Imagine for a moment that you're director, Régis Wargnier. You've made a thoroughly wonderful (if a bit slow) movie "Indochine" in 1992 and, of course, you've seen Claude Berri's "Jean de Florette" and "Manon des Sources". You know that Daniel Auteuil and Emmanualle Beart have worked wonderfully together before. Now, what shall I do?
I know, I'll put Daniel and Emmanuelle back together in a romantic story with some nice scenery thrown in and hope it works again. Wrong!!
Louis (Auteuil) spent almost the entire movie going off to fight in some theatre of war that was never quite clear, always it seemed to help the frogs maintain colonial control over some poor far off group of peasants. We all know how successful they were during WWII, during the campaign in Vietnam and later in Algeria. Poor old Louis was never destined for success was he? Nonetheless, it appears that he progressed through the French ranks.
His wife, Jeanne, (Beart), seems to have spent her whole life in and out of love with Louis or any of a dozen other lovers it appears. She seems to have suffered from a life-long inability to stay upright in the presence of any man she even vaguely fancied.
"Une Femme Francaise" may not be the very worst movie I've ever seen but, trust me, it was bloody close. I really wanted to like this movie after having watched and loved JdF and MdS many, many times but this load of old merde was way beyond the tolerance of my inbuilt "merde-omer".
The script was riddled with clichés, utterly predictable and some of the scenes that were supposed to be serious or romantic or both were just laughably awful. The acting, even from Auteuil and Beart, was wooden and quite unconvincing.
I have rarely been so incredibly disappointed by what might have been a good movie. This was just terrible tripe and there's no way I will ever watch it again. I am glad I got the DVD for next to nothing.
JMV
I know, I'll put Daniel and Emmanuelle back together in a romantic story with some nice scenery thrown in and hope it works again. Wrong!!
Louis (Auteuil) spent almost the entire movie going off to fight in some theatre of war that was never quite clear, always it seemed to help the frogs maintain colonial control over some poor far off group of peasants. We all know how successful they were during WWII, during the campaign in Vietnam and later in Algeria. Poor old Louis was never destined for success was he? Nonetheless, it appears that he progressed through the French ranks.
His wife, Jeanne, (Beart), seems to have spent her whole life in and out of love with Louis or any of a dozen other lovers it appears. She seems to have suffered from a life-long inability to stay upright in the presence of any man she even vaguely fancied.
"Une Femme Francaise" may not be the very worst movie I've ever seen but, trust me, it was bloody close. I really wanted to like this movie after having watched and loved JdF and MdS many, many times but this load of old merde was way beyond the tolerance of my inbuilt "merde-omer".
The script was riddled with clichés, utterly predictable and some of the scenes that were supposed to be serious or romantic or both were just laughably awful. The acting, even from Auteuil and Beart, was wooden and quite unconvincing.
I have rarely been so incredibly disappointed by what might have been a good movie. This was just terrible tripe and there's no way I will ever watch it again. I am glad I got the DVD for next to nothing.
JMV