Movies

This Chabrol's movie begins well with funny characters,Michel Serrault cast as a bogus colonel,Huppert,as a bogus femme fatale,and FRançois Cluzet as a security guard working for shady guys.The scenes in the ski resort and on the plane,with a witty dialog including money,of course,gastronomy ,army(Ah! our beautiful French Army! an old and distinguished lady tells the "colonel"),and even Dead Poet Society (watch out for the lines). Then ,half-way through,the movie loses steam,the pace becomes too slow ,the dialog ponderous.Jean-François Balmer (a great actor though) and his gang of baddies are not convincing,being too stereotyped compared to the three initial characters.At times,it would seem that Chabrol and his actors preferred to enjoy the sea sun and beach of the wonderful setting.Hence this disappointing second part where "rien ne va plus"(nothing works anymore),and with a very trite ending at that!Average.

Has Chabrol ever made a film that's anything less than a minor masterpiece? Not that I've seen. Of course, here in the US we have to struggle to see them all, and I haven't. But movies like Les Cousins or Landru or Alice and now this one stay with me. His direction is so agile, so full of wit and surprise. This old master has all the youth and spontaneity of today's new-realists, plus the warmth of a lifetime of experience. I couldn't stop chuckling at his droll sleight-of-hand as he led us through the twists of his story -- and kept us in the dark about his two main characters' relationship. And he wrote it too!

"Swindle", now making the rounds on cable, is a comedy/light-drama subtitled French flick which tells of the activities of a pair of unlikely con-artists, a man/woman couple at opposite ends of middle age. The upside of this obviously contrived game of "whose got the money" is some pretty scenery and some almost funny tounge-in-cheek humor. The downside is just about everything else; fabricated, monotonous, superficially developed characters, inconsistencies, etc. A mildly interesting watch with some potential for Charbrol fans and other into French flicks.