Un autre homme, une autre chance

This is not a western, this is a dramatic love story set in the Old West. If you think Sergio Leone's "Once Upon A Time In The West" is slow and artsy you won't enjoy this film because it is even slower and more artistic. Good performances by Caan and Bujold can't help speed the pace of this drawn out love story. The only action takes place in the first 20 minutes of the film. The rest is pure love story which is okay but we've seen it all before in Lelouch's "A Man and a Woman."

Became aware of this film a week ago, in a karaoke bar in - of all places - Tombstone, AZ. The movie was up on the widescreen TV, but the sound was turned off. Even so, the visuals had me focusing on the movie more than listening to the live music! First I'm seeing a war in Europe, then I'm seeing the American land races, back and forth, and well-known faces of James Caan, Genevieve Bujold, and dear old Richard Farnsworth. Even without sound, the tenderness of some scenes came through! Had to find out more about this film! So I jotted a few notes and looked it up by actors/together, and now that I have read more good reviews than bad, I will be putting it at the top of our rental list!

"Un autre homme, une autre chance (1977)"

"Another Man, Another Chance"

This is one of the best films I have seen in years; hard to believe that it was written and directed almost 27 years ago. A lyrical, beautiful and moving film with a storyline so believable, it is as if I were with them, on the dusty roads and the rolling hills and plains, seeing the Great Southwest unfolding before my eyes.

This film is even better if you know some French, but not necessary... The "true to life" historical film has so much meaning on a personal level; it is as if I were "let in" to read someone's private diary, with nothing held back. Such thoughts I wish I had...

Thank you so much, to the director and writer, Claude LeLouch; and to the actors James Caan and Geneviéve Bujold. They are all excellent in every way. I wish I could have "been there" myself at this point in time, and after seeing this film I was able to "live in their painting" for just a little while. I actually watched it two times in a row, it was so beautiful in all ways.

No "blockbuster" needed here; just the storyline of these people's lives. I can't wait to see what other films this fine French director has brought to the screen, as I had never heard of him before. Caan and Bujold are at their finest, as always. Thanks to both of them, as well.

I think I read that this was a true story of the author's grandparents, or greatgrandparents, his grandmother who was French and this was their life. Most interesting of all. We are all immigrants seeking the Promised Land.

With my sincerest and most heartfelt thanks, Catherine Todd

James Caan is very believable and does a great job. But could there be any worse cinematography than this? Camera shots taken directly into the sun, then transitioning in and out of shadows-very amateurish.

Photographer Francis Huster convinces Genevieve Bujold to abandon their native Paris and make a new life in the American west. They get married on the wagon train and settle in a small but growing city; he is shot because of his incessant picture taking. Meanwhile, veterinarian James Caan has a nagging wife, who wants they to move from their ranch. She dies in childbirth.

Director Claude Lelouch is the most unabashedly romantic director since Frank Borzage. As a result, you keep wondering when Caan and Mlle Bujold are going to stop mourning and start living again. There's no sign of the ineluctable workings of fate here, just the chance of a rebirth in the New World, with Caan at his most masculine, and Mlle Bujold indescribably cute.

Veteran cinematographer Stanley Cortez has his last credit here, capturing, along with Jacques Lefrancois, Lelouch's wide-eyed view of the beauties and weirdnesses of the Old West.