An Almost Perfect Affair

Customer Reviews:

Good idea thrown away.......2006-05-02

Critics and art-house lovers must have writhed at this movie that puts the spotlight on their pretensions and the deals and self-absorption that are behind it all. But people interested in film-making, screenwriting and just movie buffs in general will chortle with glee at this public airing of the phoniness of these egomaniacs.

Unfortunately, these moments are brief and few. One has to listen closely as dozens of glimpses are caught of these "auteurs" and their doe-eyed admirers. Also shown are what some people will do to get into the movies. All of this occupies maybe 5 to 10 percent of the movie.

The rest of the movie is a tawdry little garden-variety rom-com and not a good one at that.

Ironically, this rom-com was probably put in to sell the movie, thus committing one of the repulsive tactics the film itself is trying to lampoon.

Someone should take this idea and run with it, even today. To see a 90 minute movie devoted to showing what goes on at Cannes would be a wildly entertaining movie as well as a valuable document.

Charming Sleeper.......2003-09-26

This film's been unfairly maligned for years; dumped by its distributor and savaged by critics in its initial release, perhaps it can find an appreciative audience in this spiffy new DVD version. The plot, a slight romance between American indie filmmaker Carradine and Italian producer's wife Vitti at the Cannes film festival, is slight, but very pleasant. There's real chemistry between the pair; Monica, particularly, is touching and very appealing. Some genuine laughs in the Walter Bernstein screenplay, sympathetic direction from Michael Richie, and a glorious score from the always-reliable Georges Delarue add to the film's pleasures. Also enjoyable are the unbilled star cameos, and the running joke about the remake of STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE with Vanessa Redgrave and Charles Bronson (if memory serves, such a project was discussed in the 70's; the proposed Stanley was Stallone, even more ludicrous!) The transfer's gorgeous; at bargain price, this one's really worth checking out.

Major talents, major let-down........2002-01-02

It is depressing to see actors and crew who have worked on some of the most important films of the last half-century (stars Keith Carradine and Monica Vitti; composer Georges Delerue; cinematographer Henri Decae) directed by a major American film-maker (Michael Ritchie) in hamfisted slush like this. It strives to be both an Altmanesque lampoon of the film-industry during the Cannes Film Festival, but lacks authenticity, detail, atmosphere, wit or satiric nous; and a Euro-romance, drenched in a soupily romantic score and TV-movie soft-focus visuals. It would be nice to say both impulses pull each other apart, but neither strand has anything to recommend itself beyond disbelief that THESE talents are actually doing THIS. Any Henry James-like tension, ironic or otherwise, in a plot featuring an 'innocent' American abroad in decadent Europe is ruined by Carradine's equine cloddishness and Vitti in Anna Magnani Italian blowsy mode. Independent film-maker Carradine is encouraged to take more interest in people than his art in order to make better movies: this film is totally perfect proof against such bogus platitudes.

DVD:

DVD

DVD