C'est la Vie

Customer Reviews:

Not the best movie in the world.......2005-08-10

I saw this movie and I found it both shocking and choking. It displays children as young as 4 years old smoking cigarettes! Did the filmmakers take into account the damage tobacco could have done to these child stars? (Yes, the cigarettes and the smoke were real, not CG.) I think they should have omitted such scenes from the script, because it displays a behavior that's not only illegal in several countries, but also threatening to both society and childhood. No matter what the other reviewers thought about the movie, I give it a disgusting 1, and this is the last movie I ever watch that depicts smoking children. To those that haven't yet watched this movie, please DON'T WATCH IT, unless you want cancer to win the health wars.
And here I hand out a lesson for every active or aspiring moviemaker: if you want to depict smoking children, use COMPUTER GRAPHICS instead of the REAL THING!

A remarkable movie !!.......2005-04-24

I have seen this movie on the German TV yesterday with the title: "A summer at the sea" and I was deeply impressed.

Despite that it was produced in 1990, the theme is more up-to-date than ever. Excellent actors of all ages performed very well indeed, a great story, some romantic spots and lovely music will make you thinking about the relationship of children to their parents, their pain and childish emotions which often get hurt.

This story could happen today, next month or the following year, next door of you .. or at any other location or country. So you will get nothing NEW out of that movie but the sad reality of daily life in the eyes of children whose parents can't behave.

I only can highly recommend this movie - buy the DVD and you will enjoy it definitively more than just one time.

Entertaing coming of age story.......2005-04-22

I saw this movie back in the mid 90's on Bravo, before it sold out and went commercial. I really enjoyed this film, it is very simple and believable, I felt I was on holiday with this family. This is like as Sunday afternoon movie you would put on and relax and watch.

Well written story.......2004-02-28

This film set on the beaches of Brittany, is an engaging story that shows the pleasure and pain of adolcence. During the summer of 1958 two sisters, 13 and 8, are too much for their governess too handle. There spirited antics take them from pranks to real trouble. But neither of the girls are ready for the path that their mother has chosen. Diane Kurys did a wounderful job directing this film.

Coming of age adventure at Brittany's Beaches..........2003-07-04

During the late 50s Frédérique and Sophie, two sisters 13 and eight years old, are sent with a governess to spend their summer in Brittany. Their parents never disclose why they are not going to Brittany with them, but the secret cannot be kept from the children. As the film unfolds the children commit several shenanigans when failing parental supervision surrounds them, however, one day Frédérique trips on the secret of why the parents did not come with them to Brittany it changes her view of life. C'est La Vie is an interesting "coming of age" film where the audience follows the summer of two young girls containing friends, love, adventure, and betrayal. The story intrigues through humor and tragedy, which ends up being a pleasing cinematic experience.

Cómo ser mujer y no morir en el intento [Region 2]

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Femisogyny strikes again
Busy woman on the edge of a nervous...
How to be a woman without penis envy
How to be a man and enjoy this movie
Recommended for fans of the Spanish cinema.

Cómo ser mujer y no morir en el intento [Region 2]
Starring: Carmen Maura , Antonio Resines , Juanjo Puigcorbé , Carmen Conesa , and Tina Sáinz
Director: Ana Belén
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ASIN: B0001EYRP4

Customer Reviews:

Femisogyny strikes again.......2004-01-06

This is a great little Spanish movie about family, gender, and sexual tension ("Sex relieves tension. Love produces it") in modern Spain. Carmen Maura plays a nuanced role as a devoted housewife and reporter in love with her sweet and apparently honest but incorrigibly sexist husband. Great bits include mother-daughter talks, stoned son, Maura and her friendýs feminist walk out during a dinner scene and the envy of Carmenýs character (called Carmen, I believe!) envy of the "elegant men" that nonetheless drive her crazy. The voice over was put to such good use that I found myself identifying as much with her as her husband Antonio (played by Antonio Resines).

Busy woman on the edge of a nervous..........2001-10-04

It is the story of a modern woman with a mediocre husband and the numerous challenges of the everyday life. At times this movie is very entertaining, at times a bit boring, exactly like life itself. Without the geniality and the glamour of Almodovar's films, but still fun to watch.

How to be a woman without penis envy.......2000-12-20

This movie, that is actually based on a novel by Carmen Rico Godoy, is the personal view of the life of an independent woman that has to face the fact that in the 90s the world is still ruled by men, just because their men. Keep in mind that this movie and the novel are set in Spain, a very traditional an chauvinist society. She is an accomplished woman, as one she is not only a professional journalist, but she is also a housewife and a mother. Her crisis arises when she realizes that she is a mother figure to her husband, that the gynecologist sees her as a woman and not a patient, and that a promotion at work will go to the best man and not the best person. When the mistakes of others slip by seamlessly, hers do not--society punishes for being a "Superwoman"--something that she brought onto herself. Carmen Maura is excellent. She sets the tone of the movie--in the novel the character appears to be a neurotic woman, yet Maura manages to give us a woman with a purpose, and why not,with a vengance.

How to be a man and enjoy this movie.......2000-06-16

This movie, based on an Almudena Grandes novel, is a tribute to women all around. Carmen Maura is the wife of a man that cheat on her and a son in the process to grow... a tragedy changed her forever. This comedy has great moments of laugh, but the book is much better. I think in some levels the director misunderstood the novel, Almudena Grandes is a feminist who believe that women are not better than men, they're even and in this movie goes in the inverse. Other movies based on an Almudena novel are "Cuernos de mujer" y "How to be unhappy and enjoy it".

Recommended for fans of the Spanish cinema........2000-02-04

Directed by Ana Belen, How To Be A Woman And Not Die In The Attempt is a wry Spanish comedy about the stresses facing the modern woman. From petty squabbles with her husband to put-downs at the hands of her colleagues, Carmen Maura (one of Spain's reigning actresses) ardently soldiers on in the comedic, lively, oh-so-true battle of sexes. How To Be A Woman And Not Die In The Attempt is in Spanish with English subtitles. 96 minutes. Full-Color.

C'est La Vie, Mon Cheri (Cantonese Version)

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C'est La Vie, Mon Cheri (Cantonese Version)

Manufacturer: Tai Seng Entertainment
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ASIN: B000LC57Q4
Release Date: 2006-12-01

Description

A struggling musician learns about love, life & music through the optimistic eyes of a dying girl. This classic remake swept the 13th Hong Kong Film Awards by storm with magnificent performances by Lau Ching Wan, Anita Yuen, Fung Bo Bo & Carina Lau Ka Ling.

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Okay [Region 2]
Starring: Paprika Steen , Troels Lyby , Ole Ernst , Nicolaj Kopernikus , and Molly Blixt Egelind
Director: Jesper W. Nielsen
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ASIN: B0001IMD0G

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Bardot, a dynamic fun-loving woman and Boyer, an old-style romantic without the grand manner...
slapstick all over
Classic Brigitte Bardot
Love Bardot!
fun - but dubbed

La Parisienne [Region 2]
Starring: Charles Boyer , Henri Vidal , Brigitte Bardot , Noël Roquevert , and Madeleine LeBeau
Director: Michel Boisrond
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B00009Z5AI

Amazon.com

Brigitte Bardot may be only third billed in the credits but without a doubt she's the star of this graceless sex farce. Clad in cleavage-baring blouses, dresses that look painted on, flimsy negligées, and sexy undergarments, she spends the first half of the film wooing womanizing cabinet minister Henri Vidal, accurately described by one jilted lover as "a jerk, a despicable son of a bitch," and the second half taunting him with an affair. Arriving at a diplomatic function, her blonde hair coifed and her ample charms squeezed into a bright red dress, she recalls Marilyn Monroe in The Prince and the Showgirl, and finds her own prince in suave Charles Boyer, an all too willing elderly philanderer with charm and grace to spare. Vidal is a handsome but drab hunk with all the charisma of Sam Donaldson and the self-restraint of a rooster, which makes his fury at his wife's flirtations all the more odious. Bardot, with her bow-tie lips pursed in teasing pouts and eyes fluttering from behind ever-present black eyeliner, lifts her scenes with a spirited performance and sex kitten sweetness, but it's not enough to save this clumsy, flat, male-chauvinist sex comedy. For Bardot fans only. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews:

Bardot, a dynamic fun-loving woman and Boyer, an old-style romantic without the grand manner..........2007-01-16

Vadim changed Brigitte's image and way of life from that of the young society beauty he had married to that of a rebellious and challenging teenager of the 1950s...

"Une Parisienne" succeeded in launching her ravishing figure as the teenage goddess, the casual sexuality, the provocative gaiety in confrontation with men...

Charles Boyer -- as Prince Charles -- was the perfect, ideal choice of those magically romantic moments... His deep and vibrant voice spoke a promise of new adventures in love... His deep, wondering eyes bespoke a worldly knowledge untarnished by cynicism... He had the boudoir grace of Valentino without the hysteria or the sometime effeminacy of the great lover... Under Michel Boisrond's direction, Boyer was an old-style romantic without the grand manner...

slapstick all over.......2004-04-20

In her memoirs Brigitte Bardot mentions she is proud of 'Une Parisienne' -- a qualification hardly used by her on any of her other movies.

And oh yes, right she is. This movie fully shows Brigitte's talent for light comedy. Woven into a delightful story, her performance is loaded with slapstick from beginning to end. Your special attention for its end, when Brigitte irresistably invites her audience to keep her secret a secret.

When you settle on your couch in the weekend, weary and tired after a week's hard work, Une Parisienne is the right movie to make you feel better. It certainly ranks among Bardot's best.

Classic Brigitte Bardot.......2002-05-31

Better known to American audiences as La Parisienne (the sanitized English version), Une Parisienne is a charming, delightful romantic comedy. What you will see is classic Brigitte Bardot. Bardot puts forth a great amount of energy in her role which ranks up there with her lively performance in Viva Maria. Bardot at age 23, never looked better or sexier than she does in Une Parisienne.

The color and cinematography in this movie are excellent. This movie doesn't seem to have aged at all. There are a couple of great aerial shots. The widescreen format doesn't reduce the size of the images hardly at all.

This is my favorite Bardot movie - more enjoyable than the more famous and popular And God Created Woman.

Those who have never seen this movie have an opportunity now. Purchase it or rent it if you can and I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

Love Bardot!.......2002-03-24

Loved this movie. Bardot is a timeless beauty! Story is funny, and Charles Boyer is a great addition. The copy I had was not dubbed but subtitled. Color and quality was great. Highly Recommend!!

fun - but dubbed.......2000-08-19

This movie is fun. How could one hate Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni? She' young and lovely; he's young and handsome. My complaint is that the film is dubbed into English. Though well-done, I soon discovered it when Charles Boyer started to speak, and his splendid voice was not to be heard. If this does not bother you it probably won't amount to a negative. The scenery is good.

C'est La Vie, Mon Cheri (Mandarin Version)

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C'est La Vie, Mon Cheri (Mandarin Version)

Manufacturer: Tai Seng Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000LMPLQ0
Release Date: 2006-12-01

Description

Average customer rating:

Completely absurd

The Scarlet Tunic [Region 2]
Starring: Jean-Marc Barr , Emma Fielding , Simon Callow , Jack Shepherd , and John Sessions
Director: Stuart St. Paul
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B00013YQKG

Amazon.com

The Scarlet Tunic, an adaptation of a Thomas Hardy short story, is set in the rolling hills of the 19th-century English countryside. While this is a beautiful-looking movie, what it offers in scenery and costuming it lacks in cinematic power. Perhaps this simple story of forbidden love would have been better off left as a short story.

Frances Groves, daughter of a solicitor, is betrothed to her father's awkward, older, and unattractive business associate. Matthaus Singer--sensitive, conflicted, poetry-reading German hussar--is camped with his squadron on the Groves' land. The inevitable romance between the two puts them both at tremendous risk as they are caught between their love for each other and their incompatible places in society.

Jean-Marc Barr (Breaking the Waves) and Emma Fielding put in respectable performances, but they're not enough to carry the slow-moving plot. For those in search of a love-gone-awry period piece, Wuthering Heights (the Olivier version) or Immortal Beloved are better choices. --Mara Friedman

Customer Reviews:

Completely absurd.......2006-04-11

I've not read this Hardy story, but I understand from doing a web search that this presentation departs from the original story both in details and in plotline. The climax is simply crazy. My wife and I just shook our heads and said "Give me a break." Hardy must be rotating robustly in his grave.

Look, we love period pieces, and have watched just about every one available on DVD or VHS. But sometimes, if they're badly done, they're just a waste of time. This movies ranks right up there with the most recent version of Mansfield Park as an adaptation crime. The story itself calls for remake.

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Rocco and His Brothers
What the Italian family is all about
Another jeweled film of Luchino Visconti!
What movie did the other reviewers watch?
Brilliant family drama

Rocco and His Brothers [Region 2]
Starring: Alain Delon , Renato Salvatori , Annie Girardot , Katina Paxinou , and Alessandra Panaro
Director: Luchino Visconti
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ASIN: B00005UDXQ

Customer Reviews:

Rocco and His Brothers.......2007-06-28

A film of sizeable sweep and authenticity, "Rocco" is another near-masterpiece by Visconti. Though each Parondi brother is profiled, it's the emerging rivalry between Rocco and the mercurial Simone that drives the story forward. French actress Girardot would also achieve stardom playing Nadia, the woman of the streets who comes between them. Long but amply rewarding throughout.

What the Italian family is all about.......2006-12-29

(My copy is a Region 2, European version). A masterpiece by Italian director Lucino Visconti. Intense, emotional, realistic, passionate, dramatic story of an Italian family from the poor south (Lucania) who immigrates to the northern city of Napoli.

A 3-hour film that, alternatively, focuses on each one of the sons of the 'mamma'. If "Il Gattopardo" was the drama of the aristocratic Italian family from the south, this one corresponds to the poor family also from the south. Both are cinematic gems, worthy of being included among the best in film history. Although a long film, its intensity never diminishes. Every shot is full of emotion and meaningful and beautiful.

The only thing that disappointed me a little was the way it ended, the last half-hour. It's more of an open ending, no conclusion.

One of the most gorgeous films in b/w that I've seen. Italy to the bones.

Another jeweled film of Luchino Visconti!.......2005-08-31

If the Neo Realism was born with a forgotten film of 1934 named Tony directed by Jean Renoir, you can read frequently that Roberto Roselini has been designed as his Italian father. In these terms, if we assume the cycle initiates with Paisa (1945), Roma cittá apperta and Germania Anno Zero, Vittorio De Sica would follow the traces, many people tend to forget a hidden film of Visconti dated in 1943 -Ossesione- , and best known as "The postman always rings twice."
In this sense Visconti knocked the door before Roselini, and his brilliant career, during three decades until The innocent in 1976 that would constitute his Final Opus..
Rocco is a powerful, magisterial and still actualized film about the life and illusions of Rocco trying to bring back his family the lost dignity. Somehow the striking performance of Alain Delon in this movie meant for him his leap to fame, after his shining acting in Purple Noon 1959.
To talk about the art and influence of Luchino Visconti, his slender camera traveling and expressive close ups woul surpass the limits of this brief comment.
Go for this superb gem of the Italian Realism in those painful years of the Post War.

What movie did the other reviewers watch?.......2004-12-02

Luchino Visconti is a master of the epic, however, his epic style always takes place within a family and always leads downward towards an inevitable doom. His movies tends to remind us of the 'Godfather' but Visconti, dare I say, even gets closer to the marrow of the issues than Coppola does at his best (I am nevertheless, a big fan of 'the Godfather'). To Visconti the finest details of a film are of the utmost importance - you can watch a film like 'Rocco' or the 'Leopard' several times and still miss things. Visconti's cinema is one which reveals itself in every character, in every piece of furniture, in every moment.
'Rocco and his Brothers' is if not my favorite Italian film - certainly one of the top ten. To see the brilliant camera work of Giussepe Rotuno combined with Visconti at his peak is simply magnificent. The film itself is extremely radical in structure - slowly revealing itself - focusing sometimes on what appear to be small conversations - but everything is woven to make a perfect whole - wherein the seams are all neat - and though at times are barely hanging together - it always holds as if there is some greater purpose in mind. Visconti reveals much about both the family and their society. One could be bold and comment that the whole film is about fighting to survive (sometimes fighting one another). Life - sometimes- is like a boxing match but the match is sometimes not the one you choose to fight - you are thrown into it and some of the factors working for or against you are money, pride, love, and family.

Brilliant family drama.......2004-11-29

This movie shows as few the feeling of persons in extreme conflicts. The attitudes of each one are very richly portraied with the most notorious quality.

Average customer rating:

no title
Biiter-sweet romancing with an air of doom

The Last Days of Chez Nous [Region 2]
Starring: Lisa Harrow , Bruno Ganz , Kerry Fox , Miranda Otto , and Kiri Paramore
Director: Gillian Armstrong
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B0001EYTIY

Customer Reviews:

no title.......2006-02-18

I didn't think this terrifically good, although the acting was superb. Mostly a character study about two sisters and the husband of the eldest.

Biiter-sweet romancing with an air of doom.......1998-12-13

This is classic Gillian Armstrong giving us a snapshot of inner-urban life in a Sydney home one long humid summer.

JP (played brilliantly by Bruno Ganz who was so memorable in Wim Wenders' "Wings of Desire") is a Frenchman far from home. With his marriage to Beth (a woman whose vitality seems to have been snuffed out by marriage) already under stress, it takes only the arrival of Beth's wild and vibrant sister Vicki to send everything spinning out of control.

Vicki is Beth mirror image - but she is a reflection of what Beth once was. Beth longs to be wild and alive once more but that can never be. JP sees in Vicki what attracted him to Beth - and alone and longing for something that he can't find Down Under, JP drifts apart from Beth as she does from him.

But Beth has another problem - unresolved issues with her father (played by Bill Hunter who seems to be everywhere in Australian movies). Her father has all the personality of a prune, and won't admit his oldest child is now a grown woman with a mind of her own.

Beth, played in a deeply stressed manner by beautiful NZ actress Lisa Harrow, finds is being tossed about from the roles of mother, daughter and wife all at once - and she's the one that is left to suffer.

Customer Reviews:

B.B., a kaleidoscope of dynamic excitement..........2006-12-19

In 1956, Roger Vadim made a sensational debut as a motion picture director with 'And God Created Woman', a daringly erotic film that challenged conventional views of romanticism... Vadim presented the nude body of his young wife, Brigitte Bardot, in all the splendor of CinemaScope with beautiful Technicolor photography...

Along with Francois Truffaut, Louis Malle, Jean-Luc Godard, Jacques Demy and Agnes Varda, Vadim was one of the founding members of the revolutionary French New Wave, to push the sexual archetype...

His subsequent films revealed him to be an accomplished European filmmaker with an eye for visual beauty and decorative elegance, but in content, his films have often been superficial and lacking in narrative strength... Sexual relations have been a recurrent theme in his films, the plot of which have often revolved around the undisputed beauty of his succession of wives - Brigitte Bardot, Annette Stroyberg, and Jane Fonda...

"The Night Heaven Fell" is the second collaboration between Vadim and Bardot... Vadim seems to have attempted to recapture the freshness and essence of the 'B.B.' he had helped to shape, but the re-creation escaped him, despite the careful choice of Albert Vidalie's novel and the casting of Stephen Boyd as leading man...

Bardot's innocently natural mannerisms had disappeared, and it seemed that she no longer needed Vadim to make use of her talents as an accomplished actress... Claude Autant-Lara succeeded much more with his film, 'Love Is My Profession,' playing Brigitte opposite Jean Gabin and Edwige Feuillere... Bardot came off as more than a sexual image, her persona giving life to the character she portrayed...

Filmed in Franco's Spain, "The Night Heaven Fell" is a sunburned film noir, beautifully photographed in Color and CinemaScope...

Bardot plays Ursula, a beautiful convent girl vacationing in a small village in rural Spain where her patient and passive Aunt Florentine and her rude uncle, the Count Ribera (Pepe Nieto), live... Upon her arrival, she's hunted by the handsome and forceful Lamberto (Stephen Boyd), who's looking to avenge the death of his poor sister...

The sexually repressed Florentine desires intensely Lamberto who kills her husband, seduces her, and escapes with her rebellious, capricious and highly provocative niece Ursula...

The air of harshness is at the heat of all of the main characters: Ursula's challenging sexuality; Count Ribera's lecherous advances; Lamberto's acts of vengeance; and most of all, the unusual beauty and natural charm of Florentine, played by the great Italian actress Alida Valli, from Carol Reed's The Third Man.

There's a scene in the film that takes place during the Count's funeral where we see Alida Valli stopping in the village streets and a veil covers her face... In front of Boyd, she takes off her dark veil, and stares, in silence, at his face... Her new feminist disposition was loading all her unconscious feelings...

In the fifties, Bardot emerged as a new type of sex symbol, flashing her sexual exuberance... Her performances as a child of nature responding to the call of sensuality, were a deliciously strange elixir to all of us growing up in that time...

Clothed in a breakaway towel, décolletage, bathing suits, or nude, this truly luscious coquette was enough to drive us into a kaleidoscope of dynamic excitement...

fierce competition.......2004-09-11

Apart from some Spanish sense of pride and honor, this movie is about a fierce competition. A competition between the beauty of Brigitte Bardot and that of the magnificent landscape in Southern Spain.

As Bardot seems to be pretty uninspired here, this time landscape wins. Besides, Brigitte playing a 17-year old virgin schoolgirl is unconvincing anyway.

Great scenery; terrible direction.......2004-05-18

Although the scenery is memorable in this Bardot film (including the female scenery), the direction is awful. And there are a few embarrassing moments. The worst is a stage-bound windmill (a la Don Quijote) scene where the shadow of the sails falls regularly on the background painting of distant hills! In short, Roger Vadim is a hit and miss director. He misses with this one. I only give it 2 stars for BB, the obnoxious pig whose life she saves, and the donkey, who seems to know the cinematic mess he's got himself into.

Bardot sizzles but Boyd fizzles.......2002-06-08

This movie had the potential of being an exceptional love story but Boyd's portrayal of the lead character, Lamberto, just doesn't cut it in my view. Lamberto is virtually devoid of any charm, emotion, passion or romantic qualities. How can two women fall in love with this guy is beyond my comprehension.

The best performance is given by Alida Valli, the aunt of Bardot.
Bardot gives a solid performance as a hopelessly-in-love young woman. At least she shows some emotion and passion unlike her male co-star. Bardot's uninhibited style is never more evident than in this movie. However, in some scenes Bardot is simply being pushed and tossed around like a rag doll by Boyd. Not exactly what I would call great chemistry between the two.

A more charming, sensitive and passionate Lamberto would have made this a more compelling movie. Nonetheless, I do believe the movie is far from a complete washout. It is certainly worthy of purchase by any Bardot fan.

Bardot sizzles but Boyd fizzles.......2002-06-08

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