Nathalie Baye

Average customer rating:

And the Band Played On Played it RIGHT!
This is a weird movie
Good Movie
very educational
And The Band Played On

And the Band Played On
Starring: Matthew Modine , Alan Alda , Patrick Bauchau , Nathalie Baye , and Christian Clemenson
Director: Roger Spottiswoode
Manufacturer: Hbo Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
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Longtime Companion
Philadelphia (Widescreen Two-Disc Special Edition) [Region 99]
And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic
Torch Song Trilogy
Miss Evers' Boys

ASIN: B00005AQMJ
Release Date: 2001-06-05

Amazon.com essential video

A superior, made-for-cable film, this Home Box Office adaptation of Randy Shilts's chronicle detailing the emergence of AIDS in America and the fight against bureaucracy and society for a cure is a taut, outrageous, and affecting true-life drama. Matthew Modine (Birdy, Married to the Mob) is featured as a doctor with the Centers for Disease Control at the time when the first reports of a disease plaguing the gay community were heard. Modine and his colleagues embark on an investigation that resembles a compelling detective story as they try to track the source of the disease and discover a cure. Their efforts are thwarted by an ambivalent government and a turf war between French physicians and a celebrated American researcher (Alan Alda) who seems to place his own glory above the dead and the dying. Featuring heartfelt performances from a stellar cast including Richard Gere, Glenne Headly, Anjelica Huston, Steve Martin, Ian McKellen, Saul Rubinek, and Lily Tomlin, this impassioned film stands as an impressive and important document of one of the darkest eras in modern human history, and a tribute to the spirit of those who sought to save lives. --Robert Lane

Customer Reviews:

And the Band Played On Played it RIGHT!.......2007-06-17

I saw the movie first and I cried. To think that millions of people had to die,( or at the time thousands)before someone would get off the pot and do something. I read the book afterward, many times and was moved even further. We're not out of the woods yet, but we're a heck of a lot further along than we were...THANK GOD! Randy Shilts would be pleased at the screen adaptation of his book!

This is a weird movie.......2007-05-11

primarily because it doesn't take a stance. It argues neither in favor of the homosexual rights groups most heavily hit by AIDS at first, nor Reagan and the Republican Party who refused to allow AIDS to enter the media- it demeans such tenants of modern science as the scientific method and its inherent refusal to practice medicine off emotionalism while having a lot of fun giving people who work off emotionalism grief. It's one long, tortuous "I told you so."

However, everything else about the movie excelled enough to compensate. The actors, choreography, music, filming, and directing more than make up for a script centered heavily around "Whose fault is it?" And keep in mind- the subject is AIDS in the 1980s, when inaction made a disaster a pandemic. Maybe we should be asking "Whose fault is it?"

Good Movie.......2007-02-01

The movie was for my 11th and 12th grade classes to see how and when the HIV/AIDS was brought to national attention. Very interesting and good movie. The movie proves that AIDS has no boundaries on those who suffer from the disease. Education is our best ally.

very educational.......2007-01-09

i bought this movie for a friend,she is doing a paper on aids,and it was very helpful to her,a great cast very well done

And The Band Played On.......2007-01-05

I have read the book and found that the movie followed the content. It was interesting to find out how money was more important the saving lives. This movies is interesting, factual, and will ellist a strong reponse from any one that watches it. It is not a movie for children.

Catch Me If You Can (Widescreen Two-Disc Special Features)

Average customer rating:

The cast is exceptional with a counterfeiting, identity theft script.
scamming & scheming for fun & profit
REALLY GREAT
Terrific fun plus more
entertaining and intelligent

Catch Me If You Can (Widescreen Two-Disc Special Features)
Starring: Frank Abagnale Jr. , Jim Antonio , Candice Azzara , Nathalie Baye , and James Brolin
Director: Steven Spielberg
Manufacturer: Dreamworks Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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The Aviator (Two-Disc Special Edition)
The Terminal (Full Screen Edition)
Road to Perdition (Widescreen Edition)
Cast Away (Special Edition Steelbook)
Ocean's Eleven (Widescreen Edition)

ASIN: B00005JLSB
Release Date: 2003-05-06

Amazon.com

An enormously entertaining (if somewhat shallow) affair from blockbuster director Steven Spielberg. Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Frank Abagnale, Jr., a dazzling young con man who spent four years impersonating an airline pilot, a doctor, and a lawyer--all before he turned 21. All the while he's pursued by a dedicated FBI agent named Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks), whose dogged determination stays one step behind Abagnale's spontaneous wits. Both DiCaprio and Hanks turn in enjoyable performances and the movie has a bouncy rhythm that keeps it zipping along. However, it never gets under the surface of Frank's drive to lose himself in other identities, other than a simplistic desire to please his father (Christopher Walken, excellent as always), nor does it explore the complex mechanics of fraud with any depth. By the movie's end, it feels like one of Frank's pilot uniforms--appearance without substance. --Bret Fetzer

Product Description

Inspired by the extraordinary true story of a brilliant young master of deception and the FBI agent hot on his trail, Catch Me If You Can stars Oscar nominee Leonardo DiCaprio and two-time Academy Award winner Tom Hanks in one of the year's most acclaimed hits! From three-time Oscar winning director Steven Spielberg, Catch Me If You Can follows Frank W. Abagnale, Jr. as he successfully passes himself off as a pilot, a lawyer and a doctor - all before his 21st birthday! Joel Siegel of Good Morning America declares, "Movies don't get much more fun that this!" while The Associated Press hails this incredible tale as "the most flat-out-fun movie of the year!"

Customer Reviews:

The cast is exceptional with a counterfeiting, identity theft script........2007-05-26

CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, is a movie partly about rehabilitation of
addicts to check counterfeiting, identity theft, and similar acts, so
suceeding in reforming what some may see as a character flaw of
individuals who are compelled to that behavior. Indeed, much like the
majority of day traders on the stock markets), their luch will
eventually catch up with them, in terms of the odds the long term.

A major weakness in this movie, is the dated time frame in which the
activity was perpetrated, coupled with a lack of discernment in the
choice of the soundtrack, (chosing stereotypical, cheesy numbers from
the 60's and 70's). There is also a flawed filming technique, camera
work by the Director, that not everyone will agree with. In fact, ET,
Jurassic Park showed horrifically poor filming and presentation, yet
they made a ton of cash, were crowed pleasers and major attractions.

Another downfall is the script, and its flawed tendency to make
comedy and clownish characterizations of a very serious matters that
affect the financial markets, human lives, entire industries and
markets, which is counterfeiting, impersonation of other people, many
of wheom laugh all the way to the bank.

Aside from those aspects, I won't hold it against the director, to
release a movie that exceeds 2 hours vs. the standard 90 mins,
considering the difficulty in telling the story contained in the
book, encompassing a number of real life, biographical aspects.

It's clear that the cast was exceptional, played by Di Caprio who
brings plenty of world class acting, as does Martin Sheen, Chris
Walken, raising the movie up a notch or two in quality.

Reverting to the filming, there are just too many blurred, unsharp,
poorly selected lighting situations for this aspect to pass
unnoticed, or unannoying, suggesting a TV-like technique by the
technicians. The DVD transfer was not a real wide-screen release that
viewers were expecting, either. Also, the filming angles are much too
predictable, yet the movie does redeem itself in the odd moments
from its comical moments, that will show a split reaction.

The final surprise, is the rhetorical matter of how someone can take
tens of millions, and after 10 years or more, have nothing to show
for, as all has vanished in thin air.

scamming & scheming for fun & profit.......2007-05-12

if not for the miscasting of leonardo dicaprio in the lead role this could well have been a near-great movie. unfortunately leo (who i will admit does look better here than at any time since "titanic") gives yet another of his oh so obvious acting jobs: his attempt at a suburban new york accent is as painful as his vocal tricks in "gangs of new york" -- where does this guy get off trying this stuff, as if he were a classically trained brit actor? now to the good: tom hanks offers his most ingratiating performance in years (ever since he started to specialize in being tom hanks) as the sullen fbi agent who tracks down master forger leo; christopher walken is at his wierd best as the fallen idol father; the john williams score grabs you from the opening and never lets go. while the story requires a bigtime suspension of disbelief, it IS fun to imagine someone getting away with some of this stuff (as skewed thru the young mans eyes) rather than the reality of the desperation which compelled him to live his decade on the run.

REALLY GREAT.......2007-03-22

I've always liked wathing movies and with amazon you've made it great I am very pleased thank you

Terrific fun plus more.......2007-03-07

I avoided this movie for a long time, thinking it was a grim cops-and- robbers crime thing. Well, it is a crime thing and Tom Hanks is the cop (FBI) and Leo DiCaprio is the robber. But it's anything but grim! Speilberg chose to tell this story, which could have been tragic. in a completely light hearted way. The only terrible scene is in the beginning when DiCaprio is languishing in a French prison. From there on, it's all up. The colors are bright, the atmosphere is light. And yet there's a lot of depth to it, as well. It talkes a really good director to pull it off so well.

First of all, the story is amazing! We all know it's true; no one would make something like that up! Then, the cast is all-star! DiCaprio shines as a complex, tortured kid who is, at the same time, having the time of his life! The relationships are touching and so well handled. Christopher Walken is superb as the dad. Tom Hanks plays the 'alternate" father---as serious and humorless as the first one was charming and irresponsible. Hanks, DiCaprio and Walken, directed by Speilberg, in this terrific story---how can you miss?

The DVD I saw had a bonus disk with great extras---including lots of footage of the original Frank Abegnale. After seeing the movie, I really wanted to see the real deal and he is obviously quite the guy!

entertaining and intelligent.......2007-02-05

CATCH ME IF YOU CAN is definitely one of the most entertaining and intelligent films I have seen in a long time. This is based on the real life story of the life of Frank Abagnale, Jr. A con man who impersonated an airline pilot, doctor and lawyer, all before the age of 21. He came by it honestly because his father was a businessman and con artist, who helped teach him everything he knew.

Leonardo DiCaprio is boyishly handsome, engaging and diabolical as Frank Abagnale, Jr. Due to an unfortunate turn of events in his life (which I won't elaborate on, to spoil the plot), the young man turns to a life of pulling con job after con job, at just age sixteen. Not only does he manage to make close to $2.5 million, but he finds love, fame and notoreity in the public eye, all the while eluding the advances of Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks), an FBI investigator hot on his trail.

This film is intelligent, original and just superb (from the very engaging title credits, down to the intriguing conclusion). You will definitely be entertained.......

Catch Me If You Can (Full Screen Two-Disc Special Edition)

Average customer rating:

The cast is exceptional with a counterfeiting, identity theft script.
scamming & scheming for fun & profit
REALLY GREAT
Terrific fun plus more
entertaining and intelligent

Catch Me If You Can (Full Screen Two-Disc Special Edition)
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio , Tom Hanks , Christopher Walken , Martin Sheen , and Nathalie Baye
Director: Steven Spielberg
Manufacturer: Dreamworks Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Crime | Action & Adventure | Genres | DVD | Video

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DVDs Under $7.49 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

The Aviator (Two-Disc Special Edition)
The Terminal (Full Screen Edition)
Road to Perdition (Widescreen Edition)
Cast Away (Special Edition Steelbook)
Ocean's Eleven (Widescreen Edition)

ASIN: B00008OM99
Release Date: 2003-05-06

Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

The cast is exceptional with a counterfeiting, identity theft script........2007-05-26

scamming & scheming for fun & profit.......2007-05-12

REALLY GREAT.......2007-03-22

I've always liked wathing movies and with amazon you've made it great I am very pleased thank you

Terrific fun plus more.......2007-03-07

entertaining and intelligent.......2007-02-05

Average customer rating:

Pointless. A film about filmmaking of no interest.
smile! you're on candid camera!
fantastic film........one of Truffaut's best.....
A movie lover's delight - but pick it up while you still can
My favourite French movie

Day for Night
Starring: Nike Arrighi , Jean-Pierre Aumont , Walter Bal , Nathalie Baye , and Jacqueline Bisset
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
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The Bride Wore Black
Jules and Jim - Criterion Collection
Breathless
1900 (Special Collector's Edition)
Bicycle Thieves (Criterion Collection)

ASIN: B00007G1ZE
Release Date: 2003-03-18

Amazon.com essential video

François Truffaut's lavish and fun 1973 comedy-drama about a film production is a clever hall of mirrors, with Truffaut himself playing a director, and his most important actor in real life, Jean-Pierre Léaud (The 400 Blows), portraying Jacqueline Bisset's immature costar. Day for Night is full of tales undoubtedly told out of school and repeated here in camouflage, and one can't help but be impressed with the stylistic and technical means by which Truffaut captures the adventurousness of a full-budget shoot. The cast is very good all around, with actors in some cases playing fictional thespians and in other cases playing members of the crew. A sequence set to thrilling music by Georges Delerue celebrates the whole art of filmmaking as seen from an editor's perspective--it makes one want to drop everything and shoot a film of one's own. --Tom Keogh

Description

The leading lady is recovering from a nervous breakdown, another performer is soused on the set, unions threaten to walk, shooting must finish before the insurance lapses and a cat can't hit its mark. Is this any way to make a film? FRANCOIS TRUFFAUT's sly, humorous OscarO-winning Best Foreign Language Film (1973) that speaks the language of everyone who loves movies. JACQUELINE BISSET, JEAN-PIERRE AUMONT, VALENTINA CORTESE, NATHALIE BAYE and Truffaut star.

Customer Reviews:

Pointless. A film about filmmaking of no interest........2007-03-31

Almost 2 hours long. A film about filmmaking. A narcissistic view of the movie business. The film is about a film being shot, and ends when this is accomplished. We see what goes on in the daily lives of those involved in the work, from the director (the same Truffaut) to the producer, to the cast, to the stuntman. There's a curious lady, a wife to one of the employees, who sits knitting and watching her husband so he doesn't cheat on her during work. Everybody keeps busy working and flirting chaotically, and the only one who does not mix work and pleasure seems to be the director (and maybe the producer). It's supposed to be funny, and even nostalgic. There are visual references to the great classic directors in film history, to how the film industry has changed... One thing to learn from this story is that fiction plays a role in our lives: it serves as a contrast to the frivolity and emptiness of our real lives.

"Do you think the story of a woman who falls for her father-in-law can still be interesting today?", asks a reporter to the leading star. That question is quite revealing of what our world has become. Sex and alcohol keep these pitiful troupe working like gasoline keeps a car running. Another important moment is when the knitting lady (mentioned before) gets tired of watching so much promiscuity going around and starts yelling at the whole crew. What role does she play? Is she the typical conservative fun-spoiler? Or is she Truffaut's alter-ego? Hard to say. And that's one reason why this whole film is pointless. It just describes what goes on, which is not interesting at all, there's no plot, there are no interesting characters, only adults acting as children acting as adults.

In another scene the director's assistant, another sexy gal, after one of the female workers runs away with the stuntman and leaves her lover, says "I could leave a man for a film, but never a film for a man", which doesn't make her any more likeable to me.

At least if it had been only 60 or 80 minutes of film I would have given it 3 stars. A film as empty and pointless as its characters.

smile! you're on candid camera!.......2007-03-21

truffauts somewhat overrated movie about making a movie. why do people who make movies believe that making movies is an interesting enough topic to make movies about -- over & over & over? not saying its bad, just saying its nothing as special as those who appreciate "cinema" would have us believe. sorry.

fantastic film........one of Truffaut's best............2007-02-13

For those of you who haven't seen any films by the late, great French director, Francois Truffaut, Day For Night (French title: La Nuit Americaine) is a great introduction. This actually won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, and it is evident why. Day For Night is really a valentine to Francois Truffaut's love affair with cinema. This is a great and intriguing story (a sort of film within a film approach). Ferrand (played by Truffaut) is the hardworking film director, trying to line all of his ducks in a row, to film and complete his movie, "Je Vous Presente Pamela." As is often the case, nothing is going quite as was planned. For starters, his beautiful lead, Julie (Jacqueline Bisset), is recovering from a breakdown. Her co-star (Jean Pierre Leaud) is completely unreliable, and Severine (Valentina Cortese), an aging actress, is hitting the bottle pretty hard during the filming of their picture. What's more, all sorts of other intrigues are taking place between members of the crew (romantic and otherwise).

I love this shot because it almost seems like a pseudo-documentary, as well as a loving tribute to the blood, sweat and tears that go into making a film. How great that Truffaut got in front of the camera for this piece. He really should have done it more often. This film is equally funny and touching and I highly reccomend it.

A movie lover's delight - but pick it up while you still can.......2006-06-19

Along with Fahrenheit 451, Day For Night is easily Francois Truffaut's most playful film. It works where so many subsequent moviemaking movies don't because Truffaut doesn't put the director at the center of the picture, or indeed the movies themselves: it may be set in a movie studio on a troubled picture, but it's all about people and about love in its various forms. Moreover, for all the pains and tantrums and breakdowns, there's a real love for and acceptance its characters that makes it a particularly joyful experience. Throw in some great performances from a fine ensemble cast - not least the oft-overlooked Jean-Pierre Aumont - and a wonderful Georges Delerue score, and it's hard not to fall under its spell.

If you like the film, now is the time to pick up either Warner's excellent Region 1 disc or MK2's French PAL disc (with English subtitles on the feature and a slew of unsubtitled different extras) as both companies are being sued by the Truffaut estate over the film, which may make it unavailable for the forseable future.

My favourite French movie.......2006-05-28

Of course this is not the best movie in the world, or even the best French movie. But it is entirely life-enhancing, and shows Truffaut's humanity and humane feeling. It's certainly a film to watch if you're feeling low and want to be cheered up.

It's so clever in the way that Truffaut deals with himself: as actor playing the part of the director in the film, Ferrand, as director, and as, of course, director of the actual film.

He gets wonderful performances from Jean-Pierre Leaud (his other self, here and in several previous films including Les Quatre Cents Coups), Nathalie Baye, and most especially the English actress Jacqueline Bissett (with whom he is supposed to have had an affair during the making of the film.

Truffaut is one of the great letter-writers, up with Byron, Joyce and Virginia Woolf (Google the book), and both his letters and this film show the virtues of Catholic atheism: he has not a shred of religious belief, but he is an extraordinarily kind and understanding man who yet can be entirely obsessive about film.

Watch this if you are down, and pick yourself up with Trufo after: a master-work.

Average customer rating:

Slow
Vaudieu
"It makes me think of Maigret."
A Deeply Touching View of Policemen
"An Expert Melodrama"

Le Petit Lieutenant
Starring: Nathalie Baye , Jacques Perrin , Xavier Beauvois , Antoine Chappey , and Roschdy Zem
Director: Xavier Beauvois
Manufacturer: Koch Lorber Films
ProductGroup: DVD
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Similar Items:

Volver [Region 99]
Army of Shadows - Criterion Collection
Pan's Labyrinth (New Line Two-Disc Platinum Series)
Notes on a Scandal
Little Children

ASIN: B000MRNWFQ
Release Date: 2007-04-10

Amazon.com

As long as there are cops and criminals, the police procedural will persist. The subgenre appeals to those who truly believe the devil is in the details. In his fourth feature, writer/director Xavier Beauvois may not reinvent the form, but he gets the details right. Though he hones in on one seemingly minor murder, Beauvois is mostly concerned with the plainclothes cops trying to solve it. As the story begins, Antoine (Jalil Lespert, Human Resources) has just been transferred from Normandy to Paris. He couldn't be happier, even if his wife prefers the country. Antoine loves her dearly, but he loves his job just as much. His co-workers include the Jane Tennison-like Inspector Vaudieu (César winner Nathalie Baye), veteran cop Mallet (Antoine Chappey), and Muslim cop Solo (Roschdy Zem). For the most part, they get along pretty well, especially Antoine and Vaudieu, who develops maternal feelings towards the rookie. By depicting these flics as fully-rounded individuals, then showing what happens when the worst possible scenario plays out, Beauvois generates an impact far greater than if he had presented them as stereotypical losers or superheroes. There's nothing trendy about Le Petit Lieutenant, nor is it an homage to the golden age of the procedural (Bullitt, The French Connection, etc.), but the filmmaker's attention to detail--the thrill of the chase vs. the drudgery of desk work--makes Le Petit Lieutenant the best procedural in years. It accomplishes more in 101 minutes than most cop shows do in an entire season. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Description

A gripping police noir, LE PETIT LIEUTENANT tells the story of Antoine, an ambitious young cop from the provinces who joins a plainclothes crime unit in Paris. Antoine spends his days eagerly awaiting his first assignment, drinking with his fellow detectives and developing an unlikely relationship with his superior, a veteran policewoman with a troubled past. But when the body of a drifter is found murdered along the Seine, a seemingly routine investigation suddenly turns violent and forever changes all their lives.
"An impeccably wrought contemporary police story." - Stephen Holden, The New York Times

Customer Reviews:

Slow.......2007-06-17

This thriller moves very, very slow and is constantly sidetracked by meaningless subplots. What is the point ? Where is the story ? Where were the editors ?

Vaudieu.......2007-05-02

Jane Tennyson (Helen Mirren in the PBS series, "Prime Suspect") and Caroline Vaudieu (a thoughtful, sad, tragic Nathalie Baye in this film): the comparisons are inevitable. Both are Chief Inspectors in charge of an all man team of detectives, both have problematic personal lives and both suffer from alcoholism.
But whereas Tennyson is like a feral cat, ready to pounce, full of rage, Vaudieu, though equally as competent as Tennyson, is laid-back, thoughtful and able to lead a group of hardened, seen-it-all detectives with her keen sense of propriety, her innate humanity and well-honed ability of always doing the right thing professionally. Vaudieu leads by example; she never falters. On the surface Baye's Vaudieu is in control but beneath that façade she is psychically falling apart: the sobriety she so desperately fought for is weakened every minute of every day by loneliness and thoughts of her recently deceased son.
On the day that she returns to work after a leave, a new recruit, the "petit lieutenant," Antoine Derouere (a naive and personable Jalil Lespert of Laurent Cantet's "Human Resources") arrives having just finished at the police academy. He is assigned to be part of Vaudieu's group.
In most films of this ilk, Vaudieu would eventually and naturally fall into bed with Derouere (his wife decides not to come with him to Paris from Normandy, so he is alone). But not so here: their relationship is refreshingly professional yet they grow to like and respect each other.
Director/Writer Xavier Beauvois directs with in an extremely understated manner: many scenes seem improvised and many of the actors are so natural that they seem like non-professionals. But Beauvois is after something else here than we usually find in a policier particularly if you compare "Le Petit Lieutenant" to the recent "Miami Vice" or even Michael Mann's "Heat." Beauvois's film is natural, organic, and almost documentary-like: the good guys are as flawed as the bad. The line between good and bad, love and hate is blurred, smudged as it is in Life.
In his quest for authenticity, Beauvois may give us too much detail: the checking and re-checking of facts and case leads, the repeated stake-outs, the interrogation of the same witnesses over and over. But this is a small gripe for what Beauvois has accomplished here is to raise the bar on police dramas. There are no exploding cars, hardly any car chases. The drama in "Le Petit Lieutenant" is the drama derived from lives well observed, of lives perpetually in danger and on the edge and the thoughtful and distinctive manner in which Beauvois cohesively manipulates these factors.

"It makes me think of Maigret.".......2007-05-01

American crime films that centre on the police as their main characters leave me cold, but on the other hand French character-driven crime films fascinate me. "Le Petit Lieutenant" is another excellent French crime film that humanizes its police subjects. "Le Petit Lieutenant" is none other than rookie detective Antoine Derouere (Jalil Lespert). After graduating from the academy, he leaves his hometown of Le Havre and his schoolteacher wife Julie (Berangere Allaux) behind and chooses, instead a tough assignment in Paris. This decision jeopardizes his marriage, but after all, as he explains, Le Havre only sees one murder a year, and he wants action.

Action he gets in the form of a murder in which the victim is stabbed, and after the corpse is dragged from the river, Antoine recognizes the victim as a drunk hauled in the day before. The drunk, a homeless Polish man, had a pocket full of cash when he was arrested. But there's no cash found on the corpse. This murder case leads to migrant farm workers and eventually to a hardened Russian crime duo.

Alcoholic detective, Commandant Caroline Vaudieu (Nathalie Baye) leads the investigation--think a French Helen Mirren from Prime Suspect--and her performance is superb as the woman who's paid a terrible cost for putting much of her personal life on hold in order to follow her career. The film portrays the French detectives as vulnerable, normal human beings--flawed people who make mistakes--but in their line of work, mistakes costs lives. "Le Petit Lieutenant" is slow to get off the ground, but it's worth the wait. If you enjoy this film I also recommend "36 Quai des Orfevres"--In French with subtitles, "Le Petit Lieutenant" is directed by Xavier Beauvois--displacedhuman

A Deeply Touching View of Policemen.......2007-04-16

Director Xavier Beauvois, with the intelligent and sensitive script he co-wrote with Cédric Anger, Guillaume Bréaud and Jean-Eric Troubat, allows us, the viewers, to look inside the minds and lives of those people who commit to police work in a manner that pays homage to a maligned group and reinstates our visceral support to the spectrum of on the edge terror mixed with spaces of ennui that these people endure. LA PETIT LIEUTENANT is not a crime film: it is a deeply touching inside view of the men and women who protect us.

Opening with well-staged Le Havre Police Academy graduation images Beauvois focuses on newly graduated Antoine Derouère (Jalil Lespert) as he says goodbye to his family and his wife Julie (Bérangère Allaux), a school teacher who pleads with Antoine not to leave Le Havre for Paris, the destination Antoine seeks to prove his desire for an active detective career. The kind but inexperienced Antoine takes up residence in Paris and is assigned to a homicide unit with equally inexperienced young men who learn the ropes of owning a gun, the embarrassment of performance problems at the shooting range, the awkward first 'arrests' and interrogations, and the endless hours of sitting at a desk waiting for activity. Newly assigned as the head of Antoine's unit is Commandant Caroline Vaudieu (the extraordinary actress Nathalie Baye) who has just come off a two year sabbatical to recover from alcoholism and the associated death of her son from meningitis. The manner in which these people bond is quiet and sensitive and when finally a case comes to their attention - a man found dead in the canal - the force joins begins what they all need to do: the killer must be found.

Clues are explored, people are traced, and Antoine and Vandieu form a particularly close bond, Antoine reminding Vandieu of the son she has lost and Vandieu providing the model for his career. Tension mounts as the criminals are pursued, coincidences occur and a tragedy cracks the bond of the group, affecting each member of the small force immeasurably. It is this very human happening and its effects that wind the movie down to moments of painful acceptance of the life of police people.

The entire cast is first rate and provides ensemble acting that is among the finest on screen. But the portrayal by Nathalie Baye is so multifaceted, embracing the inner trauma of personal losses not only of those she loves but also of her own sense of dignity as she faithfully attends AA meetings, that her performance is triumphant. Jalil Lespert also captures the fine line between innocence and experience that makes his portrait of a new detective not only completely credible but also one that leaves a mark on the heart. The direction and the cinematography by Caroline Champetier keep the film nearly monochromatic, the only color that is left to shock us for a brief moment is the red blood at moments of tension. And the lack of a musical score keeps the tone of the humanity of the film intact, never reducing it to a bombastic Hollywood chase and kill film. This is a little jewel of a film that deserves a very wide audience. Highly Recommended. In French, Polish, and Russian with English subtitles. Grady Harp, April 07

"An Expert Melodrama".......2007-04-12

This film, the sort of work Graham Greene without condescension called "an entertainment," is a fine achievement within the confines of its modern Parisian police story limits, confines it is intelligent enough not to transgress. However, it does happily push against these confines to the fullest allowable extent, becoming as a result not just a thrilling melodrama, but also a surprisingly affecting one.

At the outset, it spends a fairly liesurely time telling us about the home life of a new cop (Jalil Lespert) eager to make his mark and a veteran of the force who takes him under her wing, a recovering alcoholic and grieving mother (Natalie Baye) anxious to return to police work where she has in the past found some meaning in her otherwise troubled life. Both Lespert and Baye turn in wonderful performances, and they are ably abetted by a supporting cast which has not a single weak link. Further, when things go wrong for these central characters in the latter portion of the film, the liesurely setup has a great payoff; we care about their misfortunes to a greater extent than we would those of merely stereotypical police drama characters. All in all, this is a finely crafted melodrama without pretensions, and wholly enjoyable as just such.

Average customer rating:

Great Romantic Comedy. Buy it if you love French movies.
Good Light-Hearted Movie to Watch
An Unknown Gem - Surprisingly Well Done!
Love Audrey
When you smile I find you handsome

Venus Beauty Institute
Starring: Nathalie Baye , Bulle Ogier , Samuel Le Bihan , Jacques Bonnaffé , and Mathilde Seigner
Director: Tonie Marshall
Manufacturer: Fox Lorber
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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L'Auberge Espagnole (The Spanish Apartment)
Happenstance
Pretty Devils
God Is Great, and I'm Not
He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not [Region 99]

ASIN: B00005B1WH
Release Date: 2001-06-26

Amazon.com

The carefully unattached existence of working girl Nathalie Baye is suddenly upended when lovesick hunk Samuel Le Bihan introduces himself: "My name is Antoine and I love you." Set in a cute glass storefront with a neon pink and blue façade that could have sprung from a Jacques Demy musical, this bittersweet romantic drama was written for the arresting Baye, who plays a middle-aged "girl" in a uniquely Parisian beauty shop that specializes in facials, body treatments, massages, and emotional confession. Her coworkers, young, sweetly guileless brunette cutie Audrey Tautou and gloomy twentysomething Mathilde Seigner, are like glimpses into her past lives, one full of hope and giddy optimism, the other turned resentful from disappointment. She clings to the girly camaraderie and workaday autopilot of her job while her "patronne" (the incomparable Bulle Ogier) nudges her toward responsibility.

Writer-director Tonie Marshall has a marvelous feeling for the women who work and visit the place, though her soulful bohemian artist Le Bihan is defined by little more than good looks, shaggy charm, and a kind of reckless attraction. The film is at its best with the women: the easy by-play and guarded emotions of the shopgirls, the often uncontrolled outbursts of the offbeat and oddball clients, and especially the haunted and lonely performance from Baye, who warily creeps out of her shell for another chance at intimacy. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews:

Great Romantic Comedy. Buy it if you love French movies........2007-03-26

`venus BEAUTY institute' written and directed by Tonie Marshall, in French, with English subtitles, strikes one, on first viewing, as being like some other French movies where nothing of any real consequence seems to happen. The example which comes to mind is Jean Renoir's `The Rules of the Game', one of the all time great movies, and yet not much happens except some intense interaction between the characters, and a seemingly inconsequential accident / murder (ambiguous).

While Audrey Tautou gets second billing on the cover, this is due entirely to her later successes. She plays a less important character than Mathilde Seigner or Bulle Ogier, who are billed below her.

For one who is not up on French cinema beyond Francois Truffaut's early classics, the great treat in this flick is the performance of Nathalie Baye, who does a job easily comparable to some other great French classics such as Katherine Deneuve and Jeanne Moreau. If this were not a `Romantic Comedy', her role would be comparable to Diane Keaton's dangerous life in `Looking for Mr. Goodbar'.

Like `Rules of the Game' and `Jules and Jim' and unlike the fantasies of Ingemar Bergman and Fredrico Fellini, the values in this movie grow out of the reality we see in these characters as they reflect, maybe, some of our own tendencies.

I was genuinely astounded at the number of films in which Ms. Baye has appeared (including some late Truffout works such as `Day for Night'). It made me look forward to the pleasures of seeing more of their work, as her performance is what elevates this from a routine comedy to something on the level of `Hannah and Her Sisters' or `When Harry Met Sally'. And yet, it has a distinctly Gallic flavor that I suspect neither Woody Allen nor Rob Reiner could ever capture (although it would be very interesting to see Woody do a parody of a French comedy.)

Probably the most endearing invention is the basic venue of a Paris beauty salon whose products and services are probably only marginally effective in making women beautiful and staving off the ravages of age. And yet, Ms. Maye, who has appeared in movies since the 1970s seems to have that ageless quality of Madame Moreau.

Terrific flick!

Good Light-Hearted Movie to Watch.......2006-09-09

I first saw this movie on cable but never had the chance to see it from the beginning to see what it was about. And it never came back on cable again so I could get the chance to see it. Coming back to school I looked forward to spending a Friday night watching rented movies after a week of school and work.
"Venus Beauty Institute" is a great movie. Ms. Marshall does a great job at examining the lives of three women who toil in a beauty parlor. Angele is cynical about love after she has experienced a lousy relationship with a guy who didn't even acknowledge her. She has been hurt by love and she becomes the aggressor. But being the aggressor doesn't exactly make her a powerful person. She has doubts as to what could have happened if she were patient. Marianne, the optimist, finds love with a widower and former pilot. Angele looks out for her because she fears that she will be hurt by this man. And Samantha is just outrageous. She flirts around but is very selective. She is unhappy with being at the institute.
Antoine observes Angele and finds himself drawn to her. Why is he drawn to her? That is what she can't understand. Love has never been fair to Angele. Her father killed her mother thinking that she had a lover behind his back. When he found there wasn't one, he turned the gun on himself. She grew up with her spinster aunts in Poitiers. Although they have their cynicisms about men, they are still optimistic about men. Angele is fearful of love and being loved.
Antoine, a young man finds this woman attractive and full of life despite her misery. He looks from a distance at her in the salon she works at. He tells her that he loves her and knows how much in love with her he is. He brings out her inner beauty and allows for her to feel joyful.
I loved the scene with Marianne and her beau making love. It was a movie in itself because Angele and Antoine were enthralled to explore their passion for each other rather than break up the affair with them. This movie does have some quirkiness to it. Madame Buisse appears naked to have her daily tanning, a married woman who comes into the salon because her husband wants her to look a certain way for him, and Sam's replacement who tries to turn the salon into a department store.
This is a movie that women can enjoy in a group or by themselves. I would definitely watch this movie the second time around. This movie is a lesson in love--it can hurt as well as heal.

An Unknown Gem - Surprisingly Well Done!.......2006-05-16

I got this movie because it stars Nathalie Baye and expected it to be a light hearted romantic comedy (i.e. a chick flick) based on the cover photo and the text on the back of the case. That will teach me to never judge a book by it's cover. I was VERY pleasantly surprised upon watching it, this film has considerable depth and complexity. The story is about a woman (Nathalie Baye) who works as a beautician and who is looking for love. She was crushed by a previous relationship and now carries many scars. She refuses to emotionally commit herself to another relationship, prefering instead to pursue short lived affairs with no attachments, although deep inside she would like to find someone, even if she won't admit it to herself. Her life changes dramatically when a man comes up to her from out of the blue and expresses his undying love. He is currently engaged to another woman who loves him deeply, but he is so profoundly attracted to Baye's character that he will leave her. This may sound like some bizarre, confused love triangle, but in fact this film is extremely well done. The pacing of the story is perfect, and the complexities of the emotions and the characters are on full display without being melodramatic in any way. There are a few side plots in this film (Audrey Tautou's relationship with an older man), some of which enhance the story and some of which are a pointless distraction (the woman who comes to the salon to tan in the nude). There is a realism in this film (and French films of this genre in general) that is totally lacking in comparable American films. We can feel and sympathize with Nathalie Baye's fear and anguish about committing herself again. This is not Baye's best performance (Le Retour de Martin Guerre), but she is still outstanding, one of the world's best actresses. I would rate this film as 4.5 stars if I could, rounding up to 5. If you are new to French cinema, this would be a great film to start with. If you are a connisseur of French cinema or Nathalie Baye, this is a must have. An (unexpectedly) outstanding film.

Love Audrey.......2006-01-21

Although Audrey did well as usual, this movie was just okay with me. Had its moments of romance, but could have been better.

When you smile I find you handsome.......2004-11-03

This isn't a bittersweet romance movie. Instead, it's a bittersweet romance-in-the-making. Nathalie Baye shines as the center of a trio of beauticians who struggle to find love. It lacks the warmth of a really dynamic look at love, but it is pretty and sometimes heartwarming.

Angèle (Nathalie Baye) is about forty, and works at a pink, perfumed beauty salon where women and men alike come for skin care, tans and massages. Because of a lover's scarred face, she has sworn off love. Now all she wants are flings and one-night stands, out of fear that her heart will be broken.

But one day she is dumped nastily, and a sculptor named Antoine (Samuel Le Bihan) sees everything. Despite being engaged, he falls in love with Angèle. But the love-wary Angèle pushes him away, and he pursues her even so, determined to break down her defenses and make her see how much he loves her.

Tonie Marshall does a fairly good job with a film that looks at love, beauty, and the bitterness that can keep potential love away. It's definitely a unique story, with a beautiful older woman finding love again, but without age jokes or painless romances. It has false starts, misunderstandings, awkwardness and mistakes -- like love.

Marshall's film does have some flaws, however. Jacques (Jacques Bonnaffe) is Angèle's ex, the guy who has some scarring on his face. They're not particularly bad scars, but the characters act as if he need to wear a half-mask and haunt the Paris Opera House. That superficiality seems reflected in the pretty, shallow look of the salon.

But the love stories are quite sweet, including two younger women, one a tough girl and one a sensitive sweetie. Though Angèle originally sees love as an enslavement, the movie doesn't see it that way. In here, love is an emotion that can change your life -- it's not enslavement, and it's not perfection. But it can bring happiness.

Baye does an excellent job as the embittered Angèle, whose fear of love comes from shooting her ex. She stays on the same level as the young women, who are expected to be single. Backing her up is the tough, depressed Samanthe (Mathilde Seigner), and the sweet naive Marie (Audrey Tautou), who is the mistress of a man old enough to be her dad.

Despite the picture of Tautou in the middle of the cover, this is Baye's movie. And despite the superficial, cold moments here and there, the bittersweet "Venus Beauty Institute" is worth checking out.

The Return of Martin Guerre [IMPORT, All Regions ]

Average customer rating:

The Return of Martin Guerre [IMPORT, All Regions ]
Starring: Nathalie Baye, Gérard Depardieu
Director: Daniel Vigne
Manufacturer: South Korea
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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The Return of Martin Guerre
Jean De Florette 2 DVD Set
Elizabeth
Small Change
Grand Illusion - Criterion Collection

Product Features:

The Return of Martin Guerre dvd
Gérard Depardieu

ASIN: B000KBB1IY

Product Description

DVD Made in South Korea~~French Sound with English or Korean Subtitlees~~~Plot Synopsis: During the medieval times, Martin Guerre returns to his hometown in the middle of France, after being away in the war since he was a child. Nobody recognise him, and the people who knew him suspect he is not Martin, but he knows all about his family and friends, even the most unusual things. Is this man really Martin Guerre?

Average customer rating:

A Fascinating Experiment, Hobbled by Its Conventions and Artifices
On crossing bondaries
Warning: Censored, 'cleaned-up' american DVD version
Foreign Film Lover
Disappointing and ultimately shallow love affair

An Affair of Love
Starring: Nathalie Baye , Sergi López , Jacques Viala , Paul Pavel , and Sylvie Van den Elsen
Director: Frédéric Fonteyne
Manufacturer: New Line Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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With A Friend Like Harry
Intimate Strangers
Besieged
Un Coeur en Hiver ( A Heart in Winter )
Intimacy (Unrated, Widescreen Edition)

ASIN: B000055YV3
Release Date: 2001-01-23

Amazon.com

Nathalie Baye and Sergi López are lonely lovers who meet through an ad in a singles magazine for anonymous sex and fall in love. Frederic Fonteyne's tender portrait of a brief affair is framed in flashback: the two lovers recall their relationship for an unseen interviewer (a technique that recalls Ingmar Bergman's Hour of the Wolf and Woody Allen's Husbands and Wives), putting on a tough, scarred front that hides their regret. In the flashbacks, however, Fonteyne captures a sense of discomfort and anticipation in their first meeting that turns relaxed and passionate as their relationship deepens. Baye's nervous smiles become genuine and joyful as she grows more confident in López's company, and he nicely straddles the line between nonchalant openness and emotional defensiveness. Fonteyne's naturalistic style is broken only for the almost surreal vision of the hotel where they meet: they pass through a hellish crimson hall before entering their room, a cool blue sanctuary--a heaven on the other side of purgatory. It was released under a different name in France, an ironic title that translates to A Pornographic Affair, but the film is a sensitive, delicate portrait of fragile souls who allow self-doubts and second guesses get in the way of their own honesty. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews:

A Fascinating Experiment, Hobbled by Its Conventions and Artifices.......2007-05-27

This is certainly not my favorite film, but it was fascinating to watch and is worth seeing just for the astonishing Sergi Lopez, who is one of the sexiest men working in pictures today.

The film concerns a woman and a man who meet through a personals ad posted by the woman, in order to explore a long-desired kink of hers. The external world intrudes when a neighbor in the building where they meet suffers a medical crisis and together they accompany him to the hospital. As their regular assignations continue, they flirt with developing something deeper, but "pull out" as it were. The movie is presented as separate post-mortem interviews as well as scenes from the affair.

Each work of art has its conventions and artifices. It is not the obviousness of the conventions used here that bothered me -- indeed, I found them admirably rigorous. I can even grasp the purpose of these conventions, but in the end I felt that some of them worked against the filmmaker's intentions and encumbered the film.

The conventions imposed by the filmmaker revolve around an artificial absence of context: not knowing the protagonists' names, not knowing the particular kink that brings them together, knowing nothing of their outside lives. This underlines a very important point -- it is precisely the lack of context that fuels affairs based on casual or adulterous sex. It's easy to have great sex if the arrangement omits day-to-day trials and tribulations, if neither partner is exposed to the other's B.S. It's also a truism that the longer a casual or adulterous affair continues, the likelier it is that real life will bleed into it. To this extent, the trajectory of the film is quite true to life. And the conventions of the film serve to codify the conventions of the affair. Lack of context is the foundation of the affair and the framework of the movie.

I even understand why the only sex we are "allowed" to see is the vanilla encounter -- and, indeed, this scene (shot if I'm not mistaken in one continuous take) is a veritable tour de force. Again, there is a certain rigor and irony to asserting that the particular kink is irrelevant and then sharing the straight sex as something "kinky" and even risky in this context, an encounter demanding vulnerability, an encounter that could bridge the couple to real life.

In sum, though, the conventions seem coy and encumbering in their extremity, hence counterproductive. That the characters don't even have names (just "Lui" and "Elle") is coy and annoying. It's not like these characters are representing Everyman and Everywoman. We're all grown-ups, so failing to acknowledge the particular kink just strikes us as silly, and it makes the straight sex scene rather gratuitous. The quasi-documentary style reinforces this reverse prurience. On the other hand, the subjects are entitled to reveal whatever they want about themselves. To that extent, I aver that superficially at least the conventions of this movie are consistent and airtight. But for me, somehow, they didn't hang together.

On crossing bondaries.......2006-09-05

Frederic Fonteyne's Une Liaison Pornographique (US title, An Affair of Love) is an unusual love story, insofar as it unfolds "in reverse." Every Thursday, at the same hotel, at the same café, "He" and "She" (they are totally anonymous) meet in order to satisfy their sexual phantasm. Their anonymity is not without recalling Alain Renais' characters in Hiroshima Mon Amour (1958) or Last Year at Marienbad (1961). But here the ordeal is not that of the memory nor of the bomb, but that of a trite story of two people who do not know how to love and communicate.

"She" (Nathalie Baye), a mid-fortyish, confident, unattached woman, felt the need to realize a sexual phantasm. To this end, she placed a classified ad in a pornographic journal (or was it on the internet?). "He" (Sergi Lopez), a handsome man, ten years her junior, answered it. Now sitting at two different locations, they recall their adventure to an unseen man, answering his questions, as the camera goes back and forth between the two characters. Their descriptions of the circumstances which lead to their first meeting are remarkable by their lack of consistency. But, if their recollections of specific facts have grown vague, the strong emotions engendered by their love for each other and their tragic break-up are still very much alive. The rest of the story is presented in a series of flashbacks, interspersed with the characters' comments to the interviewer.

In spite of their national origins, young Belgium director Frederic Fonteyne and Iranian scenarist Philippe Blasband have managed to create the quintessential French film: a film created for adults, with a theme to match, unusual maybe, but still taken out of "real" life, psychological, philosophical and challenging to the viewer. Fonteyne, in spite of his young age (he was born in 1968), speaks about love and feelings with great maturity. He mystifies the viewer with his approach to modern sexuality. No longer is it about a budding love implicating sexuality, but about sexuality implicating love, the latter being reconsidered by the urban individualism and a fear of commitment prevalent in our modern society.

Blasband's scenario presents his love story "upside-down." Starting from a fantasy, which will eventually end up in love, he surrounds the slow but inevitable drift of the protagonists' feelings for each other. Refined, with simple and subtle dialogue, he facilitated enormously the director's work. For these two protagonists, it is not even a question of a "love at first sight" incident which leads to an immediate sexual encounter, and which, with time, gives birth to romantic love. In this story, they meet, not having even seen each other (although "She" first states that he had sent her his picture, but she seems to contradict herself later on, and "He" says he had not sent a picture) for the only purpose of satisfying a very particular fantasy that she has proposed in her ad and that "He" had, at one point, obviously considered himself. It could have been a complete mismatch of personality, physicality, mentality, and emotionality. As it turned out, however, there seemed by some stroke of fate to be some mutual attraction right from the start.

The two characters recount to a third party, with emotion and an air of propriety, the passion that they were unable either to control or to really confess to each other. We know that their experiment was a failure, because from the outset, their testimonies indicate that they are apart. But the way each talks about "the other" makes us want to discover this "other." We would like to get involved in their story, know their pasts, their presents, and understand why they speak about the "other" with so much nostalgia. They will never know each other's names, their ages, professions, what they do after their trysts, and we'll never know, either.

The rhythm and content of the story is controlled by the two protagonists who refuse to disclose the nature of their fantasy, allowing the director to impose upon the viewer the role of voyeur by limiting the viewer's space to that of the fantasy never revealed. Actually, the word "pornographique" in the original title, Une Affaire Pornographique, is a joke, as there is nothing pornographic about this film. Unfortunately, the distributor's arbitrary change of the original film title for the distribution in the United States, in order to conform to its apparent puritanism, denies Fonteyne's intention to fully condition, right from the start, the viewer's state of mind. Each time the camera in the red hotel hallway bumps against the closed door of room 118 (red is the color of a phantasm that remains a secret), it renews and heightens the voyeur-viewer's interest. This contrasts sharply with the only time the camera penetrates in the lovers' blue room to witness a banal love scene, which in fact leaves the viewer even more bewildered as to the nature of the fantasy.

The success of this film rests entirely on the flawless acting of Nathalie Baye and Sergi Lopez. In this film, these two actors developed chemistry, which is the undeniable sign of mature actors. Their interaction is totally genuine in their exchanges, both verbal and unspoken. We can read on her face the birth of her love for "He": she wants to be happy next to this man, this one and none other. "He" drinks cognac and dips sugar cubes into it while undressing her with his eyes. We can tell that this man knows how to love women, mixing tenderness with desire. There are also their gestures: "Her" expressing herself with her hands, admitting her need to always talk, even during love-making. "He" is reserved, observant, always answering her many questions.

The original film score is some electronic music, unfortunately up to now unavailable on CD, by Andre Dziezuk, Marc Mergen, and Jeannot Sanavia. There is a Rachel's track, "Lloyd's Register," which is available on their album, "The Sea and the Bells." When the credits are rolling, one hears a downtempo/trip-hop, drum and bass music, which recalls Funki Porcini. It all fits perfectly with this unreal situation.

The shooting of the film took place in Paris, more exactly on the Avenue Kleber, which runs between the Place Charles de Gaulle and Place du Trocadero, right at the metro stop, Boissiere, where the cafe is located. However, the hotel which in the story is just nearby the cafe is in fact physically located near Pigalle.

The main theme of this film is boundaries and their perilous crossings. At the beginning of the film, "She" is within her own world, inside her own boundary. This is symbolically represented during the opening as a crowd of pedestrians seen from her point of view, out of focus. "She" has a sexual fantasy, but in order to satisfy it, she will have to cross the first boundary, one set by society. Her fantasy cannot be fulfilled with members of her own entourage, husband, or intimate friends. For this, "She" must look beyond the boundaries of sociially accepted behavior, to a stranger. As both meet, they will be beyond society's boundaries in their fantasy world. This accomplished, they breach another boundary when feelings develop: the boundary fixed by love. A whole new world appears to them, a totally unexpected world. Finally, there are the boundaries of understanding and commitment, which they are unable to cross. At the very end of the film, we see again a crowd of pedestrians out of focus: she is back within the confines of her own boundary.

As a result, Fonteyne shows us a modern society where sex is no longer taboo, but love is becoming such. He never moralizes or resolves these apparent contradictions, but instead brings them into harmony as never done before him: the modern world denying love and the Judeo-Christian world negating sexuality. In the process, Fonteyne destroys the actuation of the phantasm and reinstates it in the secret, in the intimacy, both personal and private of the viewer.

Finally, the film tackles another great theme in the relationship between man and woman: the incommunicability. The fears that each feels: the fear of love, the fear of confessing this love one bears for the other to the other, the fear of appearing ridiculous, the fear that the feeling may not be reciprocated or has not progressed as rapidly in the other. The final scene at the café reveals and underscores a cruel, intense moment, the like of which I do not remember having ever witnessed in any film before. Very little is actually said, as most of the dialogue is in individual voice-overs. All the walls come crashing down on one woman and one man who, by all accounts, we judge were meant to be united for life. And this failure in a relationship which we were starting to take for granted is due to their incapacity to communicate.

Warning: Censored, 'cleaned-up' american DVD version.......2006-08-28

This is an adult movie, for adult audiences. A love affair between two strangers. A misunderstanding and a memory of what it could have been.

I longed for this DVD and just received it from Amazon last week.

But to my disappointment is was a CENSORED version, for the american audiences: Ten minutes were cut from the original european version! All the sexually explicit scenes were banned (true: the movie still keeps it's atmosphere).

I never tought I was ordering a 'clean movies' version.

I'd rather have ordered it from Amazon.fr (integral full-version, with english subtitles)

:-(

Foreign Film Lover.......2006-07-14

I watch mostly Foreign Films, Documentaries,and or Cannes types of Films and I have to say I really liked this film. It has a little of everything. Love, humor, sex, realism. It is just a "nice" film without being boring at all. Most French Films I have watched end and then one has to come up with their own ending. This one does leave some mystery as to exactly what they "did" but you find yourself ok with the ending instead of being frustrated (like many French Films can leave you feeling)(think "Irreversible", for one). It is never fully explained what exactly it is they "did" and to think it as simple as a shallow love affair would mean one really missed the point. You can "assume" you know for sure but I like that it is never exactly defined, so you cannot really judge the characters since you do not know exactly what it is they did.I intrepreted that they "made love" .I like that there was not a lot of "drama" in this love affair and I think we always associate love to being dramatic. I think some people would not like this film also because it comes and goes without a lot of drama. The acting was great and to me,both characters are just really likeable nice people. Ok I made it sound boring but trust me it is not! Same with another movie I loved called In the Mood for Love.
An Affair of Love is for people who like a lot of dialogue and who are into Foreign Films with some depth so it is not for everyone. Another great "nice" love movie with an outstanding director and cast is In the Mood for Love,by Wong Kar-Wai.

Disappointing and ultimately shallow love affair.......2006-05-29

The premise of this story is simple, two people meet for sex with no strings attached through a small advertisement. They start sleeping with each other on a regular basis, but they refuse to learn any intimate details of each others lives. Ultimately they fall in love, but neither is willing to admit it, either to themselves or each other. In the end, both want to have a more enduring relationship, but each thinks the other is not interested, so they go their separate ways. There is a heavy sense of melancholy over this film, and the director tried very hard to tell the story of a love that `might have been'. In the end though, I found that two lovers who were so intimate for months, but who had no capacity to really talk to each other, not to really be in love, and the sense of melancholy misplaced. This total lack of communciation made their entire (purely sexual) love affair, in the end, shallow and trite (although perhaps this is the tragedy). They never made their connection: how could they really have been in love if they couldn't connect better? The acting is good, if not uniquely memorable. The initial scene is particularly compelling, however, as both actors make a convincing performance of the uncertainties and hesitations surrounding two total strangers meeting for sex. Overall, this is a solid, if not outstanding, performance by Nathalie Baye. A solid performance by Sergio Lopez as well, although I found his character to be annoying, he looks and in some ways acts in this film like a thirty-five year old guy who is still living in the basement of his parent's house. A good, if ultimately unsatisfying, story.

Average customer rating:

A philanderer in France
Too true . . . !
Wholly fulfilling
TRUFFAUT'S GIFT
The eternal nature gift: the bliss

The Man Who Loved Women
Starring: Henri Agel , Chantal Balussou , Nella Barbier , Anne Bataille , and Nathalie Baye
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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The Story of Adele H
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Camille Claudel

ASIN: B000053VBO
Release Date: 2001-01-23

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Scientist Bertrand Morane, "never in the company of men after 5," seduces women by evening and writes about the experiences in the early morning. Though 40ish and somewhat square, no woman in the town of Montpelier seems capable of resisting his earnest advances. Not much else happens in The Man Who Loved Women, but in the hands of master visual storyteller François Truffaut, the threadbare plot accumulates deep and ominous philosophical resonances. What drives Morane from woman to woman, and what accounts for his remarkable success? Does he secretly dislike women and consider them interchangeable (as one of the more prurient characters charges, to Morane's genuine befuddlement), or is his enthusiasm a kind of celebration? Truffaut refuses to answer plainly, but does drop clues; as his camera focuses on everyday objects, many take on a chilling, otherwordly luster, and coldly foreshadow Morane's fate. A deceptively simple film, The Man Who Loved Women is neither an indictment nor an apology for philandering; rather, it's a courageous, lovingly detailed portrait of a complex, intelligent man suffering from an altogether intractable complaint. This film was clumsily remade in English in 1983 by Blake Edwards, with Burt Reynolds assuming the role played here with such understated skill by the wonderful Charles Denner. --Miles Bethany

Description

Renowned French director François Truffaut is "at the top of his form" (The Hollywood Reporter) in this whimsical, lively story about an eccentric casanova who loves every woman he meetsliterally! Irresistibly "charming" (Leonard Maltin) and "witty" (Independent Film Journal), thisplayful romantic comedy is heartwarming, hilarious and highly entertaining! Bertrand Morane (Charles Denner) is a ladies' man like no other. Wholly obsessed with the female species, he goesto outrageous lengths for the prospect of a fleeting romantic encounter. But when he documents all of his passionate flings in a racy autobiography, he piques the interestboth personally and professionallyof a beautiful and provocative editor named Genevieve (Brigitte Fossey). And as the two begin to play the game of proverbial predator and prey, Bertrand is surprised to discover that he might just be the one who gets trapped by true love!

Customer Reviews:

A philanderer in France .......2007-03-23

The adventures of a womanizer in France. There are many interesting elements here, some too subtle, about human nature. How women fall for him so quickly. When he asks them something it's like his life depended on it, and they can't refuse. They love to be desired with such intensity, however short that relation will last. And he goes from one to another; every woman has something different that no other woman has, and he wants them all. He can't settle with one.

It's all very funny, but at the same time it makes one think of a great void that nothing and nobody can fill. It may be women, or anything else; but there is never enough of it to fill that void.

The film is a bit too long (2 hours,) and has its ups and downs, but overall is a good entertainment.

Too true . . . !.......2006-03-19

All I can say is ... great! But do NOT see this film with a date ... or even your wife! Most women I've known don't get the poignance of the hero's obsession ... not at all!

Wholly fulfilling.......2005-03-16

Somehow it's difficult to say anything useful about this film. It is so well made, so well told, that it leaves me merely with a sense of completeness. There is no real "plot", and it is senseless to give a pedestrian outline of what does or does not happen. I must have seen it when it came out, perhaps about 1977, and have not been able to forget it. It is, somehow, a perfectly made presentation of one man's life: insignificant yet universal, simultaneously realistic, surrealistic, artistic, fantastic, true yet imaginative. I was staggered to see that an apparently bone-headed remake by Blake Edwards, a clumsy and insensitive film-maker --- think of what a misuse of Peter Sellers' talents the Pink Panther series was! --- had attempted either to spoof it, or to exploit it. Well, I haven't seen his remake, but I can imagine it as the crudest possible American bludgeoning of French finesse. This masterpiece by Truffaut is an utterly fascinating account of the enigma of the male-female human relationship --- far, far superior in its own terms to anything produced in the English-speaking world.

TRUFFAUT'S GIFT.......2005-01-25

Only a director's with TRUFFAUT's sensibility could actually manage to make an interesting movie with a subject like this.BERTRAND MORANE, the character like his creator had plenty of women in his life.Read the biography written by ANTOINE De BAECQUE for details.This film can be considered as his last personnal film, even if it is not related to the DOINEL series.It is not surprizing that TRUFFAUT likes the voice off device which reached it's zenith with TWO ENGLISH GIRLS and SUCH A GEORGEOUS KID LIKE ME.His ironic nature almost commands such a device.THE MAN WHO LOVED WOMEN is a medium TRUFFAUT ,worth seeing as a funny explorations of his themes.You can actually see the director rapidly passing by at the beginning of the movie.I would have liked BRIGITTE FOSSEY's character more fully developped.To resume TRUFFAUT in a simple way,one can say that he often created strong women characters over weak men who are often survivors or victims.But nothing is never that simple...

The eternal nature gift: the bliss.......2004-05-16

Francois Truffaut depicted a clever and brilliant sociological study about the huge emotional impact that one far descendent from Don Juan in the modern times caused in all the women he loved through his life. Despite the surrealistic plot, the smart dialogues illuminate the essential female soul.
Made in 1977 , this movie contains, nevertheless, the conceptual roots of the renewed New Wave and it's a very funny and carefully well made film. Oskar Werner and the always beautiful Brigitte Fosey give all their best so the whole cast.
Another triumph in Truffaut's career.

Average customer rating:

Murder, elections and secrets...all the things that make the new French grande bourgeoisie so interesting
"Everything's a secret here"
Chabrol watching the flowers grow
"I love it when you have qualms."
Actually the flower is not so evil

The Flower of Evil
Starring: Benoît Magimel , Nathalie Baye , Mélanie Doutey , Suzanne Flon , and Bernard Le Coq
Director: Claude Chabrol
Manufacturer: Lions Gate
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0001EFV9A
Release Date: 2004-04-20

Customer Reviews:

Murder, elections and secrets...all the things that make the new French grande bourgeoisie so interesting.......2007-06-15

We are the eyes of the camera, moving from the dark shadows of trees, across a gravel driveway, through the entrance of a large house, past an open door where a maid is setting out dishes on a table, up the stairs and past a room where a young woman is sitting on the floor, clasping her knees, down the hallway and into a bedroom, then past the corpse on the floor to focus on his hand grasping the coverlet. All the while we hear a cheap, romantic song coming from a radio somewhere in the house...

A memory

comes to you in your dreams

but it is not what it seems

and haunts you for eternity.

A memory

makes you believe he has never gone

that there's no need to grieve

and that the past lives on.

The Flower of Evil (La Fleur du Mal) is an almost elegiac Claude Chabrol movie that starts with a dead man and finishes with our understanding of how he came to be dead. In 101 minutes between these two points we find ourselves in the lives of a family whose secrets seem to repeat themselves. This isn't so much a mystery as a parable of inevitability. It also is a movie of deliberate story-telling. It takes its time as we observe the Charpin-Vasseur family. What a family it is. Chabrol once again opens the window to let the stale air of the French grande bourgeoisie out of the room. You may need a family chart to keep things straight at first, and one is provided as an extra on the DVD as well as in an insert.

Anne Charpin-Vasseur (Nathalie Baye) is running for the office of mayor. She is married to Gerard Vasseur (Bernard Le Coq). They married after their spouses, who had been having an affair with each other, were killed in a crash. Anne has a daughter from that first marriage, Michele Charpin-Vasseur (Melanie Doutey). Gerard has a son from his first marriage, Francois Vasseur (Benoit Magimel). Francois has been in America for three years and has just returned. The family lives in a fine country home with Aunt Line (Suzanne Flon). Anne is in for a nasty surprise when an anonymous letter accuses her publicly of being from a family whose members were Nazi collaborators, informers, unethical about they ways they made their money, and a family with a taste for brother-sister incest. Of course, it's all true. Francois and Michele, within a day of his return, not exactly a brother and sister but at least as close as cousins, have become lovers, aided by Aunt Line. She, in fact, in her youth was suspected of having killed her father, the collaborator, who sent his son, Line's brother, to his death when the young man joined the Resistance. You can see how a family chart can come in handy.

For the length of this movie we observe the family...the drive of Anne to be elected mayor, the womanizing of her husband who is always charming, the disdain of Francois for his father, the times Aunt Line can drift into a momentary reverie when we share with her the voices from her past. And that's largely what happens, slowly and deliberately, bit by bit, as we patch pieces together until, an hour and twenty minutes into the film, we encounter a woman hitting a man with a lamp, two women dragging him up the stairs and into a bedroom, and one of the women taking his hand to twist the fingers into the coverlet. "I feel as if I am doing things backward," says one of the women. We realize that, with her life, she is. When she tries to comfort the other, she can only hold the other woman's face in her hands and say, "Oh, my dear, time doesn't matter. You'll see. Life is one perpetual present."

I found the movie to be a fine example of Chabrol's craftsmanship and storytelling. As often with Chabrol, it's the women who dominate the story. Nathalie Baye and, particularly, Suzanne Flon, provide the energy and the calm that make the movie work. Flon, 85 when she made the movie, gives us an almost fragile Aunt Michelina, a woman who has seen and done many things in her life, and who has in the present so many echoes of her past. If Baye tends to dominate the first half of the movie, Flon serves up the second half on a platter for us.

This is the kind of movie that some will say, "Nothing happens." They'd be wrong.

The DVD transfer is adequate; the picture is softer than it should be. There are no significant extras. Do yourself a favor, however, and study the family chart of the Charpin and Vasseur families. It will simplify considerably the first 20 minutes or so of the movie.

"Everything's a secret here".......2006-12-14

"The flower of evil" (= "La fleur du mal"), directed by Claude Chabrol, is centered on an upper middle-class family, the Charpin-Vasseurs. This family seems perfect but has dark and deep secrets, as seen from the very first scenes of this movie. What is wrong with the members of this family? Chabrol's mission is to make us care about the answer to this question...

The story begins with a crime, and continues many years later, when Francois Vasseur (Benoît Magimel), returns home after spending four years in the United States. Gérard (Bernard Le Coq), his father, is happy to see Francois again, but disturbed by the fact that his wife Anne Charpin-Vasseur (Nathalie Baye) is involved in politics and running for mayor. Francois doesn't have a very good relationship with Gérard, but is pleased to see his stepmother Anne, his aunt Line (Suzanne Flon) and specially his stepsister and first cousin Michèle (Melanie Doutey).

Truth to be told, Francois left France because he had strong feelings towards Michèle, feelings she reciprocated. Is he now ready to act on those feelings? And what impact will that relationship have on the dynamics of his family, already disturbed by Anne's incursion into politics and old scandals that surface again? "The flower of evil" answers these questions, and tackles subjects such as the cyclical nature of life, the importance of secrecy in some lives, guilt and the need to keep up appearances ("il faut faire belle figure").

All in all, I think that this film will interest those who are fond of whodunnits, but that can also appreciate complex psychological studies that make a movie more interesting. Of course, recommended.

Belen Alcat

Chabrol watching the flowers grow.......2006-12-04

La Fleur du Mal aka The Flower of Evil isn't quite Chabrol on auto-pilot, but he's clearly more interested in the usual bourgeois side issues than the identity of the author of an anonymous leaflet that threatens Natalie Baye's campaign to become mayor of a small town by raking over the coals of the family's history of murder and Nazi collaboration. History is obviously going to repeat itself, but there's no sense of impending dread, merely a feeling that Chabrol has left himself too little time to remember the plot and wrap it up. Thus we get a somewhat hurried finale that feels practically like an afterthought - you can almost imagine him looking at his watch and thinking "Is that the time? I'd better kill someone so we can all go home." It's at its best dealing with local politics and petty ambitions on the campaign trail, and Baye and Suzanne Flon have the best of the film, but Chabrol's reunion with La Ceremonie scripter Caroline Eliacheff seems far more a time-filler than an essential.

"I love it when you have qualms.".......2006-09-16

Claude Chabrol fans won't be able to resist taking a look at "Flower of Evil"--a film with a great beginning, loaded with atmosphere, but with an ultimately disappointing ending. The story revolves around a wealthy family whose multi-generational habit of inter-marrying has created a great deal of scandal and rumour in a small French town. When the story begins, Francois (Benoit Magimel) returns from America to the family mansion. Three generations of the Vasseur and Charpin families live there--including Aunt Line (Suzanne Flon)--a woman who holds a number of family secrets. Immediately upon his return, Francois picks up a long-term relationship with his stepsister who is also his cousin--Michele Charpin-Vasseur (Melanie Doutey).

Francois' stepmother Anne Charpin-Vasseur (Nathalie Baye) is running for a political position in town, and she's very busy with the upcoming election. Her husband (Francois' father) Gerard Vasseur (Bernard le Coq) clearly resents Anne's involvement in politics. Gerard owns a laboratory in town, and here he distracts himself--not exactly subtly--with various young women. Trouble begins when an anonymous letter circulates in town detailing the scandals and unsolved crimes in Anne Charpin-Vasseur's family history. The letter is distributed to all the voters in town and is obviously timed to ruin Anne's chances at the polls.

"Flower of Evil" sets the stage for a great drama to unfold. The members of the household share a lot of secrets--Anne and Gerard, and for example, married after their spouses were killed. It's rumoured that their long-dead spouses were having a wild affair, and it's particularly nasty since there's a hint that they were murdered. To complicate matters, Gerard's brother was married to Anne. The sinister aspect of the film and its unsolved questions are emphasized, and the element of incest raises the notion of rot in the family tree.

Some of the best scenes in the film take place as Anne tries to campaign in a lower-class block of flats, and the film is its strongest in these sections. Unfortunately, the denouement is too rapid, and too unsatisfying. Chabrol leaves the viewer with the sense that this was a great half a film (and this happened in an earlier Chabrol film--"Merci Pour la Chocolat"). The film's strong beginning promised so much more, and the ending left a great deal unexplored. In French with English subtitles--displacedhuman

Actually the flower is not so evil.......2006-01-30

This is a pleasant film by Claude Chabrol, nothing like the forbidding title "La Fleur du Mal" would suggest. I say pleasant in that there is nothing gross or ugly about it or really shocking, and it ends in a way that most viewers would find agreeable. There is some dark suggestion of family evil and a kind of playful non-incest and some skeletons in the closet from the Nazi occupation and one dead man at the end, but otherwise this is almost a comedy.

It is not, however, in my opinion his best work, but is very representative. My favorite Chabrol film is Une affaire de femmes (1988) starring Isabelle Huppert and Francois Cluzet. I also liked La Cérémonie (1995) featuring Sandrine Bonnaire, Isabelle Huppert and Jacqueline Bisset. Both of these are much darker works than The Flower of Evil.

As in many Chabrol films this starts slowly but manages to be interesting thanks to some veracious color and characterization blended with a hint of the tension to come. And then, also characteristic of Chabrol, there is a interesting finish.

Nathalie Baye plays Anne Charpin-Vasseur, who in her fifties decides to run for mayor. Her philandering husband Gérard (Bernard Le Coq) is not pleased. Benoit Magimel plays the prodigal son Francois Vasseur, just home after four years in the US, while Melanie Doutey plays his non-biological sister Michele. Francois apparently ran away to the States to cool his growing attraction to Michele (to her disappointment). Now on his return their love blooms.

This is very much approved of by Aunt Line (played wonderfully well with spry energy by Suzanne Flon who was 85 years old when the film was made). Their affair reminds her of her youth, a mixed blessing since she lived through some horrors.

The main plot concerns the opposition that Anne is getting as she runs for mayor. A leaflet accusing the family of collaboration with the Nazis during WWII is distributed that threatens to derail her campaign.

See this for one of France's great ladies of both film and the theater, Suzanne Flon, who died last year after a career than spanned five decades.

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