Amazon.com

Unquestionably one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, Roman Polanski(Chinatown, Rosemary's Baby, The Pianist) turns histalents to the realm of sexual perversity and its emotional toll. While ona Mediterranean cruise, Nigel and Fiona (Hugh Grant and Kristin ScottThomas) find a young French woman named Mimi (Emmanuelle Seigner) cryingin a bathroom. Mimi's paraplegic American husband Oscar (Peter Coyote)forces Nigel to listen to how Oscar and Mimi fell in love--as well as howthey discovered kinky erotic games and finally arrived at a curdled,mutual sadism. Bitter Moon veers erratically from salaciouserotica to black comedy to clumsy psychodrama, but individual scenes havea definite punch. Coyote chews the scenery with glee, Seigner (Polanski'swife, adding a hint of lurid autobiography) flounders moodily, and Grantseems miscast, but Scott Thomas gives the movie some actual dignity.--Bret Fetzer ... Read more

Reviews (37)

Fascinating Erotic Story
Roman Polanski has never been accused of being a timid filmmaker. Over the years, his many movies have been distinguished by their potent subject matter and sure-handed direction. They are certainly not for everyone's taste, but those who like Polanski films tend to like them very much indeed. Bitter Moon is no different. It is one of the most frank and deliciously outrageous films I have seen in a long time.

The story begins with a very staid and proper British couple on an ocean voyage. Nigel and Fiona (Hugh Grant and Kristen Scott-Thomas) are hoping to rekindle the faint spark of romance that is left in their marriage. What they get instead is something much more than they bargained for.

Almost immediately, they meet Mimi (Emmanuelle Seigner), a seductive French femme fatale, and her crippled husband Oscar (Peter Coyote), a failed American writer. Oscar knows that Nigel desires Mimi and he is willing to accommodate him, but first Nigel must listen to the sordid story of their life together.

I don't want to give away too many of the details, for the shock of hearing their tale is the best part of the film. It is, at various turns, erotic, outrageous, outlandish, hilarious, titillating and unbelievable. What it is certainly not is boring. As we peek in on their bizarre sex life, first stimulated, then horrified, we are never quite sure what is true and what is fantasy. Against his better judgment, Nigel finds himself drawn into their twisted, little world and the results do not disappoint.

It seems that it always takes a European director to make a film such as this one. Americans are far too timid about sexuality to deal with it in an frank and adult manner. You can count on Polanski or Paul Verhoeven or Bertrand Blier to make a film like "Bitter Moon." But what about Spielberg or Scorsese or Coppola? Never. When it comes to films involving violence, American directors can be as bold and explicit as one could ever desire. In stories involving eroticism and sensuality, however, they are sadly lacking.

Due to some regrettable incidents in Polanski's past, his films seldom get the respect they deserve in this country. That is unfortunate because his work is generally superb. His 1988 thriller "Frantic," starring Harrison Ford, remains one of the best, most unappreciated films of recent years. "Bitter Moon" was first released in Europe in 1992, but it took two years for it to finally be shown in America. Anyone who ignores this one, though, will be missing a damn fine film.

Whoa!!
This is probably one of the most depraved movies I have ever seen. It's a Roman Polanski film. (I usually have high regard for his films, so it's no surprise to me that I "enjoyed" this one.) Nigel (played by Hugh Grant) is on a cruise ship with his wife. He meets a strange couple, the crippled husband and his lovely young French wife, Mimi. The story he tells is one of extreme sexual passion and the consequences of a greedy sex life. (A strange sex life, at that!) There are two extremes to this relationship. This movie had my gut tied up in knots the entire time I was watching it. I was still having flashbacks from the film the next morning! I really can't recall having a movie effect me in such a manner. This movie is NOT recommended for the more "reserved" people.

Accccaaip güzel bi film
Yaw yýllar önce tv de seyretmiþtim, bi daha da yayýnlamadýlar. Çok þaane bi film harbiden. Þimdi de DVD olarak alacam. Ama Türkçe altyazýlý veya dublajlý olarak bulamadým.

Less than 3 stars?!! Madness....
I was compelled to write this review based on the handfull of negative reviews (like the one below).

I think this movie is an absolute gem. First off, taking a step back, this movie isn't about two good people that meet and fall in love. I believe this movie is about what happens when two very base, very bored, and largely devoid of virtue collide. It's about the danger in irrational immoral entanglement (again, this is just my opinion). You see, the sex scenes (some of them anyway) are meant to be laughable. These two hit bottom together and reach (what Peter Coyote, the male partner calls) "sexual bankruptcy"....right in front of your eyes, they get slaughtered by their own insane urges! Brilliant, strange, interesting, depressing, important (especially if you're prone to confuse urges with love).

Peter Coyote gives an amazing performance, Polanski offered up his own wife (Emmanuelle Seigner) as the temptress (c'mon, you've got to give him at least one star for having enough love for this film to direct his own wife through sex scenes).

If you haven't seen Bitter Moon, don't miss this film. I think it raises important questions and warnings about certain popular behavior (or at least tendencies) in relationships. All the while being entertaining, and at times utterly shocking.

Hope this was helpful.

Atrocious
I admire director/actor Roman Polanski very much; not only because he can be a consumate filmaker and has made some of the more interesting films of the late 20th. Century, but also because he has managed to surive the loss of his family to the Nazi gas chambers, the loss of his pregnant wife to the Manson lunatics as well as many other problems.

"Bitter Moon", in my opinion, has no redemming features whatsoever. If I didn't know that Polanski was involved I never would have believed it. The script is trite, corny and shallow. The acting performances, without exception, are utterly pedestrian and completely unbelievable.

In case anyone believes that my distaste for "bitter Moon" stems from its sexual or violent content let me assure you that is certainly not the case. I did, however, find the sexual content to be absolutely laughable. I am a great fan of intricate and thoughtful movies; some of my favourite directors are Atom Egoyan, Krystof Kiewslowski, David Lynch, Martin Scorsese, Stanley Kubrick, David Cronenberg, Akira Kurosawa and, indeed, Roman Polanski.

However intricate, deep, simple or spectacular a film may be, it must be engaging. In my opinion, "Bitter Moon" is a laborious and boring film. I wouldn't be surprised if Polanski wishes he had never made it. ... Read more

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Though it wasn't Jackie Chan's first film, Drunken Master is the film that cemented his stardom. Jackie plays the rebellious son of a kung fu master. To teach Jackie the value of discipline, his father apprentices him to another master named So Hi, who has a unique "drunken" fighting style. Jackie chafes at So Hi's rigorous exercises and runs away--only to be brutally humiliated at the hands of a hired killer named Thunderleg. Chastened, Jackie becomes So Hi's devoted student. He soon discovers he will need everything he's learned when Thunderleg is hired to kill his father. In Drunken Master, Jackie is only beginning to cultivate his mixture of action and comedy; here the emphasis is on kung fu acrobatics. But the kung fu is astounding. The final fight is dizzying and amazingly choreographed by director Yuen Woo-ping (now famous as the fight choreographer for The Matrix). --Bret Fetzer ... Read more

Reviews (40)

Great Release, but with a few problems...
Finally, one of Jackie's best movies comes to DVD in the US. This version is supposedly uncut but I really cant say since I saw it for the first time quite a while ago and I can't remember. Picture quality is great for a film of its age, especially an HK film (many old HK films are very poor quality because of bad storage conditions) and the sound is about as good as it could be. As has been stated here before, the Cantonese audio track sometimes switches back to english for a few lines which is quite annoying. But seriously, 5 minutes of English dialogue doesnt ruin the whole movie.

Overall, I'd say that this is a pretty high quality DVD release except for the audio problem and the lack of any real extras (aside from the awesome full length commentary by Ric Meyers and Jeff Yang). However, for the best version of this movie on DVD check out the Hong Kong Legends version or wait for their 2-disc Platinum release(!)

Chomping at the bit!
I just can't wait for this DVD! As I'm writing this review, I still have to wait 2 months for its release. I'm hoping it's a Columbia Tri-Star DVD, after the bang-up job they did with "Fearless Hyena." I'm hoping for the remastered widescreen transfer this classic deserves, as opposed to the ... Front Row release I've had to do with for the last 2 years. For those who don't know, this was Jackie Chan's breakout movie, choreographed and directed by Yuen Wu Ping, known to the majority of Western audiences through "The Matrix," "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," and "Iron Monkey." Also, it's the predecessor to what we know in the US as "The Legend of Drunken Master," which is actually the second part of a trilogy. I also hope that this DVD includes the original language track, as the Columbia releases of "Fearless Hyena" parts 1 and 2 did. If these hopes don't come to fruition, and this isn't a Columbia DVD, then this review will look pretty dated and stupid. Maybe then a distributor will wise up and give this great flick the respect it deserves.

The Best Kung Fu Comedy
This movie made me a fan of JACKIE CHAN just like Enter the Dragon made me a fan of BRUCE LEE.

AWESOME FIGHT SCENE POETRY

This started it all for me
This movie was made in 1978 i was only one year of age but 25 years later I have found were Kung Fu really began.With fight chor. and directed by the great Yuen woo Ping and staring Jackie Chan it is flawless.This has more fights than any movie ive ever scene and they are all terriffic,its worth mentioning that i believe what makes the movie is Yuen woo Pings father whos name is Yeun Hsiao Tieng,he plays a drunken master and Jackies Mentor he's also his mentor in another movie i recommend Snake in the Eagles Shadow where he also plays Jackies mentor.The comedy is great and not stupid like alot of asian comedy/kung Fu films.An instant and long runnig classic!

One of JC's Best Films, but I HATE this DVD's newer Eng dub!
DRUNKEN MASTER is one of Jackie Chan's all time greats (the film itself is a 5 star film, only this DVD gets a 3 star rating). He plays a naughty little rascal named Huang Fei Hung (yes, the same character Kwan Tak Hing made famous in a series of nearly 100 films and later by Jet Li in the ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA series of films) who's sent by his father to the famous Sam the Seed (the old Drunken Master himself, Simon Yuen) to learn discipline. Huang Fei Hung can't take the torturous training and runs away, but after getting beat up and humiliated by a wicked kicking Master (he burns the kid's pants, badmouths his father's kung fu, and makes him crawl between his legs like a dog) he quickly repents and begs Sam the Seed to take him back. The film is a delightful mixture of kung fu, comedy, and drama with enough dazzling displays of martial arts and acrobatics to keep viewing fresh time after time.

My gripe with this DVD is that the English language track is NOT the wonderfully fun one released previously on VHS featuring those loveably familiar English dubbed kung fu movie voices of the 1970s-80s. Some people hate those English dub jobs and will always prefer the original Chinese language tracks (which fortunately ARE on the DVD with choice of subtitles), but there are those of us who also enjoy watching the old English dubbed versions for their sheer camp value and cartoon-like energy. Those same voices (found on almost all exported kung fu films of that time period) have become like family members (the ones you want to have visit!). The voice actors then may have switched roles from picture to picture, not ALWAYS voicing the same onscreen actors as you saw and heard them do before, and they may not have been of Royal Shakespeare Company standard, but they always brought with them a smile of recognition and often livened up otherwise dull proceedings.

Some simply don't like English dubs. "The words don't match their mouths and it's always the same voices!" Well, guess what? That's the case even in the original language. The Chinese tracks are almost always dubbed in afterwards by actors other than the ones onscreen. Sure they may come a little closer to matching the lips since the actors words are closer to the words dubbed in later, and some of the voice artists may be familiar with and try to sound similar to the real actor, but it's still nowhere near to perfect lip-synching. Even when the audio is recorded live in synch-sound, the English subtitles still differ from the actual words spoken due to the complex nature of translation (and by golly, what do you do if you're eating, and don't catch all the words during the dialogue driven portions of the film while you're looking at your plate?).

For myself, I will admit that there IS something about original language tracks and subtitles that DOES work better for the more serious pictures as they lend a kind of authenticity and intelligence to the viewing experience (after all we are forced to READ during them which IS a scolarly endeavor, isn't it?), but for the comedy laden kung fu flicks of the 70s and 80s it's nice sometimes to just sit back and relax to the goofy sounds of the old English dubs. The voice-over actors of HK films of the 90s and today just don't cut the mustard. Most sound like second rate actors trying to sound like first rate actors, the result being a bore. The old dubbers may have been third rate actors, but at least they were having fun and the voices they chose matched the pictures. There's nothing more enjoyable, or appropriatly matching in sound and sight, than the old voices used for the weasel characters of Dean Shek or the interpreter found in FISTS OF FURY (aka THE CHINESE CONNECTION). Back then the villains sounded like creeps, the good guys sounded like heroes, the rascals sounded like wiseguys, and the big guys sounded like Bullwinkle!

After all of that then, this DVD release of DRUNKEN MASTER does NOT feature the original English dub and its loveable voices of the 70s. It has a newer, unimproved English track, and quite a bit of the dialogue is different as well. The English dub here is simply NO FUN. Maybe whoever redid the track wanted it to sound less cartoon-like and more natural, but you can't voice a comedy using serious voices that don't match the comedic energy of the performers onscreen! The old crew had that energy (and even the times that they lacked it was fun, too, because when they lacked it back then, boy, they REALLY lacked it!). The remastered DVDs of SNAKE AND CRANE ARTS OF SHAOLIN, FEARLESS HYENA, and DRAGON FIST all contain those wonderfully voiced original English dubs (as well as the original Cantonese or Mandarin track depending on the film). Why was DRUNKEN MASTER, one of the GREATEST kung fu movies ever, not treated the same? Were they trying to give it a new respect after the success of CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON? They should have realized that DRUNKEN MASTER already HAS respect here, and in part because of the wonderful sense of fun found in the original English dub. I wish those old actors would get more credit for bringing such wonderfully guilty pleasure to so many fans.

Oh, and for those wanting to know more about the film itself, it contains Simon Yuen's defining performance as the charismatic old Drunken Master, Yuen Wo Ping's masterful direction using action and comedy to propel the story along, one of Hwang Jang Lee's most villainous performances and some of the greatest kicking abilities ever displayed onscreen, and a young Jackie Chan's complete devotion to character, pushing his body and comedic talents to the limits.

Watch it in Chinese with subtitles on this DVD and then listen to Ric Meyers' wonderful commentary, but for English dub lovers I HIGHLY recommend finding a copy containing the original English dubbed version and watching that version over this one. ... Read more

Description

Luis Buñuel's final film explodes with eroticism, bringing full circle the director's lifelong preoccupation with the darker side of desire. Buñuel regular Fernando Rey plays Mathieu, an urbane widower, tortured by his lust for the elusive Conchita. With subversive flare, Buñuel uses two different actresses in the lead- Carole Bouquet, a sophisticated French beauty, and Angela Molina, a Spanish coquette. Drawn from Pierre Louÿs' 1898 novel, "La Femme et le Pantin," That Obscure Object of Desire is a dizzying game of sexual politics punctuated by a terror that harkens back to Buñuel's brilliant surrealistic beginnings. ... Read more

Reviews (22)

Amusing, but not nearly The Discreet Charm
That Obscure Object of Desire (Luis Bunuel, 1977)

That Obscure Object of Desire, the sixth(!) adaptation of Pierre Louys' novel Le Femme et le Pantin to come to the screen (and there was a seventh, released in 1990, as well), was Bunuel's final film. And while it's obviously a Bunuel film, it's probably a good thing that it was his last. It contains all the hallmarks of Bunuel, but without the compelling qualities that made his earlier work some of the best filmmaking ever.

At the opening, Mathieu (Fernando Rey) is boarding a train. He stops to pour a bucket of water over the head of a young woman. His fellow passengers naturally wonder about all this, so he tells them the tale of his courtship of Conchita (played by two actresses, Carole Bouquet and Angela Molina), which is, in essence, a tale of never-ending frustration, as the couple's every attempt to make love is thwarted, either by one of them or by some outside force. Bunuel fans will not be unfamiliar with this ruse (it's the same fate as the dinner party in The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie), or many of the trappings surrounding it. Yet still, it lacks something.

The most interesting part of the DVD is in the extras, which compare Bunuel's versions to the second adaptation of the novel, La Femme et le Pantin (Jacues de Baroncelli, 1928). One only wonders for a moment why they chose the particular scenes for the comparison they did, especially the climactic fight; suffice to say without giving anything away that Bunuel makes a few changes to the characters' attitudes that give the climax a whole different tone.

I only with I could find the complete 1928 version to compare. (I have had the novel on my TBR stack for eight years, time to read it.) It is possible that those who've never seen another of Bunuel's late-period films will find this far more amusing than I did. I, however, am stuck comparing it to The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, one of the finest films not only from the Bunuel collection but by any director, and in that light, That Obscure Object of Desire was a pretty, amusing trifle. ** ½

Bunuel's genius isn't obscure.
Luis Bunuel's last film . . . and he checked out with a masterpiece. It's the fifth adaptation of a torrid novel written in 1898 called *La Femme et le Pantin* (The Woman and the Puppet). The only famous version, besides this one, is 1935's *The Devil is a Woman* starring -- who else? -- Marlene Dietrich. In *That Obscure Object of Desire*, Fernando Rey is bedevilled by TWO women: in what can only be described as a stroke of genius, Bunuel cast 2 ladies to play the same part of Conchita, a young Spanish flamenco dancer who begins the movie as Rey's housemaid. The considerably different physiognomy of Carole Bouquet and Angela Molina would at first suggest a "light" or "dark" side of Conchita (or a "sophisticated" or "earthy" side -- take your pick). However, each actress is assigned to her respective scenes in a totally arbitrary manner: both run hot and cold with Rey. The CHARACTER is the same, no matter which actress plays her . . . which says something about the "objectification" in the title, perhaps. (But only Spanish Molina is allowed to dance the flamenco.) In other words, this interchangeability is more than just another of this director's famous Surrealist touches. Bunuel arrives at deeper truths about how men view women, how men need women, and how any woman will do -- despite, in this case, Mathieu's apparent obsession with one woman. The driving plot-line, which is whether or not Conchita will surrender her virginity to Mathieu, soon turns into circular entropy with no resolution. Which, after all, is the point: desire dies when it's resolved. Bunuel suggests that the sexual drive and its attendant perversities and neuroses never die. (The fact that Mathieu is 60 years old, give or take, is not an accident.) Indeed, desire dies only with death itself, as the film's final shot indicates.

One superb movie
First at all , I must confess that my favorite film of Luis Bunuel is Viridiana.
But what this film has in particular is the special enchantment who Bunuel added when we watched the dramatic transformations suffered by a same woman in an unhappy relationship.
The progressive change , you perfectly can associate with the journey from Athenea to Aphrodite and back to Athenea with a touch of Gea .
Athenea besides being the knowledge , the prudence and wisdom's symbol , was virginal.
Instead Aphrodite simbolizes the love without restrictions and duties too. In Aphrodite's mind the idea of a perpetual relationship and marrioage, simply don't exist.
Gea represents the woman who thinks in the marriage as a commitment of life. She loves the family and kids, and that's her bliss.
That's why our troubled man (Fernando Rey) can not understand. Because he loves the best of both , and so his confussion grows and grows till the time comes for him to fade in that unexpected ending.
One powerful of the couple. A film carefully made and a brilliant portrait who reflect the behavior of many couples in any age.
Watch this monumental film . One of the most honest works of that genius: Luis Bunuel.

So many views missing the point...
So many of the negative views on this master piece are missing the point. This final picture is Bunel's take on the subject of power struggle between the sexes. It has been said that there are three fundamental things that propel everything in a society, Power, Money and Sex. Power and money belong to the category of class struggle and Bunuel has illuminated his view on this subject (mixed in with Religion as the fourth element) with so many films. And he decided to take on the battle of the sexes at the time when he was no longer under the tyrany of this primodial force called sexual desire. It is Bunel's stroke of genius in casting two female actress with totally opposite persona. I first saw this movie in my college days and couldn't make anything out of it like so many reviewers here. Now, I am much older, devorced, and having spent a few more years dating again. Now, on second viewing, I understand Bunuel. This is one movie, in fact, the whole subject matter of human desire, really requires a good amount of experience of life, especially the darker and more tragic side of it, as a prerequisit for even a basic understanding.

His last and best
"Any man who thinks he can read the mind of a woman is a man who knows nothing." -- Robert Evans.
This could have been the tagline for Bunuel's final movie, in which Fernando Rey's Mathieu grapples with his lust for Conchita, who seems to be leading him on for sadistic thrills. In his final surrealistic touch, Bunuel casts two women in the part of Conchita, a choice that has been interpreted a hundred different ways, though Bunuel himself insisted it was a random whimsical idea that just stuck. One thing on which everyone should agree, though, is that it adds to the mystery and ambiguity that is at the heart of Mathieu's relationship with Conchita. Had Bunuel made Mathieu consciously aware of this fact, it would've reduced it to a gimmick. This way, it preserves the obscurity of the title. I rank this movie as his best because he only got stronger as a filmmaker with time, and, this being his last one, it's informed by everything that came before. It's also wildly hilarious and very disturbing. This being a Criterion DVD, you can count on the best picture and sound quality, and a score of extra junk which may or may not interest you. ... Read more

Description

One of the funniest movies from any country! (BOXOFFICE) - "Exhilarating and finally irresistible!" (LA TIMES) - Golden Globe Nominee - Victor Pivert is a very tolerant man, provided you are white, Catholic, and French.To everyone else, he is a shameless racist, who believes foreigners should go back where they came from.On his way to his daughter's wedding, Victor uncovers a group of scheming Arab revolutionaries.After Victor is discovered, he hides himself by dressing up as a rabbi, leading to one madcap scene after another.THE MAD ADVENTURES OF RABBI JACOB is an extremely entertaining film - fresh, funny, and powerfully poignant. ... Read more

Reviews (11)

Add this classic to your collection
It is about time that this classic screwball slapstick comedy is available to the US. When I originally saw this film in the theatres back in 73- I laughed alot- and now this film is still one of the funniest comedies I have ever seen- According to the description of the DVD the film is in French and has english subtitles- if this is correct- Who cares!- The story and slapstick make the film- In any language Rabbi Jacob is a good time.

A Note to a Previous Reviewer
To "a viewer", who titled his review "Great movie ... poor DVD treatment", and complained: " (Also, there are no options for [...] -- I speak for others -- English dubbing.)":

You don't *want* to hear the English dubbing from the original release. They even changed the character's name from "Pivert" to "Beaver"...

(I haven't yet seen this DVD -- i intend to do so as soon as possible -- the five stars above are for the film, one of the great slapstick comedies of all time.

(I might subtract one or even two if the DVD transfer is sufficiently atrocious or the film is severely edited.)

Nice job on the dvd, Facets!!
The madcap slapstick adventure won't appeal to everyone, but there is much that is original and funny.

I must say, though, to those reviewers who have been whining about the DVD, that you're way off base. This is a 1973 film, remember, that has a lovely widescreen non-anamorphic DVD transfer with a rich, accurate color palette and excellent sharpness throughout. It is clearly NOT from a VHS original, and is one of the better looking 1970's DVD's you will see. Thirty years after the fact, with a film that will not sell a million copies, you cannot complain about the lack of special features. Thanks, Facets, for giving us a clear look at a forgotten classic!

funniest movie I have ever seen
This film is the hands-down, without a doubt, no question, absolutely funniest movie I have ever seen. You will laugh non-stop throughout the entire movie!

Great movie ... poor DVD treatment
I loved this movie when I first saw it two decades ago. Great humor and premise. The bubblegum scene is priceless, unforgettable. Like most comedies, some moments and gags don't live up to others, and some coincidences and motivations are forced. The dated score may sound -- to some people -- a little cheesy at times. Nevertheless, I'd give the movie 4.5 stars. Definitely worth seeing!

On the other hand, I'd give the DVD itself 1 star -- for the fact that the movie at least *is* available on DVD, is in its original widescreen aspect ratio, and the packaging has nice graphics. One annoyance is that you can't turn off the (English) subtitles. (Also, there are no options for French subtitles or -- I speak for others -- English dubbing.)

Another annoyance is the pitiful, solitary "extra feature": Cast and Crew. For one thing, only two people are listed. And couldn't they find someone who knows English to edit the text? Furthermore, the user interface for Cast and Crew is terrible. The default is to go back to the previous screen, rather than forward; and there is no option to go back to the main Cast and Crew screen (you have to go back to the main menu and start from scratch). Lots of unnecessary clicking to get very little information. The scene selection interface is clunky as well. In summary, almost no extra features are present, and no thought was put into the user interface.

It is always a shame when an excellent movie gets a poor DVD treatment. ... Read more

Description

An evil mastermind with an addiction to egg salad! Sadistic, torture- hungry double crossers! Gorgeous girls hungry for lovin'! A weird marriage between acobra and a chicken! Only one man is daring, clever and sexy enough to take on this kindof mission: superspy Phil Moscowitz! Woody Allen spoofs the spy thriller in one of hisfunniest films, a nonstop frenzy of skewed wit, hilarious parody and sidesplittingwackiness. With dialogue rewritten and redubbed for a Japanese James Bond-stylemovie, What's Up, Tiger Lily? turns the sex-and-danger world of filmdom's spy gameupside down! ... Read more

Reviews (36)

excellent concept, average execution
A Film by Woody Allen

I've seen several Woody Allen films, but I can't say that I'm a big fan. What interested me most was the concept of this movie: Woody Allen takes a Japanese "B" spy film, removes the language track, dubs his own and changes the entire movie into a comedy. It was a daring idea then, and it remains a daring idea today. It is similar to Mystery Science Theater, only instead of having a group of people outside the film mocking it; the characters do the job themselves.

Whatever the original source material was about, What's Up, Tiger Lily? is a comedic quest to retrieve a stole recipe for Egg Salad. That's right...egg salad. There are several funny moments throughout the movie (the best is when Woody introduces the film and claims that "Gone With the Wind" was actually a redubbed Japanese film), but as a whole I felt let down. The concept was fantastic, and I know that the action and the dialogue were intentionally absurd, but the movie didn't work for me. I appreciate how well the dubbed dialogue fits into the movie, so well that I considered the fact that Woody might actually have shot the movie using Japanese actors in order to better fit the dialogue and action. The dub fits the movie that well. While it is occasionally funny and interesting, it wasn't interesting enough for me to give the movie a positive review. I just didn't care for the movie.

The world can always use a great recipe for egg salad
Once upon a time there was a 1964 Japanese spy movie called "Kokusai himitsu keisatsu: Kagi no kagi" ("International Secret Police: Key of Keys." Then Woody Allen decided that if the Japanese could dub their monster movies into English, he could dub "Kagi no kagi" into English. The key difference, of course, is that Woody is trying to be funny on purpose. Whatever Interpol Agent Tatsuya Mihashi was up to in the original, he is now trying to track down a secret egg salad recipe. As somebody who actually remembers seeing this film in a movie theater, I still recall my roommate and I insulting each other and total strangers for several weeks with comments about "Roman dogs" and "Spartan pigs." I cannot really imagine committing this entire film to memory, but whether you are a fan of Woody Allen, badly dubbed Japanese movies, or James Bond spy movies, then you owe it to yourself to see this film once in your life. The most amazing thing is that this has not been done more often; after all, what bad movie could you not improve by totally redoing the dialogue and how much fun could you have doing something like this to a classic film like "Casablanca"? The Japanese original was actually followed by a 1967 sequel "Kokusai himitsu keisatsu: Zettai zetsumi" ("International Secret Police: Driven to the Wall") starring Nick Adams a year before his death from a drug overdose. That film had something to do with killer foam (no, I am not making that up).

A profound and inquisitive documentary
Along with the fictional "Interiors" this has to be Allen's most introspective, auto biographical work: a realistic portrait of the man behind the comedian, everything's here: starting from a difficult upbringing in Tijuana, México (where he met absurdist mexican painter Mateo Valdés Gutiérrez), the amazingly strange story of how Woody wears glasses just for the fun of it and up to his anonymous contributions to the Lingüistic Circle of Prague (where he started his stand up routine, not very succesfully).
Maybe the most powerful image from this production is the moment when Allen breaks into tears listening to an old Ramones 8 track, driving his Porsche back to California or maybe when he transforms himself into a black jazz musician while listening to Coltrane in a bath tub, full of desire.

a wilted, faded flower...
Grafting new dialog onto an existing movie wasn't new when Woody Allen did it to an inept Japanese spy thriller. Jay Ward had already done it with "Fractured Flickers." Firesign Theater trashed Saturday-matinee serials in "Hot Shorts." And Spike network's "MXC" twists and tweaks a goofy Japanese game show.

"Tiger Lily" is showing her age -- what was novel 30 years ago no longer is. We've seen better movie send-ups ("Airplane!", MST3K). And Woody chose a film that doesn't have enough dialog to smother with jokes, so we're too-often stuck with watching a boring, derivative film.

Not in any way bad (there are a few great lines), but not funny enough to watch more than once or twice.

More Reasons Why You'll Never Get Away In A Moment...
Whether or not you're a Woody Allen fan - and in my moviegoing experience it's a pretty divisive issue, you either love him or hate him - 'What's Up, Tiger Lily?' is a comic curveball of zingers, one-liners, puns, gags, and all-out innuendo all cleverly sneaking through the side door and turning an otherwise run-of-the-mill spy movie (back then, they were everywhere...EVERYBODY wanted to make the next James Bond) into a giddy treat.
The opening shot - featuring a scene from the film with its original audio track, followed by an introduction/confession by Woody Allen himself - doesn't really have a whole lot to do with the madness that ensues, except perhaps to provide a hilarious contrast. The story goes as thus: Fresh from wrapping up one caper, self-proclaimed lovable rogue Phil Moskowitz is enlisted by the leader of a fictional country to retrieve its most priceless treasure - the recipe for the world's greatest egg salad - before it comes their turn to be put on the map. With his two lovely lady-friends, Moskowitz becomes caught in a power struggle between Shepherd Wong, who has a thing for women's football and a passion for mayonnaise, and Wing-Fat, who carries a rather unique camera and whose henchmen officiate the wedding of a snake and a chicken. Yep, that's pretty much the plot of the movie.
Any question of where the Spike Network came up with the idea for 'Most Extreme Elimination Challenge' seems answered to a tee with this flick, and again, you don't have to be a Woody Allen fan to enjoy this mindlessly-funny romp, particularly if you get a kick out of all those old dubbed Japanese monster movies. As a bonus, we get the Lovin' Spoonful making an appearance here and there in the flick, and even a few more comical cameos by Woody in the middle and at the end.
If you're an afficionado of the classic movie spoof - a genre that includes early Mel Brooks and Zucker/Abrahams works like 'Young Frankenstein' and 'Airplane!' - you'd get a kick out of 'What's Up, Tiger Lily?'. ... Read more

Description

Jackie Chan return becomes and is able to fend off numerous attacks and perform incredible stunts. Aided by his hilarious stepmother and friends, Hong faces the challenge of protecting valuable Chinese history and saving his family honor.s to the role that made him a star in 1979's "Drunken Master." Chinese folklore hero Wong Fei Hong discovers a smuggling ring, orchestrated by the British Government, to transport valuable Chinese artifacts out of the country. Hong must use his unique style of martial arts, "Drunken Boxing," to fight the conspirators and salvage the Chinese treasures before it ... Read more

Reviews (171)

It's a keeper! Rent it. Buy it!
This film has several formats. The VHS version from 1994 is the one you want to see! It is the perfect movie! It's also Jackie's perfect movie! This is a sequel, with 20 years between but Chan manages to look and act much younger. It is not difficult to accept him as being "young Wong Fei - hung". The only connection between the two films is Jackie and drunken boxing. Ti Lung is his father and Anita Mui is "Mom" (actually Fei - Hung's mother is dead). Anita darn near steals the show! This is a fantastic film! It is a period film, with unscrupulous people stealing as many Chinese treasures a possible. Chan accidentally gets involved in helping to stop the thefts and ends up taking on some major bad guys including Ken Lo in a steel factory. In my opinion the extended fight sequence is the absolute best, with
"Wheels On Meals" fight with Benny coming in a close second.
The final fight has Jackie battling a number of people before he squares off with Ken Lo. (Lo is a major talent in the kickboxing world and stands out as one of the best.) Jackie had some differences of opinion with the director and the final fight is designed by Jackie and it shows! It is powerful yet graceful..furious but with purpose. It is beyond excellent!
This film has something for everyone. In addition to Jackie's excellent fighting there are plenty of laughs, and more intricate plot than with many of his movies. There is a scene with Ti Lung and Chan that is poignant and feels very real. But it is the fight scene in the steel factory that will have you rewinding a dozen times. I have two MAJOR criticisms of the US release,primarily Disney's decision to throw out the the soundtrack and musical score! The music from the original is perfect and part of the whole feel of the film. There never was a valid explanation from Disney as to why they dumped the original score. Jackie dubbed his voice for Fei - hung, but the dialogue is not the same! Some might be attributed to the difficulty in translation but in some scenes the dialouge has been radically changed. Disney also cut out the very end of the movie as they felt it was offensive. But that leads to an abrupt end to the film. I have no problem with cutting that scene though and it does not change the film.
One of my all time favorite movies! This one should not be missed!

Simply the best Martial Arts Film ever made
I know some of you will disagree and say that Bruce Lee's "Enter the Dragon", or Jet Li's "Fist of Legend" was the best ever made but I would have to disagree. While Bruce Lee was the best Martial Artist ever, his movies were average in regards to their fight choreography.No one could ever touch him in his films. The fight choreography in "Drunken Master 2" was incredible. It was realistic because there were almost no wire stunts involved and the fight scenes were fantastic. The fight scene with Jackie and Liu Chia Liang (Lau Kar Leung) in the beginning was pure poetry in motion. The final fight scene was fifteen minutes of pure adrenaline pumping action. Unique choreography makes this movie a classic. Unlike Jet Li's characterization of Wong Fei Hung, Jackie makes Fei Hung seem more human and vulnerable. Nobody could ever touch Jet Li in the "Once Upon a Time in China" series. Plus some of the moves just look so ridiculously fake. "Fist of Legend" is Jet's best movie because it isn't as fake and he actually has to fight hard to win. However, it is still only the second best film ever made. Not to criticize any other reviewer, but since when does the ability to do 540's and 720's and Butterfly kicks make a martial art film great? I have been involved in Martial Arts for over a 20 years and would love for someone to try to fight me using those kicks. While they look fancy in forms competition, they mean nothing in a real tournment fight and even less in a real street fight. This film is without a doubt the best Jackie Chan film ever and the best ever made. (At least until Jackie and Jet team up to do a film as has been rumored)

If you see one kung fu movie SEE LEGEND of Drunken Master.
Excelent
a great action movie and a great comedy there isnt a low spot in this movie. Off the start there is amazing fight sceens that are keeping your attention, but not without some story line and, Jackie Chans hillarious personality. But what is truly great about this movie would be that it starts with great action and continuously gets better, when its time for the end fight sceen you can't imagine any better action but youll be amazed again, and what i liked was the little to no use of wires in this movie contrary to many other kung fu movies. It really adds a reality to the action in a way.

What is also great is the well played characters even with the movie dubed it is still acted well enouph to make it a good movie. Not to mention the dubing adds to much of the comedy without being too cheesy.

So if you have never seen a kung fu movie see this one!

You will beilieve Jackie really is the Drunken Master

Decent sequel
Although not as good as the first, Jackie makes an all out effor in this film. The story is somewhat silly, but the action more than makes up for it.

With a bowl in his arms Fat Han's going mad!
This is the best comedy martial arts film. ... Read more

Description

French heartthrob Jean-Paul Belmondo plays Francois, a reclusive novelist whose wild imagination gets the best of him in this delightful blend of fantasy and adventure. Becoming the lead character from his own book, the dashing spy-hero Bob Saint Clair, Francois is hysterically thrown into the middle of his latest espionage case in a hilarious whirlwind of chases, betrayals, confrontations and mutual attraction. Long before "Austin Powers," this cleverly-written French comedy outrageously portrays the spy game like it's never been seen before! ... Read more

Reviews (66)

French Femmes Fatales Find the Funnybone in F Sharp
Go see this movie and don't wait until it is remade into a bad American version This is a delightful, go for broke, silly film, that allows its cast and the audience to have a great time at the movies. How often does French cinema treat its audience to a cast that includes some of France's most glamorous leading ladies (Deneuve, Huppert, Ardant, Beart)doing full on slapstick comedy and song? 8 women, trapped in a mansion during a snowstorm in the 1950's, find the master of the house dead. All 8 women are suspects, and are guilty of secrets, as well as digging up the dirt on one another, mud slinging, insult hurling and then singing their hearts out. One of the characters may be guilty of murder, and we learn that they all had motives....Production values are high and attention to detail in costumes and sets are noticeable with an effort to reproduce the images of Technicolor films of the 50's. Isabelle Huppert is a show stealer as the bitter spinster sister Augustine to Catherine Deneuve's Gaby. Director Francois Ozon inspires great performances and manages to pull off a pretty quirky idea. I loved this film but I suppose it is not for everyone. If you are up for a well made French comedy that is a little twisted with sharp witted writing, then sit back and enjoy this French bonbon. Don't worry about the subtitles. You will be laughing so hard you will forget you are reading them. Fun web site shows trailer and clips of songs and much more

If you see one French musical murder mystery this year.....
After the absorbing "Under The Sand", director Francois Ozon has completely changed tack with this delightful confection starring some of French cinema's most legendary and indeed most beautiful actresses. Taking his cue from the stereotypical murder mystery with suspects trapped in a secluded mansion, Ozon has transformed this into a colourful and sometimes even camp (in the best sense of the word) film with women at the centre.

It is difficult to single out individual performances - however the two youngest actresses, Virginie Ledoyen and Ludivine Sagnier suffer a little in the presence of the great firmament of acting. Catherine Deneuve, as always is luminous while Firmine Richard gets the best song, and her delivery gives it added pathos. Emmanuelle Beart is sultry, Fanny Ardant is vampy and the grande dame of the cinema, Danielle Darrieux ("Voluers! Assasins!") adds great comic touches. However, by a nose the most outstanding performace has to be Isabelle Huppert's spinster, Augustine. It would have been easy to go over the top with her character (and at times she veers dangerously close) but she is able to pull back and her "singing moment" challenges Richard's for being the most heart-breaking.

The film does betray its theatrical origins sometimes but this lends itself to the artifice that Ozon wishes to create. Once you have got over the unlikely scenario of suspects in a murder breaking into song, you will sit back and thoroughly enjoy this winning musical.

An interesting movie with legendary actresses
To start of, I am not a fan of Francois Ozon, his stories always seemed to be over sexed to sell more tickets. I only decided to watch this movie because of the 8 actresses (Deneuve and Bear especially). The story was shot and acted as a stage play. The colors, setting and the characters all looked perfect. However, this ideal picture is just an illusion for it hid beneath it rotten characters. The eight women are all selfish, murder, greedy and adulterous. Though the characters are not defined completely, the actresses do bring life and a sense of fun in portraying them. Off course, I can not review this movie without talking about the song. Its true none of the actresses is a real singer ( Darrieux and Deneuve did actually record music) nevertheless, the songs were preformed "well". Arden's song - a quoi sert de vivre liber was well preformed and actually better the original version (whish was sung by Nicoletta). The songs are actually hits from the 70's and 60's. Most of the songs are integrated perfectly into the movie to reviel character in their most "naked" moment. The song of the legendary singer Dalida "Pour ne pas vivre seul" was perfectly used - though badly preformed- to illustrate the loneliness of the housekeeper. Ozon again implemented his techniques in sexual tension by over using lesbianism in this movie. However, this is an entertaining movie to watch and to monitor the tension of those 8 "women" that are locked in a small space. Finally, people ask what is the point of the movie? well on the surface it is just a murder mystery however, underlying it is a pessimistic message that true love is hard to get and even harder to keep, or as Darrieux say it in her final number Il y a pas d'amour heureux!.

A dark farce
that can't decide whether it's a murder mystery or a parody of one. Each character has a < gasp! > song, each worst than the last. Its message is the women in any man's life will drive him crazy. Sure, the eight women here are the best that French cinema has to offer, though Catherine Deneuve is a bit of a dumpling despite being typecast as a closet "Sapphist." But the movie's unit setting is more typical of stage than cinema. And it drags, horribly. You might find its compendium of French insults interesting. But if you don't, it's just a director stringing cliches together to abuse both art & audience. Probably not worth your time, and certainly not worth your trouble.

As bad as Moulin Rouge
As a non-traditional student (having taught French for over 20 years before returning to graduate work)pursuing a doctorate in French, I`ve seen a lot of fine French films. 8 Femmes isn`t one of them. For a charming musical, for example, see Sous les toits de Paris directed by Rene Clair in the early 1930`s. The forgettable songs in 8 Femmes are stiffly rendered by actresses who can`t sing and can`t dance. The drama of the murder plot is oddly juxtaposed against giddy females singing about, well, who knows what? The songs are not organic to the movie, just added on at odd intervals so each of the eight ladies gets a chance to demonstrate her non-talent. Where is Ginger Rogers when you need her? And you need a score card to keep track of all the ladies who are in reality lesbians. The scene with Fanny Ardant on top of Catherine Deneuve was, well, beyond words. Kindly run, do not walk, to the nearest exit. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Shot in English and budgeted higher than any of his previousAsian features, Jackie Chan's last film under his Hong Kong contract is anaction-packed globe-trotting adventure shot with the American audiencein mind. The spies and secret agent-laden plot is packed with car chases,explosions, gunfire aplenty, and of course Jackie's own brand of gymnastic martial arts. But the flood of his older films between his hits Rumble in the Bronx and Rush Hour had sated American viewers and Who Am I? woundup being sold directly to cable. It's our loss, for this mix of goofy slapstick and jaw-dropping action is his most impressive film since Drunken Master II. Playing a special forces agent (named, naturally, Jackie) struck with amnesia and adoptedby an African bush tribe following a failed assassination attempt, heembarks on a quest to discover his true identity while armies of killers pourafter him. After an explosive opening, the story gets momentarily bogged downin the kind of mugging humor that leaves most American audiencesscratching their heads, but once Jackie kicks into gear the film is a high-speed action flurry that culminates in a furious battle atop a Rotterdam skyscraper. Jackie is at his most charmingly naive (he berates the villains, pleading "Why do you want to destroy when you can make things better?") and athletically impressive: the marvelous stunts--including a flight downthe side of the skyscraper--and fight choreography make Rush Hourlook like a Sunday drive. --Sean Axmaker ... Read more

Reviews (111)

A very pleasant surprise
This is a great flick for both devotees and novice fans of Jackie Chan.

Why Jackie Chan's U.S. distributors didn't release this in theaters is beyond me. Before I saw it, I thought that it would be c**p, but hell, it's Jackie, so I gave it a whirl. Though the first half hour is slow (by Jackie Chan standards, at least), once this flick gets going it ranks right up there with Drunken Master II and Police Story. The escape from the police with a rope and bucket, the chase and fight in the streets of Amsterdam (what Jackie can do wearing of wooden shoes...), and the final fight on the roof are amazing examples of action and comedic artistry. Stuff that ONLY Jackie Chan could pull off. There's even a car chase scene that breathes some life into the old warhorse of action movie cliches. I feared that Jackie Chan might be slowing down as he reached 45, maybe doing less dangerous stunts...no way.

The actors are terrible, the plot non-existent, the dialog silly, the production values shoddy at times, but one might as well complain the writing is poor in Playboy. You're there to look at the pictures, and Who Am I? has some that took my breath away.

Wow! Typical Jackie Chan - completely entertaining
Let me state upfront that I am not an unbiased reviewer but rather a believer ("my name is Paul and I am a Jackie-Chan-fan..."). The man is, as always, amazing in his stunts. Here he again manages to take action and humor, mix them up in diverse locations, and come up with a winner.

Although the plot is a bit thin in places (who watches his movies for the plot?), this movie is fast-moving from the get-go. Action, action, action. Which in Jackies's case always means stunts and fights... from an atypical car chase in South Africa to a clog-assisted dust-up in the mean streets of Rotterdam to the truly breathtaking final scenes, this film hit all the right buttons.

If you've ever seen Jackie Chan before this film is sure to please, and if you haven't you're in for a family-friendly treat (staged violence aside).

Who Am I-Your a legend
This movie is very nice.It may be his best movie it takes place in Africa at First and he falls off a Helicoptor and gets amnesia and he then meets some girl who had to get help by him.Then later they are in Amstradam and he slides down a building believe me you will like this movie a must
Acting 10 Story 9 Direction 9 Ation 10 Entertainment 10
Overall=48/50 This movie gets a 96 wich is 5 star territory

The original has been cut so much!
I really like the original movie. But this release has been so much cut. I don't know what was the reason for it. But some really funny scenes (like a lion chasing Jackie) don't show up. Try to find uncut version.

STAY WITH ORIGINAL
Why American production make HK movies look so cheap? First of all, they cut off so much scene, second of all ruin it by making look acting so dumb by English Dubb. ALWAYS stick with ORIGINAL LICENSED HK RELEASE. Be careful with cheap imports, boots though. ... Read more

Amazon.com

After being unexpectedly dumped by her dream boyfriend, Lucy (MonicaPotter, Along Came a Spider) wants to hide away in her apartment--but herfriends set her up with a series of blind dates: a shy entomologist (JohnHannah, Sliding Doors), a sensual playwright (Gael Garcia Bernal, Y TuMamá También), a hunky doctor (David Boreanaz, Angel), aself-centered baseball player (Anthony LaPaglia, Lantana), and a bickeringbusinessman (Henry Thomas, All the Pretty Horses). We know she ends upmarrying one of these five guys; trying to figure out which one, as the datesunfold in flashbacks, makes the movie engaging--up to a point. The script losesfocus and Potter, though pretty, is too bland to sustain interest (though itshould be said that she shows more flair in I'm with Lucy than in herprevious romantic comedy efforts, such as the laughably bad Head OverHeels). --Bret Fetzer ... Read more

Reviews (25)

Much better than I expected......
I bought this DVD on a lark. I was familiar with Monica Potter and liked her in "The Very Thought of You" (another fun romantic comedy starring Joseph Fiennes and Rufus Sewell) but didn't really know much about this movie or heard much about it. This was actually much better and more enjoyable than I expected.

The premise is pretty clever - Lucy gets dumped by her boyfriend and her best friends set her up on blind dates. Flash forward to the present where we see Lucy getting ready for her wedding. We know she ends up with someone in the end. So we see flashbacks as her 5 dates unfold and we get to guess who she ends up with. On the surface all the dates look pretty hopeless (no chemistry, nothing in common, etc) but as the dates progress we find a couple of guys who may not be so bad after all. It's a nice romantic comedy with a sweet satisfying ending.

I would also suggest checking out "The Very Thought of You" as another movie that is fun and romantic. It is very much in the tone of movies like "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and "Serendipity." If you like these, then check this DVD/video out.

There is a good reason to pay attention to this DVD
and that reason is the presence of Gael Garcia Bernal in one of his rare English-speaking roles. I'M WITH LUCY is a pleasant enough bit of fluff about a young woman recovering from love lost, trying to cope with five different blind dates arranged by her friends to bouy her spirits. Yes she ends up marrying one of them, but it is the play of courtship dances and dilemmas that brings what little originality to the film that exists. Monica Potter is attractive and a good actresss who needs a good director to keep her focused: there is a feeling that this role was written with a gene pool of Sandra Bullock and Julia Roberts in mind. The men's roles are fairly well fleshed out by such fine actors as Anthony LaPaglia, Henry Thomas, and John Hannah.

But the real reason to pay attention to this movie is the cameo appearance by Gael Garcia Bernal, one of the brightest lights to hit the screen in years. Known for his Spanish speaking roles in AMORES PERROS, Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN, and EL CRIMEN DEL PADRE AMARO Bernal has that illuminating presence, naturally sensuous good looks, and a subtlety to his acting that makes his every appearance on the screen a little jewel of a moment. In a year or two when he is a major international star you will be pleased that you got this glimpse of his special qualities in this English introduction. Bernal gets 5 stars, the film - 3.

Very Romantic
I watched this video last night while my husband was out and it made me miss him so much. The story just made me feel all mushy and romantic as I watched Lucy go from guy to guy, wondering who she would pick in the end. Most of her suitors were incredibly sweet and good to her. One guy turned out to be a real abusive jerk in the end. I really had no idea who she would choose until close to the end, when it became pretty obvious who the "winner" would be. I wasn't dissapointed because he was really cute and nice to her, although she did have good chemistry with some of the others too. The funniest scenes were with her parents. Oh, and I have to mention how uncanny the resemblance is between Monica Potter and Julia Roberts. It is just too weird. If you are a romantic you will definitely enjoy this movie.

Lucy is Lovely!
If you're in the mood for a simple, yet fun romantic comedy, this is the movie! It takes you through a timeline of men that Lucy gets set up with on blind dates. The men are all unique, yet believeable. In the end she ends up marrying one of them...the right guy!
Its a fun way to keep your spirits up when you're feeling down. Just love this movie!

Should be "I'm with stupid"
I like Monica Potter, really I do, she's kinda charming and cute, but this movie sucked real bad. Sorry about the bad english, but it's hard to come up with anything nice to say.

I personally would not go near Lucy, she is so self absorbed and seems to think she has to go to bed with anything that moves. Ladies, there is a word for those who "do it" on first dates but amazon won't let me use it. Try being chaste, it's far more attractive. There is no way this dumb chick would have so many intelligent guys' after her as well.

Bad film, bad acting, bad screenplay, bad music, waste of $2.75 I wasted to rent this dreck. ... Read more

Amazon.com

With his aptly titled Contempt, Jean-Luc Godard embraced the widescreen splendor of Hollywood while thumbing his nose at Hollywood itself. A rebel with a cause, Godard pursues an iconoclast's agenda, using the Franscope format (expertly controlled by cinematographer Raoul Coutard) to undermine the grandeur of widescreen melodramas. The story ostensibly concerns an innovative production of Homer's Odyssey and the struggle of a respected screenwriter (Michel Piccoli) to please a pugnacious producer (Jack Palance), a veteran director (Fritz Lang, essentially playing himself), and a petulant wife (Brigitte Bardot) who's grown tired of their turbulent relationship. It's all pretense, however, for Godard's mischievous (and yes, contemptuous) deconstruction of commercial Hollywood filmmaking, potently infused with film-buff in-jokes, astute observations about love, stardom, and artistry, and enough glossy style to suggest that Godard had mastered the craft he so willfully rejects. Contempt is one of his most accessibly fascinating films. --Jeff Shannon ... Read more

Reviews (24)

Godard and Lang, Bardot and Capri
Bardot is actually an excellent actress in this film. Her body gets a lot of attention and there are plenty of shots of her lying in the sun naked but she gives her character depth. Strangley enough when she walks around wearing a black wig she looks very plain, not at all like a movie star. Perhaps the most striking thing about this film is that though it was Godards first color film he manages to use color brilliantly. The film was shot in Italy and reminds me of a Michelangelo Antonioni film as it is a story of two lovers who fail to communicate and thus let their love slip away.

Jack Palance is perfect as the headstrong producer who manipulates his director Fritz Lang (who plays himself), as well as his writer (Michel Piccoli). Palance is the ultimate megalomaniacal producer who enjoys dominating others and manipulating them into doing whatever he wants. The confident and poised Lang acts like the master that he is, he never loses his cool and he copes with Palance's outrageous tantrums as if they were nothing at all, and we can see that despite Palance's constant intereference Lang will make the film that he wants. But the young, sensitive writer is made to feel like a whore. And this explains why he begins to treat his wife like a whore. Piccoli does not seem to want to admit what he is doing but he seems to push his wife into the arms of Palance intentionally so she too will feel the way he does. The script is based on an Alberto Moravia novel and this is a classic Moravia scenario. Moravia was fascinated with prostitutes and so was Godard -- ie My Life to Live.

The husband and wife both feel like whores and so they feel contempt for themselves as well as each other. The husband wonders aloud why commerce must invade every aspect of our lives and by that he means both art and love but he seems powerless to win his wife back. Though the film began with the loving couple laying in bed and whispering to each other, it ends on quite a different note. Palance, Lang, and Piccoli all interpret Homers Odyssey in their own way. Each views the relationship between Odysseus and Penelope according to their own life situation. Palance and Piccoli cease to find the film all that interesting, they are only interested in the battle for Bardot. Lang alone remains focused on the actual film. For Lang the world of the Greeks is too far removed from our own experince of the world and so he reinvents the story so it will resonate with modern audiences and he does so by brilliantly quoting from select texts (Dante, Holderlein)and thus he tells the tale as if it were taking place in the world we know today--as Lang reimagines the tale each scene takes on new significance. And of course the way Lang thinks and works sounds a lot like the way Godard thinks and works.

An excellent film which can be appreciated by Godard fans and a good place to start for those not familiar with Godard.

GODARD DOES HOLLYWOOD
With his subversively titled Le Mepris or CONTEMPT from 1964, Jean-Luc Godard played Hollywood widescreen games while dissing Hollywood itself. Godard undermines the epic Franscope scale with an intimate look at an arrogant producer's attempt to make a modern version of Homer's Odyssey.

Jack Palance is terrific as the combative producer and the great Fritz Lang essentially plays himself as the vetaran director of the film within the film. In a serious but still sex-pot turn, Brigitte Bardot is the pouty director's wife who's fed up with their termagant relationship. And at the center of the conflict is the screenwriter who's trying to please everyone.

This extremely entertaining film with lots of in-jokes about movies is Godard's take on fame, art, and love itself.

The loaded two disc set features a pristine transfer with a wonderful commentary by Robert Stam. Bonus material includes a conversation between Godard and Lang; two 1963 documentaries -- Godard and Bardot on the set of Contempt and Paparazzi. A 1964 Godard interview and a new video interview with acclaimed cinematographer Raoul Coutard.

Bin it.
Regarded by some as Godard's most accessible movie, I beg to differ: Godard has survived because of the freshness and charm of his best films, not as most fawning critics would have you believe because of their intellectual content or ground-breaking film making. As far as intellect goes, the most you hope for with Godard is a ten-minute Maoist harangue interesting now only for showing the then-zeitgeist. As for brilliant, ground-breaking film-making, the same applies - plenty of student films have adopted the same techniques as Godard just to save money or out of pure innocence. If you want groundbreaking, you want Kurosawa or Tarkovsky or Von Trier. What is great about Godard are scenes like the improvised café dance in Bande a Part or the crazy "murder" sequences in Pierrot, scenes which are outrageously witty and cool and original but actually quite simple, like the Beatles singing "I am the Walrus, woooooh."
Back to the point: Unlike his Pierrot, Bande a Part or Une Femme est une Femme in particular, this film seriously lacks charm. The whole thing has a sour mood about it, the actors really look like they have no idea what they are up to and just want it to be over - Palance above all, forced to play a madly egotistical meglomaniac film producer with lines that would look second-rate in a primary school pantomime. Bardot and Piccoli get through it, but you can sense the tension. Lang looks like he's on Valium. No doubt realising that his film was getting a bit irritating as it labours away with tiresome lack of subtlety at a domestic rupture (see same in Femme est une Femme for how it can be done, but this time con brio), Godard goes for broke by repeatedly introducing the mawkish background music all over the place (you can almost see him with an adolescent smirk on his face as he lays it on) to the point of making you groan.
Another thing I frankly don't understand is this: virtually any crit you read will tell you how this was Godard's first and last flirtation with big-budget movie-making. Big budget? It's about the cheapest movie I've ever seen. For example: any producer worth his salt would be surrounded with an entourage and chauffeurs. This guy can barely run to one secretary and drives himself around in a medium-budget Alfa. Likewise Lang. At the Villa Malaparte, a spectacular site on Capri, we see some scenes with a reception being laid out in the back. Look carefully: the "caterers" consist of one old man fumbling around with some plates. The paint is peeling off the walls in the living room. The entire film crew working on the film-within-the-film seems to consist of about three people, and they're not even around most of the time. Best of all, look carefully at the car crash in the final reel. Apparently they couldn't even afford to total the Alfa, so it's a mock up.
Art films are tricky things: the best of them can change your life and lift you to inspiration and wonder. The worst are not worth the celluloid they're made on. But to read all the critics, you sometimes have a hell of a job deciding which is which. Take it from me, this one belongs in the poubelle.

Brigitte Bardot at her voluptuous best: Godard's "8 1/2"
I prefer this film to Fellini's 8 1/2 and there are some similarities. They were made at the same time and they were the first two post-modern films. In this one B.B. is given some good nude scenes we male fans crave in the context of a top notch 1963 work of art. Fritz Lang plays himself and when he mentions B.B. he's talking about Bertolt Brecht, not Brigitte Bardot who doesn't play herself (one of many in jokes). What I love here is the 1960s feel of the film, the melancholy soundtrack which is supposed to express B.B.s emotions, and masterful cinematography. The scenes are set up perfectly and in one we see B.B. in one room talking to Michel Piccoli in another...in the same shot.

There is a modern feel to the film made in color set in Capri, and a feeling of freedom. The plot is that B.B. feels "contempt" for her husband because he lets Jack Palance come on to her, and it works with brilliant subtlety. The ending is kind of another in joke, as there's a bit of dialogue by Lang "death is not a resolution". In one scene the stars are all interacting against a background of current movie posters ("Psycho" among them). And Palance needs a translator from English to French, German, and Italian in the way of the beautiful Giorgia Moll. Lang speaks German, and everyone else Italian, a smorgasborg of languages.

Some later Godard films don't really work well as they are too disjointed (Weekend, 2 or 3 Things...), but here it all comes together.

Self-Contempt
Bring Me the Head of Fritz Lang? Contempt is about selling out to crass commercialism and money's pervasive influence on one's relationships. I don't know what led Godard to take on this project, but Contempt seems to express thru its main character what Godard's experience under Joseph Levine, the producer. The hero of the movie wants money and fame but also to maintain his integrity. The moral dynamic is similar to one in Wilder's Apartment. Hero's lack of control over his own art is paralled with his loss of control over his wife who goes to the highest bidder. To what extent this reflects the then relationship between Godard and Karina is anyone's guess, but watching Godard's Karina movies you sense that they were somehow not compatible, with Godard being too intellectual to keep up with the half-romantic schtick for much longer and Karina too womanly and sensual to have a meaningful role in future Godard projects. Ironically, if Godard indeed lost his touch with women, it would it had little to do with money and more with his increasingly intellectualized view of both humanity and art. ... Read more

Reviews (10)

Maybe Baby Wraps You in Witty, Warm, Wonderful Blanket
I love, loved, loved this movie. This movie is right up there with Bridget Jones' Diary, You've got Mail, and Four Weddings and a Funeral. The movie is based on Ben Elton's book, Inconceivable, which takes a witty look at Elton's real infertility experiences with his wife before the birth of their child. The movie handles the whole infertility problem in a witty yet touching way. Rowland Atkinson is a stitch as the gynecologist. Joely Richardson is radiant, as Lucy, and there is really warm chemistry with Hugh Laurie who is quite surprisingly a charming and handsome leading man. So nice to see Hugh Laurie in this role instead of his more usual broadly comedic roles. James Purefoy is DIVINE as the movie star client and Purefoy plays this role beautifully giving the role a credibility and humor which must have been difficult. When James Purefoy recites Sonnet XVIII, I certainly felt like the girls in the agent's office in the film-knock me over with a feather. What a handsome, charming, smoothie is James Purefoy. There were several really clever lines in the film. On hearing Carl Phipps recite the sonnet, his agent, played brilliantly by Joanna Lumley, says, "Why Mr. Phipps you are perilously close to turning me back into a heterosexual." Joely Richardson's character, Lucy, keeps a diary and in it she writes about her little crush on Carl Phipps. In the diary, Lucy writes, " I saw Carl Phipps today. He came into the office looking all brooding and byronic like the dispossessed lord of a bleak Moreland estate." Anyway, the whole film is a delight, and I enjoyed it on so many levels-the trying to have a baby issue, the marriage is not all moonlight and magnolias issue, the little crush on Carl Phipps issue, the odd colleagues at work stuff, etc. Go see the movie! The soundtrack was also great!

charming
I stumbled onto this movie on a late night session of mindless channel surfing and was instantly drawn in.

I loved the way Sam and Lucy's marriage is depicted in this film. There's something instantly endearing about these two, and you just want to follow along in their (at times hilarious, at times gut-wrenchingly-sad) attempts to conceive a child. This movie is written in a way that really allows you to become (perhaps reluctantly) emotionally invested in the two main characters (perfectly captured by Richardson and Laurie). I also found myself completely enamored by Hugh Laurie, not because I thought he blatantly good looking or something, but because I really felt for him as the devoted but imperfect husband. I later stumbled on to the fact that Laurie played the equally haughty and attractive Mr. Palmer in another one of my favorite films -- Sense and Sensibility.

I suppose this review is just one glorified run on sentence, but don't let my stream of consciousness praise put you off -- this is a truly delightful movie.

Inconsistent and politically correct
The first half of this movie starts out promising; the 2nd half is not so good.
It becomes slowly predictable and stereotypical, whereas it started out charming and promising.
Of particular annoyance is the ending, where we find the hackneyed politically-corret stereotype of the husband having to admit culpibility for all the wrongs of the couple's separation, and the woman never having to admit her half of the bargain, despite the fact that she was clearly as poor a communicator as he.

Indeed, the wife's character is strikingly uneven in this movie: her personality appears to be one thing in the first half of the movie, but she seems to become a whole different person by the second half. Quite inconsistent.

My [rear]... is an orange
Oops! I got edited... I chose that subject heading because that was the title that the director guy in the book of this movie wanted to call the movie that the character in the book wrote the script for. Confused? Sorry, there's no need to be. Just watch the movie and read Ben Elton's 'Inconceivable' like I did and it will all make sense!!

This movie displayed fantastic English humour as well as touching romance. Not to mention tackling the sensitive subject of Infertility. You find yourself laughing at the fact that Hugh Laurie's Sam has to shove a container of man juice up his bottom to keep it warm, yet at the same time, you feel sad because no matter what they put themselves through, Sam and Lucy just can't seem to get pregnant. And to make matters worse, ignorant old Sam isn't giving Lucy the attention she deserves!!

Hugh Laurie was absolutely gorgeous and Joely Richardson was stunning. It was funny yet sad, and seemed to present both a bloke's and a woman's point of view in the most honest of ways. I felt all fuzzy and lovey towards my partner afterwards, and I think it would probably have that effect mainly on people who are in a long-term relationship.

The one-liners are brilliant and there are cameos from a few great English actors that we all know and love.

What can I say? I love it! I had a tear and a giggle.

Hysterically Funny
I ordered this movie on Pay Per View cable tv. because of the fact that James Purefoy was in it...never expecting it to be so well done and...Funny! It was one of ny first experiences with British comedy and I was extremely pleased not only with Mr. Purefoy's performance but also the entire cast. if you are looking for an off the wall comedy..this is it! ... Read more

Amazon.com

This Norwegian comedy (nominated for an Academy Award®) concerns two men being released from a state home. Until the death of his mother, Elling rarely left the apartment where they lived; Kjell has lived in institutions most of his life and is obsessed with sex, as any virgin in his 30s might be. Thanks to a new social program, the two roommates are given an apartment in Oslo--if they can manage to live independently. At first simply answering the phone or buying groceries is a struggle, but as they taste freedom, their lives become an exciting adventure. In a Hollywood movie, these two would be cute goofballs; what makes Elling so very engaging is how genuinely awkward and uncomfortable Elling and Kjell are. Their difficulties in the world are treated with respect and realism, which makes their progress bracing and their success delightful. A charming film. --Bret Fetzer ... Read more

Reviews (22)

Absolutely charmed me. Still smiling
This minor gem was made in Norway and was nominated for best foreign film last year at the Oscars. I had forgotten to check it out, but thanks to my friend Rosanne, I did. "Elling" is one of those 'charming' comedies about the mentally ill. That said, it works really well thanks to clever dialogue and wonderful acting from the title character, especially. See, these two guys are released to a welfare apartment from the psychological hospital and have to deal with starting a normal life, or they must return. Sweet bumblings ensue. Great movie to watch with your parents that you'll all enjoy.

Dumb and Dumber
I recently rented this movie, and I must admit that I only took it home because of the incredibly funny cover. However, I was surprised to find out that the actual film was as funny as the artwork on the outside. It is about Elling, a recluse who has spent a majority of his life hiding in his apartment alongside his mother. After she dies, he is taken to live in a state-run institution, where he meets Kjell Barnes. Kjell, has lived in institutions most of his life and is obsessed with food and sex. They are released together to their own apartment and freedom where the movie really begins to take form. Nominated for best Foreign Film in 2002 by the Academy Awards, this comedy will keep you laughing and feeling lucky that you are not an Elling or Kjell Barnes.

"Elling" Transcends the Stereotypes
"Elling" is the first film I've ever seen that transcends the popular film industry stereotypes and portrays people with mental illness as fully functioning three dimensional people, with both emotional and intellectual motivations as characters in a film. The prevailing "Hollywood" characterizations of mental illness seems to use three templates to portray mentally ill characters: 1) the over-the-top violent sociopath who is a dangerous predatory beast i.e...Hannibal the Cannibal; 2) the unstable visionary savant who can hardly function but is either intellectually brilliant or has or possesses some sort of supernatural power to compensate i.e...Russell Crowe in "Beautiful Mind" or Dustin Hoffman in "Rainman". or, 3) the loveable, laughable, whacky lunatic who can't fit into society and is a walking time-bomb i.e...Jack Nicholson in "Cuckoo's Nest."

This adaptation of Norwegian writer Ingvar Ambjorsen's best selling novel is a nuanced view of the lives of two mentally ill wards of the state as they struggle to adapt to living as roommates; and they try to make sense of often puzzling and arbitrary codes of "normal" social behavior. At times it is hilarious, but just as Director Peter Naess lures you into a warm and fuzzy feeling, he gives you a glimpse at the simmering rage of his main characters Elling and Kjell. Having worked as a case worker for transitional mental health patients, I can say that "Elling" is the only film I've ever seen that "gets it right" and doesn't approach the subject of mental illness in a condescending or derivative manner. Elling and Kjell aren't lovable loonies or dangerous whackos from central casting. There is a great deal of humor in "Elling" but none of it is used to demean or stereotype the principal characters. When a young punk poet, in bondage gear and Kiss whiteface screams his menacing poetry at a coffee house, it causes an anxiety attack for Elling...but it also begs the question, "Who's the crazy one, here?."

The brilliance of "Elling",however is the two actors who play Elling and Kjell. Per Christian Ellefsen (as Elling) is a fascinating and gentle soul in a constant struggle to keep his obsessions, agoraphobia and anti-social tendencies from consuming him. His sense of equilibrium is threatened by a trip to the grocery store or even picking up the phone and talking. On the other hand, Sven Nordin (as Kjell) is a hulking and affable man (think Gerard Depardieu) who is prone to wild mood swings that lead to socially inappropriate behavior. Kjell's innocence leads him to unwittingly make remarks to women which are regarded as inappropriate in polite society. Kjell is more than capable of a loving , caring sexual relationship but doesn't have the social skills to establish rapport with a female.

As the film progress the two roommates are slowly transformed into fully functional people, albeit, people who still have a lot of problems, but now have the tools to adapt to the perplexing world of social norms. Elling's friendship with elderly bohemian intellectual who shares his passion for poetry provides him with self confidence in his own tentative attempt to write poetry. Kjell's friendship as an informal caretaker for an upstairs neighbor develops into a romantic relationship, as the her pregnancy from a prior lover progresses. Kjell realizes he loves the woman and will help her care for the child as if the child was his own flesh and blood. Both Elling and Kjell anchor each other's erratic behaviors in ways that the viewer never anticipates, and they are often stunned by thier own abilty to say the right thing at the right time, to keep their roommate from spinning out of control. It's a inspiring form of peer therapy.

It is the intriguing and often quirky relationship between our two roommates, Elling and Kjell, that brings the magic to this film. Per Christian and Sven played the principal roles in the stage play of "Elling"; so if you sense that they bring a sense familiar comfort to their acting chemistry, it's because they've shared the stage for hundreds of performances as Elling and Kjell. This movie production of Elling was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2001, and is shot entirely in Oslo Norway which is a captivating and under used European film location.

wonderful, wonderful, wonderful
So simply told without pretense or intensions, "Elling" is a sweet movie bound to tug at any sensitive soul's heart strings. You can sum it up in a few sentences, "It's two guys in an apartment." "This movie makes you want to move to Norway," and "It's about a couple of very likeable characters." I love listening to the language and watching the city of Oslo. I hope that people in Norway are really this nice and that they really do care for their their indigent and psychiatric population like in this movie. As far as the movie, I was most impress with the two lead actors. They played their characters to a perfect pitch. Their isn't much to the plot, no antagonist, no spine tingling conflict or surypy hollywood resolution. It's just about people trying their best to live a normal life the way they know how. I also liked the soundtrack, I wonder where I can find the CD? You gotta love this movie. Makes you feel good.

charming story of friends growing past their limitations
Elling (Per Christian Ellefsen) and Kjell (Sven Nordin) are roommates in a Norwegian institution, and as the film begins they are being released and given an apartment in Oslo, under the supervision of a social worker, to see whether or not they can survive and thrive on their own. The film takes us through their painful first weeks, when Kjell is driven by sexual frustration and Elling fears leaving the apartment or even answering the telephone, and continues as they develop competence, confidence and even friendships. This is a touching story but is not told as an inspirational or overly sentimental tale; instead it is very human and often quite funny, with a terrific script by Madeleine Fant.

I really enjoyed these two characters as well as those they meet throughout the film, which was nominated for a foreign film Oscar, deservedly so. Director Petter Naess has done a fine job.

The dvd contains no language or subtitle options. Extras are minimal -- three trailers. ... Read more

Description

Slapstick prevails when Jacques Tati's eccentric hero Monsieur Hulot is let loose in the ultramodern house of his brother-in-law, and in an antiseptic factory that manufactures plastic hose. Tati directs and stars in the second entry of the Hulot series, a delightful satire of mechanized living. Academy Award winner, Best Foreign Film. ... Read more

Reviews (27)

Tati's Wise and Wonderful Comedy.
In looking at the other reviews of "Mon Oncle", it would seem that people either love or hate this movie. From my 5-star rating, you can see that I am in the former category. I fail to understand how a film can be called boring, when it is so full of life, and witty observations. Rather than feeling that it was too long, I was sorry when it was over.

In "Mon Oncle", the well-meaning, but dim-witted M. Hulot comes face to face with modern living and technology. His brother-in-law is an affluent executive with a plastics company, and owns a state-of-the-art home, full of amazing gadgets. The house is also a tasteless nightmare, devoid of warmth and comfort, with a "garden" to match. You will not soon forget the atrocious fountain, with a huge, metal fish spewing water into the air--but only to impress important guests, of course. In this concrete monstrosity, the couple are also attempting to raise a small boy, who understandably has more fun away from the place, with his uncle Hulot.

Tati is constantly contrasting old-fashioned, small-town life with urban "progress". In addition to the "house from hell", we see the huge, boring factory where Hulot's brother-in-law works, and where he tries, with hilarious lack of success, to land M. Hulot a job. Meanwhile, back at the ranch--er house--we have the outdoor party scene, with a bizarre group of co-workers and neighbours desperately trying to look important and convivial. Of course, Hulot unwittingly undermines the whole celebration, with a little help from that hideous fountain.

There are a number of scenes of children being--well--children--playing tricks on unsuspecting people. Some scene-stealing dogs are also part of the mix.

The DVD is impressive--colours are excellent--the sound naturally is mono. There is a touching introduction by Terry Jones, the well-known director and Monty Python graduate. Also included is an early short film with Tati called "School for Postmen" which is very amusing--a nice bonus.

For those people who consider "Mon Oncle" to be a comedy masterpiece, I agree completely. If you like Tati and his unforgettable creation, M. Hulot, this disc has to be in your collection.

My favorite movie....
I suppose I am out of touch with "the 90s" in that I detest movies where most of the jokes are based on bodily functions. (Flatulence jokes just aren't funny to me.) I love Mon Oncle because it is a physical comedy - in fact, there is extremely little dialog - and yet it is not insulting to the intelligence. Jacques Tati (one of the great comedians) is M. Hulot, an enigmatic, silent man who lives a quiet, calm life. Dismayed and uncomprehending of his sister's "moderne" life, Hulot strikes up a friendship with his nephew. Some of the best scenes are when the boy leaves his sterile, plastic "hygenic" world for the more earthy but enjoyable world that Hulot occupies (it is as if a small piece of Old France is hanging on in the middle of Paris - the old butcher shops, the cobbled streets). The boy's mother cannot understand why her son would prefer "old things" to the new, modern style.

There is a lot of humor in the movie - lots of Keaton-esque sight gags when Hulot tries to deal with the modern appliances in his sister's house - but underneath the humor there is a sweetness and a yearning and a recognition that the new ways aren't always better than the old. This is a movie with humor and heart.

True, it is more slow-paced than recent comedies (which may be what the reviewer who thought it "THE MOST BORING MOVIE" was used to), but if you allow yourself to relax and appreciate the slow pace, it's a beautiful and brilliant movie.

The adjective "Zen-like" is most overused today, or else I would describe watching this movie as a "Zen-like" experience. It got into my mind and changed me. And I am not a fan of movies, there are very few I like enough to watch through once, let alone repeatedly.

a nice sequel to M. Hulot's Holiday
This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film.

Mon Oncle or "My Uncle" again follows Msr. Hulot when he visits the then-modern home of his brother-in-law. There he gets into mischief with his nephew. He later inadvertently creates havoc at a rubber hose factory also. The film is second in a series of four movies three of which have been released by the Criterion Collection.

The film has many items featured that I was not aware existed at the time. These incldue an electric garage door at a residential home that has a motion detector to open the door.

The Criterion DVD also contains an introduction to the film by Terry Jones and there is also a short film, "L'école des facteurs" or "Postman School" which is also quite good.

This DVD was out of print for a while but was reissued in February 2004

Charmed
My children(19 and 8) and I borrowed the most recent dvd version of Mon Oncle from our local library. We were charmed. Watching various visitors to the garden navigating the stepping-stones was marvelous.
Gerard waiting to whistle at passersby was hilarious. (My children and I were wishing we could add our coins to the pot.)
What a perfect picture of a boy being a boy.
We loved the dachshund in his bothersome coat leading the other dogs around town.
Tati was certainly a genius of detail.

The reason for just four stars...My children prefer Les Vacances.

Human unrelations satirized perfectly
I watched this film after seeing my wife's all time favorite, Les Vacances Monsieur Hulot. Bumbling slapstick, nearly as silent film, is used to parodize the era of the happy middleclass housewife of the fifties with all her new appliances, her husband with all his gadgets, and to throw sarcasm at efficient production at the expense of human relations. I don't know of a film that does a better job of this. the ending is happy, with the absent gadget-focused father finally discovering the joy of having a playful young son. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Dramatic Invective
Patrice Leconte's film on the pageantries and sophistries of King Louis XVI's Court, a place where there are many words flying about yet little substance in governance. The protagonist is Ponceludon de Malavoy (Charles Berling), a low-ranked nobleman who seeks a royal grant to drain the swamps plaguing his region. He is, unfortunately, a new-comer to the King's court and needs to be properly introduced to the King. He receives help from the Marquis de Bellegarde (Jean Rochefor) and his loving daughter (Judith Godrèche.) Malavoy also comes under the machinations of Madame de Blayac (Fanny Ardant) to befriend the King. As he navigates through the King's court, Malavoy is subjected to the invectives of sycophantic nobles who seek to exploit the King for their own petty needs. With little wealth and a low title, Malavoy soon realizes that the only weapon he has is his wit (esprit.) As he come closer to appealing to the King, he maneuvers his wit and invective as a musketeer wields his rapier. The script is excellent and the story is filled with the art of invective and wit. A perfect example of some of the witty encounters in the film is when the King asks Malavoy why he has made jokes of only the aristocracy but not of him? With a reserved smile Malavoy replies, "The King is not a subject your Majesty!"

Literate and Wicked
Ridicule is a French film which takes place in 1783, a few years before Louis XVI lost the ability to wear a hat; where "...in this country, vices are without consequence, but ridicule can kill." The film is about the effect of wit and word play on people's lives and careers. Malicious, mannered and highly enjoyable. Charles Berling, Jean Rochefort, Bernard Giraudeau and Fanny Ardant are excellent. A man would be a fool not to want to bed Ardant, and even more a fool to trust her.

The film is sumptuously mounted and the DVD transfer does it justice. The dialogue is so clever a knowledge of French might be in order, but the English subtitles do a superb job of conveying the witty, cruel, self-serving word play.

About the DVD...
The DVD is pretty bare bones. You get a nice widescreen transfer (the full-screen VHS was pan and scan, so you do see more image with the widescreen) and surround sound. The English subtitles are not "burned in" to the image...you must activate them with the captions option on your DVD player.

The only "extra" is a commercial ballyhooing Miramax's achievements in recent years.

Off With Their Heads!
It's the waning days of the old regime in France. A conscientious but impoverished nobleman from the south travels to Versailles to petition the royal government for funds to drain his swamps so that his tenants can be spared periodic outbreaks of disease. Instead of finding the sympathetic ears he expected, he finds a government nearing bankruptcy, a well-intentioned but befuddled king who is surrounded by a bureaucracy trying to temper the king's naive generosity and stave off the final collapse, and an aristocracy that has descended into a depraved comedy of manners. All substantive thought at court has been replaced by endless games of witticisms, whereby a person's social standing and political access are functions of mastering the art of the putdown . . . preferrably in as ascerbic a manner as possible.

To everyone's surprise -- including his own -- our hero turns out to be quite good at the art of malicious wit. First trying to use his new-found talent to speed up his campaign to drain his swamps, he soon succumbs to the appeal of the game for the game's sake. A series of events eventually snaps him back to reality, and therein lies the plot of the piece.

This is a supremely engaging costume piece. The cast is superb, the settings and costumes dead-on accurate, the dialog entertaining and sophisticated. In the end, it's really a gorgeously-filmed morality play about the triumph of conscience over wealth, power, and hollow social graces. The only real fault with the movie from a historical perspective is that it portrays Louis XVI as the affable nitwit of popular legend instead of the serious monarch overwhelmed by ultimately uncontrollable events that he really was.

This movie is so good at drawing you in that you soon cease to notice you're reading subtitles (at least if you don't speak fluent French). Although the plot hinges on the most delicate subtleties of 18th-century court French, the story telegraphs through with searing clarity. And it's a story for all times, all places, and all tongues. ... Read more

Reviews (28)

CAPTIVATING
The slim premise of Green Card -- a French slob wants to be a US citizen; a left-wing socialite wants a fabulous apartment with a greenhouse; they get married -- creeps up on you, and expands in ways that will surprise you. Yes, this is a love story, but it is somehow much more than that. Peter Weir, who directed Witness (a wonderful, evocative romance), has a way of weaving a spell on you with his movies. Here, he is aided by the galvanic performance of Gerard Depardieu, who is life itself. Andie MacDowell, who is his inferior in the acting department, is suited to her uptight role in a way that favors her: you can actually believe she could be this person, which is usually not the case with this lovely but inept actress. Bebe Neuwirth is her usual dead-on self, in a great, if small, supporting role. The New York locations, particularly that spectacular greenhouse apartment, are winning, and shot with affection. On top of everything, the movie features, in key moments of tension and emotion, the music of Enya, which of course elevates and punctuates scenes in inventive ways. The final moment is a well-earned emotional one, and I think you, like me, will find it hard to resist Green Card, after all is said and done.

One of the most romantic and funny movies, Gerard is so swee
Gerard performs as a sloppy frenchman in search of his legal residency in the U.S. by marring a prissy Macdowell who is perfect for the part. Moving story of a poor composer searching for a new life and falling in love for a young girl that despises him with her heart, only to fall overwheels in love with him after sharing her apartment with "Georges" for a weekend to benefit the Inmigration interview as a "bonafide" married couple. Georges wins his lady's heart with his abrupt sweetness and kind heart that wins over arrogancy and "vegeterianism". One of the most romantic and sweet scenes is when they are studying and temptation is flowing on both sides, but Georges knows how to respect the girl. And of course the kisses at the end of the movie with all that combination of music is terrific. Even if this is an old movie, I am buying the soundtrack and I am head overwheels in love with Depardieu myself! Worth watching, deserves all kind of statuetes. Even the rest of the cast is terrific, Mom, Dad (so cute), Loren and her parents. good!

Bravo Gerard!!
Gerard is fabulous in this one. It's a heart warming picture about two characters with very different personalities, forced together in human circumstance. Five stars!!

Well done but no surprise
It's not a holywoodian love story. It's a simple story of 2 people meeting "randomly" - with some fun, some sadness, some laughs and some love.
Good picture, good film, but not that more.

Charming little film
For those unfamiliar with Gérard Depardieu, GREEN CARD is a charming introduction. Good performances from both Depardieu and Andie MacDowell, and Bebe Neuwirth is delightful in a supporting role. When things get "unfair", the reminders that the central marriage of convenience is illegal are refreshing.

The DVD is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen with both English and French Dolby 5.1 audio tracks. No extras, but even so an excellent bargain. ... Read more

Reviews (17)

Absolutely Fabulous!!!!
La Cage Aux Folles is a hilarious French farce that spawned two sequels, a Broadway musical, and an equally good, but almost scene for scene remake (The Birdcage). Some people have said the film has stereotyped gay characters and that Serrault's constant screaming is annoying. I disagree--I found nothing offensive about the characters (gay men like Serrault exist, we've all met them!) and his screaming is actually very funny and brilliantly duplicated by Nathan Lane in the remake.

This is a great film, funny, touching, and simply wonderful. It was nominated for 3 Academy Awards and won the Golden Globe for best Foriegn Film. How many gay-themed films can you say that about?

P.S. Please ignore the R rating--the subject matter, which was pretty risky for 1978, has gotten rather tame. By today's standards, the film would easily get a PG-13.

One of the Funniest Movies EVER Released - SIX STARS!
American audiences tend to resist foreign films for some good reasons. Sure, its tough to keep up with subtitles at times, and yes, sometimes the translations are lacking the depth the filmaker intends to convey. But this is a film that can and should be enshrined in the Movie Hall of Fame as one of the funniest, most endearing films ever released. Audiences who are willing to put up with subtitles will quickly find themselves hysterical and at last, on DVD, "La Cage Aux Folles" deserves to find a new audience, a new generation that appreciates broad humor, with a few good lessons thrown in.

Americans are familiar with the story, since "La Cage" was turned into a successful Broadway show and then a huge money-making comedy "The Birdcage" featuring Nathan Lane and Robin Williams in the lead roles (not to mention a young Calista Flockhart of "Ally McBeal" fame and Dan Futterman who is brilliant in "Urbania.") But "The Birdcage" as funny as it can be, fades by comparison to the original, with star making performances by Ugo Tognazzi and Michel Serrault as the leading cross dressing couple of the French Riviera. Where "The Birdcage" allows for broad humor that both confronts and appeases the typical homophobic US audience, "La Cage" offers no apologies, and rests on its own merits as a farce without limits. When Tognazzi teaches Serrault how to "walk like John Wayne" you quickly forget the language barrier, and give up on Robin William's own attempts to educate the shrill Lane in the English version. Somehow, the fact that these characters are French adds a dimension of humanity that is lacking in the "Birdcage." Even the setting on the French Riviera (versus the buff and tough South Beach in the American version) adds to the three dimensional aspects of the characters. There is a sleazy-humor at work here that has been toned down tremendously for the American version, and that can only be captured by a cast that is uniformly superb, endearing, and wonderful. Oscar nominated for its leading performer, Tognazzi, as well as its superb direction, THIS is one of the funniset movies ever made in ANY language. If you love Robin WIlliams movies, and enjoy laughing, BUY THIS FILM - you will be more than glad you did, and you'll find yourself literally hitting the pause button in order to GAWFAW your way through it.

If there were SIX stars for movies, "La Cage Aux Folles" would warrant six-and-a-half!

The Original And Best
Although The Birdcage (Robin Williams, Nathan Lane) was a likeable and entertaining movie, noting can beat the general sense of fun and style generated in the 1979 French original. Ugo Tognazzi stars as Renato Baldi, the hapless owner of the 'La Cage Aux Folles' nightclub, a dinner-theatre with Drag acts as the stars. Henpecked by the biggest star of all, the fabulous and temperemental Zsa Zsa (Michel Serrault), he attempts one of the biggest performances of his life when he hears his son Laurent is engaged to marry the daughter of Charrier, an ultra right-wing politician. He tries to create a loving, heterosexual family environment to garner the Charrier's approval, and his subsequent and spectacular failure makes for one of the funniest comedies of the 1970's.

What's interesting about this movie is that even though it centres on a gay couple running a drag club, there is very little emphasis placed on the drag acts themselves... Zsa Zsa does not perform any long, unnessecary musical numbers. Instead, director Edouard Molinaro focuses on the storyline, and it's here that the movie excels. Strong performances from Tognazzi (Renato), Michel Galabru (M. Charrier), Carmen Scarpita (Charrier's long-suffering wife) and particularly Serrault as the devastatingly annoying Albin drive this movie forward, and the produciton is full of vintage 1970's touches. The score (by Ennino Morricone) is wonderful, and the dramatic strings and 70's-style synthesisers impersonationg 30's-style orchestras create a perfect comedy atmosphere.

The fact that this is a french film, too, lends much to the final piece. The sibilant and rapid speech give Zsa Zsa's tantrums wonderful resonance, and Charrier's moralising takes on a whole new level of seriousness. He's more Gene Hackman than Gene Hackman himself.

This is a thoroughly recommended movie, even though the DVD quality is not the best (but still fine) and the extras aren't worth mentioning. Get it!

La Cage Aux Folles
Do yourself a favor - BUY THIS VERSION. AND PLEASE TREAT YOURSELF LIKE A KING - buy the La Cage Aux Folles II. The BIRDCAGE was like seeing a bad high school program. Of course if you are nuts over Robin Williams - what can I say - but he is just a minor player when it comes to the original European Cast. Nathan Lane could also use a lesson on being a gay man being a gay woman (even if he admits he is gay - he falls short). The second La Cage Aux Folles II will crack you up. I swear you will laugh until tears keep you from seeing the adventures they encounter in Italy. You have no joy in you if you don't love ZaZa's transformation as she becomes the dream of a man who falls for her hook line and sinker. Enjoy the ride with those lovely men. What a LOVE STORY!!!!

Good Movie, but I love the American Version better...
I am a HUGE fan of 'The Birdcage' and have been for several years, so I finally got a chance to watch 'La Cage Aux Folles', which, as everyone knows, is the French version and the original for the American 'Birdcage'.

I have been reading so many reviews here that talk about how much better this one is from the American version. I am going to give an opinion that is not going to be popular.

To be honest, I really liked 'The Birdcage' much better than 'La Cage Aux Folles'. Although this is a very good movie, the American version flows so much better. The actors, to me play the characters much better. This version seemed very choppy to me and did not flow very well from one scene to another.

I will say Ugo Tognazzi and Michel Serrault did a marvelous job playing their characters. I can see why the movie was so extremely popular and still is today, as well as 'The Birdcage'.

I did enjoy watching this film, and watching the obvious similarities between this one and the newer version.

Everyone is allowed their opinions, and Although I liked 'The Birdcage' version much better (as I love the over the top performances of Robin Williams, and Nathan Lane', I still HIGHLY recommend watching this movie. ... Read more

Description

Federico Fellini's towering masterpiece follows burned-out celebrity director Marcello Mastroianni through a series of bizarre encounters and wild daydreams, the first of which finds him ascending into the clouds during a traffic jam. Seeking solace and rejuvenation at a remote health spa, he finds himself plagued by journalists, his producer, his mistress, and most inconvenient of all, his wife ("A Man and a Woman's" Anouk Aimee). Caught between past, present, and fantasy, he longs to make a pure and honest film while his producer goads him into shooting a big budget science fiction spectacle. Widely regarded as one of the greatest films ever made, this visually dazzling feast also stars Claudia Cardinale (The Pink Panther), Barbara Steele (Black Sunday), and Rossella Falk (Modesty Blaise). Outrageous and unforgettable! 1963 Academy Award winner for Best Foreign-Language Film. ... Read more

Reviews (78)

We invent ourselves endlessly!
1. Federico Fellini. Sensitive, vulgar - il maestro.
2. Saraghina - beauty and repulsion just a few jiggles away.
3. Sandra Milo is dimples dangerous and blessed.
4. Marcello M. as Guido Enselmi, loveable hypocrite.
5. Guido's father moaning about his burial arrangements.
6. A little fantasy in reality or a little reality in fantasy.
7. Claudia Cardinale carrying mineral water.
8. Crappy musical inspired by film. How many movies claim that honor?
1/2. The spaceship - masculinity/identity in progress of going up or coming down?

The "close but no cigar" portion of the list:
Terry Gilliam carries on about how scenes in this movie have influenced his career (see no.2); Nino Rota's music, brilliant as always, probably should have been included in my top eight list; DVD extras - especially lost gem A DIRECTOR'S NOTEBOOK; boring commentary; when this picture first opened in Italy, the anticipation was compared to the excitement over a new Rossini work in his time; Fellini was like a fish in water when it comes to film design and invention - a true master; It moves at its own pace and logic, critics be damned; Fellini was brilliant because the people who worked on his films were equally brilliant - the best in their respective fields; the whip-master fantasy, I can actually agree with the impulse behind that one; it's an epic about one man's over-sized ego - what a wonderful subject to create a brilliant film about! The perfect movie for a century that has been incredibly affected/effected by the ideas purported by the science of psychology. Fellini had stated he was a great admirer of Carl Jung's work, and it is no surprise he would take up that banner.

If you can, check out CITY OF WOMEN - another film by Fellini that works on a similar logic, but takes it several steps beyond what he did with 8 1/2. Ciao!

Life is our greatest invention!
1. Federico Fellini. Sensitive, vulgar - il maestro.
2. Saraghina - beauty and repulsion just a few jiggles away.
3. Sandra Milo is dimples dangerous and blessed.
4. Marcello M. as Guido Enselmi, loveable hypocrite.
5. Guido's father moaning about his burial arrangements.
6. A little fantasy in reality or a little reality in fantasy.
7. Claudia Cardinale carrying mineral water.
8. Crappy musical inspired by film. How many movies claim that honor?
1/2. The spaceship - masculinity/identity in progress of going up or coming down?

The "close but no cigar" portion of the list:
Terry Gilliam carries on about how scenes in this movie have influenced his career (see no.2); Nino Rota's music, brilliant as always, probably should have been included in my top eight list; DVD extras - especially lost gem A DIRECTOR'S NOTEBOOK; boring commentary; when this picture first opened in Italy, the anticipation was compared to the excitement over a new Rossini work in his time; Fellini was like a fish in water when it comes to film design and invention - a true master; It moves at its own pace and logic, critics be damned; Fellini was brilliant because the people who worked on his films were equally brilliant - the best in their respective fields; the whip-master fantasy, I can actually agree with the impulse behind that one; it's an epic about one man's over-sized ego - what a wonderful subject to create a brilliant film about! The perfect movie for a century that has been incredibly affected/effected by the ideas purported by the science of psychology. Fellini had stated he was a great admirer of Carl Jung's work, and it is no surprise he would take up that banner.

If you can, check out CITY OF WOMEN - another film by Fellini that works on a similar logic, but takes it several steps beyond what he did with 8 1/2. Ciao!

A CONTROVERSIAL MOVIE.
Frequently, the name or label "Art film" is given to a movie that presents innovative techniques, an experimental narrative, abstract and ambiguous characters, complex dialogues...and slow pace, with complicated scenes, so complicated that the audience doesn't quite know what's happening, sure you can say a theory or what you think might be happening, but in the "Art films" sometimes even the director can't give an accurate explanation. Anyway, since "8 ½" presents all those elements, "8 ½" is an art film.

Federico Fellini's cinema is one of the most mysterious and influent styles at the same time, modern filmmakers such as David Lynch owe a lot to the italian director. With "8 ½" happens something very interesting, there are a lot of scenes that are almost incomprehensible, but they are very interesting to see, because since the movie offers few explanations, the audience must be thinking most of the time, trying to solve the puzzle, so "8 ½" requires an active audience.

The cast is very good, the obvious mentions are Marcello Mastroianni and the gorgeous actress Claudia Cardinale. "8 ½" presents some of Fellini's trademarks: there are a lot of surreal scenes that look like a complicated Dream, or a Nightmare if you wish. The use of the camera is very artistic and groundbreaking. And the pace is slow.

The thing with the "Art cinema" is that for some, it's the only way of cinema that really counts, and for others the art cinema is just a pretentious way to call a slow and boring movie. I choose not to be in any of those extremes, I rather be in the middle because to me "8 ½" is a very, very interesting movie, worthy of study and analysis, but sincerely I think that Fellini did better movies, like "La Strada" or "La Dolce Vita".

Anyway, "8 ½" definitely is not for fans of the "American Pie" trilogy or the Adam Sandler's comedies. "8 ½" is for lovers of the cinema in its more artistic expression.

Fellini's fragmented masterpiece of an internal crisis...
The prominent film director Guido (Marcello Mastroianni) finds himself overworked, harassed, and fatigued in all aspect of being. Guido is sent to a health spa where he is supposed to recover from his stressful life, but instead is continuously pursued by people around him, by his past, and by his conscious. The people around Guido are either dependent on him, desire his company, or merely try to advertise themselves in his presence. In order to cope with a large number of people Guido has developed a social dance where he is able to circumvent or approach the individuals of his choosing. This dance is also Guido's way of dealing with life and its complications, which affects him physically, psychologically, and socially.

8½ fragmentally displays Guido's life as he dances between reality, dreams, and memories in the developmental stage of a film production. This cerebral dance helps him to avoid what is deemed as uncomfortable as he escapes into his memories where he can find some joy and peace. However, Guido often reminds himself of how his past sometimes plagues him as he can recollect deep memories of discomfort and guilt. These negative emotions lead Guido into an internal crisis where he struggles with his decisions in the light of moral judgment that is heavily weighted by his Catholic upbringing. Despite the internal crisis, the dance continuous as Guido is compelled to flee his painful memories by seeking company outside of his marriage as he seeks self-affirmation when he is alone. The cheating provokes further guilt which urges Guido to remain dancing as he escapes into a dream world where he attempts to unify memories with the present where his consciousness sets the rules. But to Guido's dismay he finds the dreams forcing him back into reality as his dreams rebel against himself. This is due to his conflicting ideas that are simultaneously rejected and approved of in order to find temporary happiness and please those around him. In essence, it is Guido's denial of his own lies that is the root to his guilt and unhappiness.

Fellini's 8½ is a cinematic masterpiece, which encourages analytical and artistic thinking as it dives into a dense fabric of inventive imagery. Vividly Fellini paints Guido's moral crisis onto the silver screen, which offers a surreal cinematic experience as it drifts between reality and dreams. In addition, 8½ shows Fellini's profound understanding of human psychology, which possibly could have been based on himself. The fragmented story line enhances the visual feeling of the stress that Mastroianni's character experiences as well as developing a deep understanding for his mind. The opening shot where Guido dreams of being enclosed in a smoldering car stuck in traffic displays Fellini's true cinematic genius as he develops an image of panic, anxiety, and fear. This visualization is something that can be discovered in every film that Fellini has directed as well as his trademark of having a circus-like atmosphere. 8½ has everything of what makes it a Fellini film, which offers a unique experience that could only have been accomplished by a true cinematic artist.

Best Movie About the Artist
I saw 8 ½ (1963) for the first time on South Street in Philadelphia at the old TLA theatre. I was in my mid-twenties and liked the big-breasted women. Saw the movie again yesterday at the Colonial in Phoenixville, PA, a wonderfully restored small town theatre, and reentered the world of the great director Federico Fellini. The cast consisted of Marcello Mastroianni (mid life crisis of the great director), Claudia Cardinale (the perfect woman), Sandra Milo (the chesty but dim lover) and Anouk Aimée (the ordinary wife he cheats on).For Fellini, 8 ½ continued a trend away from the realism of his early movies to a surrealistic view of his own life. The film has a simple premise. The great director has no idea what his next movie is about, while his producer and film company wait for Mastroianni to tell them what the movie is about. It does not help that Mastroianni falls in love with every woman in the cast and every woman he ever knew. The famous harem scene is near the end of the movie, where all the women in his life await his every whim. The older ones get banished upstairs. When the women revolt, he gets his whip and regains order. The women love him again. Oh, irony, but in Surrealism, Freud reigns supreme and dreams are a wish. I rate 8 ½ one of ten best movies ever made. ... Read more

Description

Pipe-smoking Monsieur Hulot, Jacques Tati's endearing clown, takes a holiday at a seaside resort where his presence provokes one catastrophe after another. Tati's wildly funny satire of vacationers determined to enjoy themselves includes a series of precisely choreographed sight gags involving dogs, boats and firecrackers. The first entry in the Hulot series is a masterpiece of gentle slapstick. ... Read more

Reviews (32)

Subtle and funny......
My husband and I enjoyed MR HULOT'S VACATION very much. Although the film has been described elsewhere as slapstick, I don't think it is -- though there are a few scenes that made me laugh like crazy. VACATION is an intelligent and subltle film that does not depend on clever dialogue, in fact there is very little dialogue, though the film is not silent.

The comparison with Mr. Bean is a good one, but Tati is not Roland Atkins any more than Buster Keaton was Charlie Chaplin. In fact, Tati falls somewhere in between Chaplin and Atkins, neither as clumsy or pitiable as the former nor as socially inept as the latter. In fact, Mr. Hulot seems an average sort of guy who experiences more than his share of the odd experiences that can and do happen to everyone.

Mr. Hulot appeals because we can identify with him. For example, Mr. Hulot has problems with his car. Well, I once owned a car I could not get out of second gear. Since the mechanic could not fix it for a price I could afford, I drove it very slowly. My mother owned a car that flicked on the windshield wipers and headlights every time she hit a bump. She had to hit another bump to turn them off. My husband had an old MG with a rusted floorboard. As you rode along you could see the pavement underneath the car. We gave it to my daughter and she traded it for a bicycle. Mr. Hulot's experiences with his car don't seem odd to me, and they make me laugh in recognition.

Chaplin was always center stage and to a certain extent Atkins is seldom out of the frame either. However, Mr Hulot shares the stage with an assortment of people some might call eccentric. In fact, the folks in VACATION remind me of the people who populate my own world. I am not unique, however, I am observant, and one of the things I like about Tati is that he recognizes each person is an individual and that each has interesting experiences that are occasionally funny. As Mr. Bennet says in PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, "but for what do we exist except to amuse others and they in their turn to amuse us." Humor is in the eye of the beholder. Tati simply makes it obvious that people are funny.

Like Mr. Bean, Mr. Hulot blithely moves about unconscious of the havoc he leaves in his wake, but all of us cause havoc somewhere at some point and are unaware of it. Sometimes it's serious havoc. Have you never seen near accidents on the highway where the "cause" goes merrily on his way? Of course some accidents are bad, but often accidents are funny.

Unlike Mr. Bean, Mr. Hulot does not seem to be lonely. He actually has a nice time with the beautiful blonde--well he mostly does, but if he fails to connect on an occasion or two it's not for lack of interest on her part. And, Mr. Hulot is quite a good tennis player who makes a friend of the tennis coach (and impresses the blonde).

Probably the thing I enjoyed the most about this film was the context. What is it about vacations that brings out insanity?? The opening scenes as everyone heads to the beach are hilarious. I too have nearly missed trains in Europe from being on the wrong side of the track. However, there are some wonderful tranquill scenes too. The sound of the waves pounding the surf at night under a full moon, and the clear sunny sky by day, as well as the happy mood of the vactioners--especially the children--is enough to put anyone in a good mood. I love this little film and I'm going to watch it over and over. I'll buy more Tati DVDs too, since I don't have a car payment to worry about.

a nice French comedy
This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film

While not as funny as I expected, M. Hulot's Holiday, is one of the most popular French comedies of the 1950's. It is directed by and stars Jaques Tati. The original French title is "Le Vacances de M. Hulot" The film is part of a quadrilogy 3 of which have been put on DVD by the Criterion Collection (as of July 2004).

The story follows Mr. Hulot, a very clumsy man who takes a vacation to an oceanfront hotel. While there he causes many different kinds of accidents ranging from a horse causing a car passenger to be stuck in the rumble seat to letting a load of fireworks to go off inside a shed.

There is much slapstick humor in the film also but does not even come close to the level attained in the Three Stooges short films. The film has a few sight gags also which are impressive.

The Criterion DVD includes an introduction by the writer, Terry Jones and includes the short film "Soigne ton gauche" or "look to your Left".

This DVD was out of print for a while and was rereleased in early 2004 The current edition is identical to the previous edition.

A Comedy of Memory
When I first saw "Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot" many years ago, I couldn't understand what was the big deal. The film had its amusing moments - Hulot's Amilcar bouncing down the road and that tennis game! - but it seemed too slight for all the adjectives that critics had bestowed upon it.

After getting the DVD two years ago (before it was temporarily discontinued), I watched it again and saw an entirely different movie. The slightness that had bored me when I was teenager had changed into a feeling of wistfulness - the sense that we're watching a transient, quickly passing moment in people's lives. Tati's comedy, much more gentle than most American comedies, reveals itself only in multiple viewings. The film is more like a comic meditation on memory: how our all-too-brief periods of leisure open up and close possbilities for friendship, love, and other human interactions. This is a film to revisit again and again.

1:33:1 vs. 1:37:1?
I will not review this film as I have purchased but not received it yet, however...

TK RILEY's review lambasts Criterion for NOT transfering in WIDESCREEN format:

1. If you look up this film at imdb.com and click on DVD DETAILS you will notice that
the DVD is presented in "Academy Aspect Ratio" which translates to: 1:33:1 Aspect Ratio.

2. If you look up this film at imdb.com and click on TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS you will see it was originally filmed within an aspect ratio of 1:37:1

3. imdb.com will state if this is "PAN AND SCAN" (and they do NOT!)
IN FACT, here is a quote from Criterions website titled "About the transfer" -- M. Hulot's Holiday is presented in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.33:1.

4. CONCLUSION: How much could we be missing? Answer: NOT MUCH!

Forgetta bou'dit! Purchase and enjoy!

A Real Gem
The comedic genius that was Jacques Tati is that rare type that can make you laugh at life's simple things while also giving the viewer poignant views of the every day. His humor is not mean spirited but finds humor in all the things and people around us.

"M.Hulot's Holiday" takes us to a French seaside resort. Not the flashy places mind you but the kind of place the folks who drive your bus or sells you your groceries would go to. There are the occasional types who think they are above the rest but all are really on the same level. The husband of one of those later types carries out a quiet rebellion with subtle bits of sabotage throughout the film. Into this mix comes Hulot in a car that is an insurance adjuster's nightmare. Hulot goes through his vacation leaving little bits of chaos behind him. A fireworks display that turns into a minor world war or a simple boat trip that turns into a prequel for "Jaws".

The film is mostly in French with subtitles but don't let that put you off because there is not too much dialogue. Tati's humor is mostly visual and it speaks volumes. Some of the vacationers are British and they speak English. There is an alternate all English track that was supervised by Tati but as I said the dialogue is so sparse its not worth it. The film has been restored to its pristine condition and an early short film with Tati is also included. If you are tired of alleged comedies that think shouting at you and using curse words constitutes being funny than go on a little vacation with Hulot. Despite the death trap car you'll have a wonderful time. ... Read more