I do not find this film pretentious at all. It has a light touch which even Bunuel himself did not always achieve, and his son in directing this film deserves a lot of praise for his imaginative use of fantasy and how there is little between reality and that place which seems a parallel reality. Catherine Deneuve is at her finest striding around like a mysterious figure out of a fairy tale, elusive as Alice in Wonderland and Little Red Riding Hood. And of course there has to be a castle ( or rather a grand French Manor ) and Fernando Rey, also at his best a sort of Ogre at its centre. Rooms transform themselves in the same scene and Laura Betti, far from being just a maid in it has her own glorious transformative self. Things as in life are not what they seem, and the film portrays for me how we must bear all this very real unreality with lightness, elegance and a charming game of chess. I loved every second of it and only the younger male actors weighed a little heavily in the scenario. Sadly I do not think this film has been released in the UK and I fear that they tolerated the superb ' Belle de Jour ' for its more sensational aspects. I think both that film and this rank very highly among Deneuve's outstanding contribution to cinema, and if it hadn't been for the sullen faces of the younger men I would have given it a 1O. Their bearable lightness of being was not quite light enough.
Review of The Woman in Red Boots
