Portraits chinois

Episodic film dealing with the lives and loves of a group of young professional Parisians. Helena Bonham-Carter in her first French film is good and speaks the language like a native. Romane Bohringer is very sexy as usual, and Elsa Zylberstein and Marie Trintignant are very amusing. The male characters are less interesting and rather two-dimensional, with the exception of screenwriter Paul (Jean-Philippe Ecoffey). The film concentrates mainly on the on-off relationship between Ada and Paul and the effect that the young Lise has on both their personal relationship and Ada's professional career. The film is an improvement on Dugowson's previous "Mina Tannenbaum", but the large number of characters makes it difficult to get emotionally involved with, and care what happens to, any of them.

France has been making the same old films: Group of close friends or people going through ups and downs. That's it. Such as "Le gout des autres", "Les Bronzés", and "Mille Millièmes".

As a Linguist, I found Helena Bonham Carter fairly good in this film. Her french was good but not excellent. There is something about actors that I find pitiful when playing in foreign films or speak a second language; They don't truly speak it fluently and so therefore when playing a role such as Carter's, one can tell that she hasn't truly digested the French language and the consequences are that when one hasn't perfected a certain language, one becomes over the top. One can see that Carter is a bit self-conscious about her linguistic skills and in this case she ends up being theatrical and clownish. I admire and revere her as an actress but stick to english speaking films.

The whole cast does fairly well but it's the plot that doesn't fare well. Marie Trintignant shines and look for Jean Claude Brialy as the fed up fashion designer. If you watch "Robert & Robert" you will see how truly gifted this actor is.

I very much enjoyed this delightfully unusual film. The French are noted for their style, their self-assurance, their savoir-faire and savoir-vivre, and French films from Rohmer to Sautet present us with a world of elegance, intelligence, and charm. The inner angst of this world is normally shown in dramas like Un Coeur en Hiver or Une Femme Française, and there is no question that the French are, in fact, very self-aware and conscious of their own limitations. Portraits Chinois, however, uses humour and wit to convey the inner lives of its characters, their fantasies, the lies they tell themselves, and the ways in which they resolve their (mainly romantic) dilemmas. There isn't a false note anywhere, and there are several very fine performances, among which Helena Bonham-Carter's stands out. Her French is nothing less than flawless. It's just the sort of film that is worth re-watching once one knows how their stories pan out. The reviewer who thought it was awful rubbish obviously hasn't watched much French cinema.

This plays like a French Woody Allen movie. Even the music is reminiscent of a New York scene. And, of course, they talk and talk and talk and talk and flirt and talk and talk and talk and make love and talk and talk and talk and jerk off at the office and talk and talk...

You get the idea. Heck, you can even hear their inner dialogue and see the fantasies they're picturing in their heads at any given moment. By the first 10 minutes, though, you wish they would just get it over with. I only lasted through about half of the movie, then I just got too bored.

AND, for about a quarter of the movie, all this talking is unintelligible if you don't understand French because the **(@#(*$ white subtitles get lost in the white tablecloth, in the white dresses, etc. But this is just another reason to not bother with this one.

A waste of time, Helena Bonham-Carter's French was excellent throughout. Very good. Ignore the 'linguist' who obviously is NOT a linguist as his/her use of basic English is well below even High School standard. Just someone who thinks they know about accurate use of foreign languages.Clearly a moron.A linguist? ha ha that is so funny. Who do they think they are? Chomsky? I only wanted to ridicule this person and the only way I seem to be able to do this is by submitting a minimum of ten lines as a review. I just wasted 2 hours of my life on this worthless piece of trash, now I have to vent my spleen on some loser who purports to be a linguist. Just go and see 'Midnight In Paris' if you want to see a masterpiece!