The great concern of this film is the way love interacts with the inhumane psychological pressures of war. It offers three case studies: Jodie Foster's callow fashion designer joins the resistance in the name of personal love, Michael Ontkean places his convictions above his emotions, and Sam Neill is a Nazi whose crush on Foster ties him in gordian knots. Based on Simone de Beauvoir's novel, and directed by old master Chabrol, it's not for lack of brains that this movie hits the dirt. But if Chabrol can speak English at all, he can't direct it. The entire first hour is impossibly stilted and distant; Foster's refusal to emote generates more frustration than insight, and she sets the tone for the rest of the cast. It's a relief when Neill finally shows up, because he's not so on guard against melodrama; but by then he has to cram his broad character arc into such a small handful of scenes that he ultimately fares little better. Even the reasonably tense third-act suspense sequences fail, because they don't advance Foster's character; if she's progressed beyond romantic self-interest by then she's keeping it to herself, and she's pretty much along for the ride in the climactic jail break. Lots of small moments and nuances that never add up to anything are crammed between loving shots of expensive set design and the kind of gratuitous cameos (Kate Reid, John Vernon) that signal the worst kind of international coproduction - too many cooks in the kitchen.
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jonathan-5772 November 2009
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jmbwithcats1 April 2009Jodie Foster plays Hélène in World War II's German-occupied Paris, where she is torn between the love for her boyfriend Jean, working for the resistance and the German administrator Bergmann, who will do anything to gain her affection.
Watching Jodie Foster in the role you really see the promise and potential she showed as a young actress. Playing a young and precocious idealist, Hélène stumbles through life, never quite responsible, never quite concerned, while the war goes on around her.
Sam Neill steals the show as the brilliantly suave, sick and terrible Nazi who falls deeply in love with Hélène.
One aspect of the movie I find intriguing is the perspective. I'm used to seeing WWII films from the Jew's perspective, with Schindler's List, Holocaust, and The Story of Anne Frank and many others, and in a Rosencrantz and Guildenstern way, the bit players of the darker tales, The French are the main characters while the story of the Jews goes on in the background almost unaware. It is interesting to see the story from another angle.
In the end, The Blood of Others is the story of a girl who does the wrong things because she's young, and does the right things out of love, but what she really believes is a childish ideal, and her life, though a short one, tells the tale of small but important sacrifices made during the war effort for the resistance. The movie some what falls short in this regard, because while we feel a loss, the overall film suffers from a lack of depth and tension. -
I recall this being shown on local TV; still, I am not sure in which guise it was - since the film was originally shown as a two-part mini-series (running 176 minutes), while the edition I recently acquired was possibly a theatrical reduction of it with a length of just 125 minutes!
It is yet another rare foray into the English language for director Chabrol; for the record, he would deal with this turbulent period of French history again in both STORY OF WOMEN (1988) and the documentary THE EYE OF VICHY (1993) - though, instead of regular lead Isabelle Huppert, here we have American Jodie Foster. She is okay under the circumstances (the film certainly does not condemn her initial lack of political commitment and apparent collaborationism, though her ultimate self-sacrifice does come off as overly contrived). Less effective are her Communist/resistance members lovers Michael Ontkean (for whom he forsakes the like-minded Alexandra Stewart) and Lambert Wilson; incidentally, this is the one film where Chabrol was able to express his politics! However, also involved with the heroine is German manufacturer Sam Neill - who does creditably too (despite the dubious accent).
Predictably, Chabrol's ex-wife Stephane Audran turns up as well and, while ranking highly in the cast list, her role is both minor and unrewarding (at least in the shorter version); ditto, her Nazi lover John Vernon creates an initial impression but nothing subsequently comes of his character! On the other hand, the participation of veterans Micheline Presle (as an abortionist - a subject the director would focus on in the afore-mentioned STORY OF WOMEN) and Jean-Pierre Aumont (as Ontkean's disapproving bourgeois father) is notable, though brief; Christa Lang, Samuel Fuller's wife, is also on hand (as, reportedly, is the iconoclastic American film-maker himself - though his role seems to have been excised from this compressed edition as I would surely have recognized him otherwise!).
Though the film has been much criticized for its commercial trappings (glossy production, star names, melodramatic plot), Chabrol's true métier as a director of thrillers emerges in a couple of key suspense sequences: the planting of a gun in a Nazi-infested hotel, followed by the assassination of a traitor, and the climactic springing from prison of the captured hit-man via the ruse of impersonation. -
nbott22 July 2004Jodie Foster and Michael Ontkean playing French war resistors is a stretch of the imagination I could not entertain. This story should have been in French with French actors and actresses. I really do not like films that have English lines but songs that are in French etc. At least they did not attempt to have phony French accents. I hope Mr. Chabrol was paid well for this lapse in his usual brilliant film career. This is truly the worst film I have seen directed by this classic filmmaker. Towards the end of the film there is a bit of script writing involving a love-obsessed Nazi and Jodie Foster that is one of the silliest things I have ever seen. This film, as so many others do, seems to enjoy depicting Germans during World War II as somehow not intelligent. Storytellers seem to forget that they almost conquered all of Europe. This VHS will definitely be donated to the next charity yard sale in my neighborhood. Skip this film.
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Scott-16614 September 1999This movie has some points that invites a viewer: first of all, the story is based upon a novel written by the great Simone de Beauvoir; second, the movie has a fine director, Monsieur Claude Chabrol and last but not least, a good cast where we can find some great names, like Jodie Foster and Sam Neill (in a great performance, as a sick and deeply in love nazist). The important is that all these points are not a deception. The movie has a witty and elegant screenplay, the direction of Monsieur Chabrol, if it's not a overwhelming work of art, is good and convincing and the cast is really a standout. A good love and war story that goes on in a pleasant way. Watch out: the very last scene is a really knockout! Cotation (7 of 10).
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matjpi25 March 2012Not having read de Beauvoir's book (on which this film is based) my complaints may be unjust to one or the other.
The pace is uneven, as though chunks of the story were skipped to cut to the milestones. Other films manage to do the same without appearing choppy as this does. Barely has Hélène (Jodie Foster) met Jean (Michael Ontkean) and she is talking about marriage. When he discovers she is pregnant, suddenly the idealistic Jean declares his love for her despite Hélène's transparently manipulative modus.
The overall story is compelling, considering the source this is perhaps unsurprising, and the film tries to do some justice to it. The acting is passable; Ontkean did better than I expected him to do but Jodie did worse than she normally does: this is one of several films she made in her wilderness years of self-doubt, and it shows.
I suspect the unevenness of pace was because the screenplay was a poorly balanced abbreviation of the book.
Some criticisms. Post-production dubs of outdoor scenes sound like they were recorded in a room - obviously they were but didn't need to sound like that - and the audiovisual sync - or lack of it - betrays which segments of the soundtrack these are.
The entire dialogue should have been in French and, since there's no French equivalent (AFAIK), we would have been spared "geddowdahere" from Jodie who speaks near-perfect accent-less French.
The story has great potential, after all it's from a critically acclaimed book, but was ultimately let down by the direction.
The worst moment came, for me, at the end of the film when Jean embraces Hélène thereby moving the bullet in her lung to somewhere even less convivial. Besides being idiocy, it made me want to quietly lead Jean into another room and beat him unconscious. -
"The Blood Of Others" is a strange project for Claude Chabrol to have undertaken: a made-for-TV WWII period piece made by a French director working with a (mismatched) international cast, set in Occupied Paris but shot in English, with several English-speaking actors playing French and Germans. Most of the film is an old-fashioned, disjointed soap opera; only near the end are there a few meager suspense sequences. Jodie Foster is fine, and the film definitely gets a shot in the arm from Sam Neill when he enters the picture in the second half. But it's still one of Chabrol's least interesting films. Overlong, too. ** out of 4.
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searchanddestroy-127 September 2016I am astonished that this French movie about French resistance and adapted by a great female French novelist has not been more considered in France. It is not available in DVD, and not commented on the French movie web site All Cine, a sort of poor man's IMDb. That said, I much enjoyed it, because of the directing, acting and music score. Of course every one will compare it to the Jean-Pierre Melville's masterpiece ARMY OF SHADOWS, which is far far more impressive. Jodie Foster is very good here, although she is not Simone Signoret. The sequence of the taking out of jail using a fake German ambulance made me think of ARMY OF SHADOWS, of course. Yes, a good Chabrol's film that really deserves to be more known in France. I don't understand. A poignant and downbeat ending.