part about becoming the girl's tutor or adoptive parent is OK, though for modern times (and perhaps even for 1963) the control he applies over an 18 year-old seems a little excessive. As for the part of taking over the gang, the fact that he accepts it (and as a matter of fact that the dying man would want it in the first place) is beyond belief. The revolt of his new underlings is plausible and even just if one sees it through their eyes. This makes for a less than likeable protagonist who seems to achieve success in his goals apparently by mere tough talking and posturing. The trouble which ensues on both fronts -- parental and, say, managerial -- is exploited for humor -- in this case a somewhat childish humor with an overabundance of dialogue which reportedly has become an object of cult.
Rating: 45
Man is released from prison, marries his sweetheart, gets a job, and buys a house. He is then fired, and framed for a crime he didn't commit.
Melodrama which is ridiculous and entertaining in equal proportions. I guess in those post-depression years it was kind of normal to fantasize about criminals with a golden heart -- the protagonist here had a special fondness for frogs -- and this film really goes all the way in making the Law, and much of law-abiding society, look bad, and outlaws look good. But what makes this piece of shitheaded propaganda so entertaining is that everything in it is absolutely top quality: its shrewdly concocted -- and wildly implausible! -- script, its amazing expressionistic shots, its two superb main performances, etc, etc. Needless to say, the people involved in making this film were reasonably well-off -- some of them very well-off -- and so were never really affected by things like poverty on one side, and street crime on the other. Audiences at the time probably were wary of this kind of discourse, and the film lost money, though over the years it undoubtedly recovered from that initial loss.
Rating: 52
English title: The Ground Beneath My Feet
Lola is an executive at a corporate consulting firm whose sister Conny has schizophrenia. Lola has a relationship with Elise, who works with her and is her hierarchical superior. Lola starts to get suspicious phone calls.
**spoilers below**
Tautly directed drama with some serious plot problems which detract from the film's effectiveness. The biggest flaw is connected with the phone calls Lola gets. Surely it would be quite implausible that Conny would be able to get both a phone to make those calls and the assistance to set them as anonymous. But even setting aside this issue, and ascribing Lola's gullibility to her psychological condition, there is a deeper logical flaw. Lola looks for psychiatrical assistance claiming she is hallucinating. But her phone rang in front of several other persons. Surely everyone would think she was completely nuts if she started to answer inexistent calls. She would probably be forced to get a medical license. So, it simply does not make sense. There is a strong suggestion of gaslighting here, and also in other events further ahead, though nothing is really ever explained, as the film opts for a deflating denouement. Another huge plot point which requires a huge suspension of disbelief is how Lola sets her suicidal sister in a flat with a balcony. What was she thinking, for pity's sake? And hasn't she heard of protection nets? Critics seemed to like the film, probably placing a higher value on the film's subtext of social commentary, visible in the exchanges with the street beggar, and on the exposition of the cruel mechanics of corporate capitalism.
Rating: 40
French-dubbed version (title: Cent jours à Palerme)
In 1982, a general who became known for his successful fight against terrorism is appointed prefect -- a kind of administrative officer who also has authority over the police, from what I gather -- of Palermo, with the mission of putting a stop to organized crime.
Very dull account of real events. It's a mechanical film consisting of brutal assassinations, bureaucratic meetings (both of law agents and of criminal ones), and some extremely tedious interludes about the protagonist's relationship with a younger woman and his qualms of conscience about endangering her life. There is a speech in the movie which goes like that: "The real question that should be asked in Sicily, like in all other countries, is how to have only one power, a state with its institutions and laws. We can't share power with the provocateurs, the violent, or the dishonest." Now let me quote the famous definition of fascism given by Benito Mussolini: “Everything in the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State.”
Rating: 30
A couple of newlyweds returning from the church is surprised by the presence of a gang of outlaws hiding in their house. The bandits rape the wife and flee. The husband vows to avenge himself.
Brazilian revenge movie which follows the conventions of a Western, although in this case it should be called a Northeastern if it were to reference the Brazilian region where it is set. In its first section it exploits its criminal subject for shock value. After that, the film becomes duller as its engages in several extended fight scenes with rather poor choreography.
Rating: 31
English title: Taxi for Tobruk
During World War II, four French soldiers in a jeep get stranded in the African desert. They take a German prisoner.
Tedious war drama which reportedly was the most watched French film of its year in France. Everything in this film is predictable and cliché. Also, the plot bears considerable similarity with that of the much superior Sahara (1943), a fact which seems to have gone unnoticed in reviews. For justice's sake, the fine cinematography lends the film a certain aesthetical appeal, and the actors are competent. The dialogue, credited to an experienced professional, is mostly painfully uninspired, but does include a curious speech, by a Jewish character, who was against setting the German prisoner free: "But me, I don't forget anything. I'm the nasty one, the spiteful one. I don't like being a cuckold. When I started reading Hegel, you guys were already on Mein Kampf. The French always are a book too late." I wonder whether this speech was created by the writer of the original screenplay, whose mother was Jewish, or by the dialogue man, who was an anti-semite.
About a guy who enlists in the army during World War II, but refuses to use a rifle (even during training). He faces some resistance, but goes on to be a medic. His outfit's mission is to take the titular ridge in Okinawa.
Cliché-ridden "true story" with a particularly absurd leading character and fine battle sequences.
Rating: 37
U.S. title: I Sent a Letter to My Love
A woman and her cripple brother live together. She places a personal ad under a pseudonym in the newspaper looking for a companion, and receives a reply... from her own brother!
This is one of those premises which look promising but seem to be difficult to develop into a complete story. Perhaps in the source novel it delves into some interesting points which in the movie got lost or were just implied. Anyway, it is all very frustrating.
Rating: 30
A cruise ship is transporting some beautiful models to a fashion show. Two stewards on the ship keep flirting with them. On the trip back, they meet again and the two men devise a plan to be with them on a supposedly deserted island which they happen to pass by on their route.
Terrible comedy which starts with a certain level of technical professionalism and falls into sheer amateurism after a while. Some really pretty girls and a mildly agreeable soundtrack are the only things that keep the movie from being totally unwatchable.
Rating: 11
Rocky is a previously unknown boxer who became somewhat of a celebrity after a fight with a world champion which Rocky lost by points. Being in dire need of money, what with his wife having their first child, Rocky accepts a rematch with the same guy.
The Rocky movies are noteworthy for two things: they have working-class characters, and they have an individualistic worldview. In a way, they do a reductio ad absurdum of individualism by implying that a guy must be punched to a pulp to escape his miserable condition. The big problem is that this irony is lost on most viewers, who get stuck in the enjoyment of very elementary emotions and come out of the movie with a sense of vindication for the poor hero. As a user review by one darin-wissbaum in IMDB very appropriately points out, around the sixth or so sequel "if you count how many times Rocky has been hit in the head and face he should either be dead or a vegetable". Anyway, this was 1979, and the next year Reagan was elected, marking a conservative turn in the U.S., so there you have it. The film is technically well made, and, though decidedly on the dull side, it is watchable, barely.
Rating: 32
Based on the homonymous 1948 film.
An orchestra conductor is married to a younger wife. Some apparently incriminating evidence is brought to him concerning his wife's activities while he had been on a trip. Further inquiries by him seem to point to a violinist who plays with his orchestra as her lover. He devises a retribution.
This begins as an examination of communication and the sources of its failure; in its final section, it is a contrasting of plans with their realization. So, the general theme seems to be Ideal vs. Real. I don't remember the source movie too well, but, from what I have read, the two do not differ a great deal in plot. That movie ascribed the misunderstanding to an artist's "creative temperament" (I take the words from Wikipedia). Well, explaining creativity through garbled communication is certainly intriguing. Anyway, this film is not an examination of paranoia: the husband was provoked by fortuitous misinformation; besides, the film implies that women do cheat, and so mistrust is not in itself unreasonable. Overall, it is a nice pastime, and the acting is very good.
Rating: 52
Alfie and Helena, an elderly couple, get divorced because Alfie wants to live as a young man. Helena starts consulting a fortune teller. Their daughter Sally is married to Roy, a writer. Due to financial pressures, Sally gets a job in an art gallery. Roy starts flirting with a woman he spots through his window. Sally becomes attracted towards her boss. Alfie marries a call girl.
Agreeable dramatic comedy which relies on somewhat overused themes and concepts, but still manages to entertain due to its polished text and its very competent cast. One of the central themes in the movie is the need for faith, and an amusing insight it displays is how peculiarly cruel the people under the spell of a particular creed can be.
Rating: 51
A drug dealer has a dent in his reputation and decides to assassinate a famous police chief as a means to restore it and thus secure an upcoming drug deal. It turns out that at the moment of the attempt someone else is in the police chief's car instead of him. The police chief takes advantage of being presumed dead to conduct a secret investigation on the criminals who attempted against his life.
Much of the humor here is a rehashing of jokes which are recurrent on the series. It manages to be funny at times; at other times it is mildly annoying, or simply dull. There is an idea here (a female actress which plays a male character impersonating a woman) which may have been the germ to the filmmaker's remake, a few years later, of Viktor und Viktoria (1933). The last act, at a Hong Kong shipyard, has an uncanny resemblance to one of the hypotheses put forward regarding the recent catastrophe in Beirut.
Rating: 45
Four friends from a small town who have formed a musical quartet move to a big city in the hopes of becoming widely known. A TV producer becomes interested in one of them, a woman, and rejects the remaining three men. She becomes a star, and her former companions struggle to land a contract as a trio.
Drama with some comic bits and some musical numbers. Conventional and predictable, but done with a certain competence; the musical numbers are mildly agreeable.
Rating: 34
Adelino lives above his means and is constantly harassed by creditors. He fails to keep his payments on the fur coat he bought for his wife, and, after it has to be returned, she decides to leave him. On that same day, Adelino's uncle, from whom he expects to inherit a fortune, drops in to stay for a few days. Adelino doesn't want his uncle to know his wife left him, and so he makes his maid pass off as his wife.
Unimaginative comedy. The second half is filled with mildly attractive musical numbers. Not a terrible film; it is effectively staged and paced.
Rating: 33
A wealthy woman's cat escapes and she places an ad promising a reward to the person who finds it and returns it. A poor shoe shiner finds the lost animal and plans to collect the reward, but is kidnapped by a gang who also covets the reward.
Poor comedy with a very basic comicity. The 50s ambiance and cityscapes are quite interesting to watch, though.
Rating: 32
English title: Drunken Master
A young man gets involved in a series of conflicts and his father hires an old martial arts instructor with a reputation of extreme rigor to discipline him. The young man is terrified at first and flees; he eventually accepts to undergo the training.
Curious fight comedy with elaborate choreography and childish humor. The central thesis of enhancing fighting performance through alcoholic intoxication is absurd but probably just intended for comic effect. The protagonist learns in the end to stop fearing his feminine side and instead use it to his advantage.
Rating: 51
Based on the film Les compères (1983).
When her teenage son runs away from home, a woman looks for an old boyfriend and tells him he is the boy's father and asks him to help find him. Then she phones another old boyfriend and tells him the same thing. Those two guys accidentally meet and join in a search for the missing kid.
Unremarkable comedy which might help pass the time in a desperate situation. The dialogue has a tendency to try too hard to be funny, with variable results. I haven't watched the French original, but what we see here is a really uninspired comedy.
Rating: 33
*begin quote*
Things I Learnt From This Movie:
Don't look up when going down a sand bank on a rope
Damp deserts aren't a thing
Pregnancy can be smelt
*end quote*
