La belle histoire

This film is a masterpiece of symbolic might.

It's a masterpiece of deep and real love.

It's not a romantic popcorn movie for pseudo intellectual french film groupies.

And that's why it is downgraded in ratings and nobody knows about it. Its production company failed in marketing, then failed commercially. The film is unknown to most people and when they watch it, they expect something completely different.

For me personally, this is one of the 100 most "artsy" films ever made. In a positive way as it still resonates within me after nearly 30 years.

It sounds like a soppy idea: That we meet the people we love time and again through the ages. But it works - for over three hours. 'La belle histoire' switches between Judea 2000 years back (yep, the time and place of Christ) and the present day. We meet the same group of people then and now, with grand passion, bullfighting and Gipsy Kings thrown into the mix.

Being a French movie, there's a lot of pretty people here. And religious/Christian metaphors. This could have become a messy stew - instead, it's a very entertaining epic for the romanticists among us. Too bad it's so hard to get hold of.

It is clear that most viewers will be extremely disturbed by the pace of the film...

Describing two plots (one in antiquity, one now) and using the same actors, and a series of flashbacks to get his point across, Claude Lelouch uses his traditional style in a confusing manner which will make the film beyond the understanding of many.

3h20 minutes later, the mystery is solved, fully, and it is plain that he was in control all the time... not like other directors who can't make a clean film with a linear time line.

From the gorgeous Marie-Sophie L., Beatrice Dalle, Vincent Lindon, the cast, although familiar faces in Lelouch's films, all show their talent. Even late Paul Preboist, usually too strong in his approach, delivers a beautiful performance.

Music is in perfect harmony with the images, inclusing Brel, gypsy music, bullfight themes perfectly and flawlessly.

If you only heard about Lelouch but never saw any of his films, "Ladies and Gentlemen" would be a better first film than this one as this one is possibly very confusing... but a masterpiece nonetheless.

A truly captivating movie, or is it actually several movies wrapped up in one? The religious twist caught me completely by surprise and once I got into the first few minutes of this movie I was hooked. The movie is unique and spellbinding and somehow manages to synchronize Christianity with a gypsy-imbued belief in reincarnation, in a way that comes across with conviction and a sense of powerful reality. There is also a huge dose of simple humanity added to this magical recipe, thus separating it from any danger of mere pedantry or instruction. A rather long movie, but it manages to sustain the viewer's attention throughout. In fact I could not keep my eyes off the screen for the whole viewing. The emotional undercurrent at first seems subtle and subdued, but has a constant underlying intensity that is unavoidable and finally sweeps you away with it. You cannot help but get carried away by this movie. I love this movie and have watched it many times. Possibly my only criticism is with the use of the same song/music, repeated many times throughout. Clearly real gypsies would have a much greater repertoire! Another minor problem I feel, is that many of the philosophical concepts were overtly and therefore unnecessarily stated, when the story itself should have been allowed to put forward these concepts. The new release on DVD comes as part of a set of Lelouch movies, but appears to be a director's cut(?). I say this because it is sequenced a bit differently to the original film version that I saw on television many years ago. It is also missing the intro, which (if my memory serves me) had a radio announcer waxing philosophical on air, and sped up footage of car lights on busy multi-lane motorways. This introductory footage was superb in that it related directly to the later concepts of bees, and so I cannot really understand why it was left off of the later DVD release. Whatever the reasons I still give this movie a top rating, four stars, the best! This has become my favorite movie of all time.

Some people won't get this film. Their loss. Lelouch is a master of his art. He plays with narrative and plot, introducing characters seemingly at random, yet he's always in full control, and the fun is in finding out just that. The performances are uniformly even - perhaps Beatrice Dalle is a standout. Photography is gorgeous, and as you would expect from the director who made "A Man and a Woman", the music is luscious. The opening time lapse scene in Paris is worth the price alone. Lelouch is accused of recycling a limited repertoire of technique. Well, bring it on, I say. I watch this film at least twice a year. An unsung masterpiece. *** Late breaking news - May 2005. A DVD version with English subtitles has been released in Canada as part of a box set of six Lelouch films. A search will find it... Finally, the 16:9 version!