Reviews

Pourquoi? Why? That's what I ask myself, whenever I see a film like this; Why do women stay with men who aren't good for them?

In this film, Violette, played by the still ultra-sexy Isobelle Adjani, is in a relationship with Francois played by Jaques Dutronc, who is a major wastrel that cannot hold down a job, and who likes to go shoplifting...among other things. The couple have a young son who is blonde, despite the fact that his parents are not...I couldn't quite understand this, but anyway the film is quite watchable, and the characters are all engaging thanks to the performances of the cast. I have a love for all things French, so, I quite like these types of films, which show how Paris looked in the past. Surtout, dans les années 70. Eventually, Violette participates in Francois'...hobby...as the couple fall on hard times, and surprisingly she enjoys their escapades, until one day when she suffers some dire consequences for her actions.

I quite liked it. See it, and judge for yourself.

This has to be my favourite French film ever! I recall seeing it's very well dubbed English version on TV in the early '80s. It was remade into The Woman in Red, which was pretty banal in comparison. But thanks to TV5 Monde, I was able to see the original version en Francais.

The film centres around Jean Rochefort, his friends and family. At the start, we see him standing precariously on the ledge of a high building. The reason why is shown at the film's end. (I won't give it away here) This is followed by a flashback. He is a middle-aged some-what bored businessman, who has his head turned one day when he sees a mysterious woman standing under an air vent in a car park. She happens to be wearing a flimsy red dress (hence the US title of the remake) which flutters in the breeze. She seems to enjoy this, and returns to the vent for a second helping. After she walks away, Rochefort tries it out for himself, but the effect for him in his buttoned overcoat is not as sexy to the viewer. Or even him. This is the catalyst for his obsession with the girl, played by Anny Duperey, who eventually turns up at his place of work, much to his surprise.

Meanwhile, his loving and quite attractive wife, is being sexually harassed by a chubby friend of their teenage daughter, this is not to mention the personal problems that Rochefort's tennis buddies also encounter.

This is well worth a look, even for the dubbed version. There was also a sequel made sometime after, but the magic was not there.

The title of my review suggests my opinion of the film. Although to be fair, my french is a bit rusty but I got the gist of it all. I think you have to understand the French social mores of the '70s a bit, as it's quite a dated movie. However, I did like the scenes where the salesman tells his potential customers his problems, in order to make them buy his wares.

It was also quite nice to see a very young, and very sexy Jane Birkin.

The married Jean Pierre-Marielle, always looks funny whenever he appears in his furry overcoat. And his girlfriend on-the-side, who habitually tries to commit suicide, finally succeeds in the end. If memory serves, she dies in a car accident, after three previous attempts to blow herself up with a gas cooker. All this after a saucy sex session in a hotel with the aforementioned salesman, played by Jean Carmet.

There is an appearance by Jean Rochefort, who seems to always have the same laconic expression on his face, in all his movies. He reminds me of a French Robert Mitchum.

If it were possible, I would give this film -100.

I remember when this film was released, and there was quite a lot of controversy surrounding it. This is exactly the type of movie I DON'T like. Because it isn't made to provoke useful thought and comment. Just to promote a director and his career. Couldn't Mr Van Sant come up with an original idea himself? I suppose the answer is no. After all, this is the man who directed a shot for remake of Psycho. And, he decided to use real non acting teens in his film Elephant, which accounts for most of the awfully wooden performances. It's very difficult to care about a character in a film, if the actor portraying the person isn't capable of doing it convincingly. For example, Benny, who appears late in the film, wanders around the school which is on fire, even though he can hear gun shots...Duuuh!! Guess what happens to him. And at the end, when the blonde boy tries to stop people entering the school, his 'performance' has no sense of urgency at all. He seems to be trying to imitate James Dean...Very badly. One scene I did like however, was when the two boys slaughtered three girls in the ladies toilet, after they had just vomited away their lunches. Bravo boys!!

Using the flashback method of telling a story from different viewpoints is not an original idea either, but when done properly it is very effective.

I am not a person who only likes action movies, or films that are neatly tied up at the end. I can take a thoughtfully made dramatical movie with a message any time...This isn't one of those films. If I was a relative of someone killed at Columbine, I would be highly offended by this trash. It really did look as though it was improvised throughout, not just in places.