After watching Breathless and Pierrot le fou, I'd pretty much lost hope in early French cinema. All that art house crap where unlikeable characters sit around, smoking and make stupid pseudo-philosophical comments, whilst being filmed from a mirror.
This film had interesting, believable characters and a strong cast. Some of the romantic elements were a bit crass, however that is normal for the time and they were handled reasonably well.
me too (somewhat), i was on a streak of watching several French films i didn't like which were held in high regard by the majority like The Rules Of The Game and La grande illusion
but this movie broke that streak
so many movies, so little time
How ignorant to base a country's entire cinematic output from just two films.
shareWholeheartedly agreed, monamask. I wonder from whose country these people are? Let me guess... Too easy, I know.
It's worse than ignorant, in fact. Especially given the fact that France happens to be the very craddle of cinema's existence. I'm not saying that the Lumière family invented cinematography as an art. But it sure invented the technique, and for that, France has the longest tradition of movie making in the whole world. To speak of the Godard's output as "early French cinema" like the OP is therefore totally laughable. Instead of making such sweeping grand statements based on sheer ignorance, why not getting a minimum of facts right ot at least in a minimally correct perspective?
It sounds as laughable as somebody who would report that he used to think that American comedies were barely worth a load of road apples solely based on Adam Sandler's performances, until he discovered Charlie Chaplin's classics...That'd do a great help to making IMdB forums a more interesting place for discussions.
Nonetheless, I'm glad that the OP had a good appreciation of Marcel Carmé's immortal epic. The so-called "French equivalent of 'Gone With the Wind' " , as the much frequently heard formula goes when referring to "Les Enfants du Paradis"...
- But you can't have her again as costume designer, Mr. Hitchcock!
- Really, Peggy? Give me Head!