mikec-7

Allen movies have always fared much better in Europe than North America and judging by the comments on this site and the reactions of the audience in the cinema in Geneva, the dichotomy is increasing. The cinema was just about full and the audience loved it. From a European perspective, this is vintage Allen and his best film in a long while. The scene between Leoni and Allen in the bar towards the beginning of the film is an absolute gem. It seems to have been shot in one long take but how they ever got through this scene without cracking up is a mystery. Indeed, as others have remarked, Leoni gives a remarkable performance and the movie glows whenever she and Allen are on screen to-gether. The dialogue is machine gun fast and incredibly funny.

Allen can make movies in many different registers. This is very firmly in the comedy register and is on a par with his best, including Annie Hall.

If you enjoy Allen's movies, then ignore the reviews, give yourself a treat and go see his latest venture.

This movie, made in 1983, relates the story of a French president who has an illegitimate child whose existence becomes a state secret. When the film was released, Mitterand was a newly elected president, but what was not known to the public was that Mitterand had had an illegitimate child whose existence was a state secret up to around the time of Mitterand's death. The secret was known to many journalists and, it would seem, to the makers of this film. There is no way, this could be pure coincidence, there are just too many parallels. It makes very interesting viewing now. Above all there is, as one might expect, superb acting from Deneuve, Trintignant and Serrault. Not to be missed.

Since no one else has commented on this movie I thought I'd leave my impressions. This is a comedy in a similar vein to "La verité si je mens". Although not as well done as "La verité etc", it is still quite enjoyable with a magnificent, out of character Lambert Wilson. Better than the vote would suggest.

This is a very well made movie but needs to be viewed on different levels. If seen "as is" then it's simply a Hitchcock-like thriller. However, one can view Harry as being Laurent's dark side, fulfilling Laurent's unspoken wishes, Laurent's "id". He's the devil in all of us. Viewed in this way, the movie takes on altogether different dimension.

This is a beautifully filmed swashbuckling movie. The cast is magnificient although Fabrice Lucchini's Gonzague doesn't come across as particularly evil; more cynical than evil. Vincent Perez is superb and Daniel Auteil gives a good performance. To me the whole film was let down by a storyline that was far too predictable and so the whole movie just sauntered along and, despite all it's inherent quality, ultimately felt somewhat flat.

As someone who saw the original Star Wars on the big screen when first released, I was very disappointed by this tepid offering. In the original movies there were excellent characters such as Solo, Obi-Wan and Vader. Here, everyone is as insipid as Skywalker and Leia were in the original.

Lucas doesn't seem to be able to direct actors. The film is nothing more than a marketing tool for games and gadgets. It's impossible to have any empathy for the characters in this movie; there are none.

For people who worry that they might be giving this film short shrift because they might not have caught all the subtitles, stop worrying. In French it's just as bad. You could miss all the subtitles and not miss anything. And it's a shame because this is a film, made by a woman, about a middle aged, married with 2 kids woman, falling helplessly in love with a much younger man. So it's the reversal of the standard scenario. Unfortunately, there is nothing here to keep us interested for the length of the film. The acting, though, is excellent.