Review of In the French Style

I'm indebted to an Internet friend who kindly burned me a copy of a film I've coveted since I saw it first. Often, of course, films we saw several years ago fail to stand up but this is not one of them and as I remembered the second half was laced with vintage Irwin Shaw dialogue that I still remembered verbatim. Next to John O'Hara Shaw wrote the finest American short stories of the twentieth century and here he blends two of them 'A Year To Learn The Language and In The French Style seamlessly into a hugely satisfying whole. I have never been enamoured of either Seberg or Baker yet here they combine to a fare-thee-well. Baker, more a 'presence' than an actor, clearly relished this one time he was provided with great dialogue and extracts the full mileage from Shaw's unmistakable style. Shaw's close friend Bob Parish, who was associated in one way or another - actor, editor, director - with some fairly classy movies yet never really made it, does sterling work behind the camera. One to cherish.