Reviews

This is a strange movie. The title refers to dreaming of Africa. But the movie leaves unclear why the two principal characters are dreaming of Africa and what they are dreaming of. Perhaps they are dreaming of touristy pictures: beautiful landscapes, herds of wild animals and dancing Africans. Indeed, the movie has some nice images but alas, even these are spoiled with music that often sounds ill adapted.

What is worse is that African people are nearly absent as people. Not a single African gets more than a superficial treatment in this movie, so that it seems that the principal characters are dreaming of an Africa without Africans.

Well, perhaps all this is just due to the weak overall quality of the movie. In fact, there is hardly any character development. Many images remain disconnected and thus remain hollow. Finally this movie does not surpass the level of my neighbor's slide show of his package tour to Pakistan. Which is a pity for the means spend on it.

This is a very subtle movie about persecution during world war II. Persecution (by nazis and their allies) of jews (and many others) is widely known. This movie is no political document to prove or even to show that it took place. It is a very introverted story about how persecution intervened in the live of one particular person, and how other persons played a part in this. This movie is not spectacular, not fast-moving, it is without special effects. It is human.

Under mysterious circumstances a strange guy (well played by Trintignant) escapes from some underground asylum. He finds refuge with a couple of fringe people of 68 who seemed to have retired to a tranquil life somwhere in the south of France. The strange visitor revives old dreams and memories and represents new opportunities to make something more out of life. The couple, superbly played by Philippe Noiret and Marlène Jobert, have each their own reasons to be interested and intrigued by the visitor. After a series of sometimes menacing, sometimes hylarious events, always impregnated with a subdued tension, the movie ends somewhere in the emptiness of some isolated beach.

This is a very good movie. The images and the playing show a lot but also leave a lot to be guessed by the watcher. It makes a point (about Big Brother who is watching you) and is mysterious enough to remain full of tension.

The movie tells a hilarious, perhaps somewhat overdone story about the making of scoops. At the same time it shows a lot about Paris, especially some less known sides of it.

Two journalists, a writer and a photographer, cross Paris in search of news, especially scoops. Casually they pick up the children of one of them and forget them somewhere else. While they enter some of the darker sides of Paris in search of the children, their own newspaper is making a big story out of the disappearance of the children. Inspired by a tale of some paranoia mothers, the journalists themselves become (unknowingly) the suspects of the disappearance of their children. This gives the newspaper a big scoop. Never mind that they discover later that the children are quietly sleeping at home, the scoop is there to sell.

The movie looks a little bit dated and contains quite a few technical imperfections (the blood looks just like grease paint, the text is sometimes difficult to understand, etc.). However, I found it full of humor and nice little touches (scenes in a bar, empty bottle in the car, etc.).

Also, it shows top actor Philippe Noiret once again in quite a different role; the movie would be worth watching only for that but there is much more to be seen.

This movie seems to be almost forgotten by critics and publishers but it has good value.