Pas sur la bouche (2003)
Country: FR/SW
Technical: col 117m
Director: Alain Resnais
Cast: Sabine Azéma, Isabelle Nanty, Audrey Tautou, Pierre Arditi, Darry Cowl, Lambert Wilson, Daniel Prévost
Synopsis:
In the 1920s an attractive society woman enjoys the flirtations of younger men but declares herself impervious to the charms of any but her wealthy industrialist husband. The latter is in the process of concluding a highly lucrative deal with an American businessman who just happens to be - unbeknown to him - his wife's first husband.
Review:
A genuine 20s operetta, actually filmed in 1931, is the unlikely subject for Resnais's late work (though one will recall La Vie est un Roman, Mélo, etc.). It all seems rather arch now, like 8 Women done without the postmodern tongue in cheek, with characters bursting into songs whose lyrics seem pale imitations of Noel Coward-cum-Maurice Chevalier. The performers are of course expertly professional (especially Arditi and Azéma) and carry it off without it dragging too much; Wilson has an entertaining American accent when speaking French, but the highlight is the performance in drag by Darry Cowl, veteran of over a hundred films, as the landlady of the bachelor pad.
Country: FR/SW
Technical: col 117m
Director: Alain Resnais
Cast: Sabine Azéma, Isabelle Nanty, Audrey Tautou, Pierre Arditi, Darry Cowl, Lambert Wilson, Daniel Prévost
Synopsis:
In the 1920s an attractive society woman enjoys the flirtations of younger men but declares herself impervious to the charms of any but her wealthy industrialist husband. The latter is in the process of concluding a highly lucrative deal with an American businessman who just happens to be - unbeknown to him - his wife's first husband.
Review:
A genuine 20s operetta, actually filmed in 1931, is the unlikely subject for Resnais's late work (though one will recall La Vie est un Roman, Mélo, etc.). It all seems rather arch now, like 8 Women done without the postmodern tongue in cheek, with characters bursting into songs whose lyrics seem pale imitations of Noel Coward-cum-Maurice Chevalier. The performers are of course expertly professional (especially Arditi and Azéma) and carry it off without it dragging too much; Wilson has an entertaining American accent when speaking French, but the highlight is the performance in drag by Darry Cowl, veteran of over a hundred films, as the landlady of the bachelor pad.
Country: FR/SW
Technical: col 117m
Director: Alain Resnais
Cast: Sabine Azéma, Isabelle Nanty, Audrey Tautou, Pierre Arditi, Darry Cowl, Lambert Wilson, Daniel Prévost
Synopsis:
In the 1920s an attractive society woman enjoys the flirtations of younger men but declares herself impervious to the charms of any but her wealthy industrialist husband. The latter is in the process of concluding a highly lucrative deal with an American businessman who just happens to be - unbeknown to him - his wife's first husband.
Review:
A genuine 20s operetta, actually filmed in 1931, is the unlikely subject for Resnais's late work (though one will recall La Vie est un Roman, Mélo, etc.). It all seems rather arch now, like 8 Women done without the postmodern tongue in cheek, with characters bursting into songs whose lyrics seem pale imitations of Noel Coward-cum-Maurice Chevalier. The performers are of course expertly professional (especially Arditi and Azéma) and carry it off without it dragging too much; Wilson has an entertaining American accent when speaking French, but the highlight is the performance in drag by Darry Cowl, veteran of over a hundred films, as the landlady of the bachelor pad.