Rien sur Robert

A genuine comedy of manners and mores with razor sharp timing and a troupe of actors, including the inimitable Michele Piccoli, who can convey a vast range of feelings with the slightest nuances of gesture or tone. The story of a French critic most famous for reviewing a film he never saw and the ups and downs of his love life is especially delicious if you are familiar with the hothouse atmosphere of French intellectual life. But the French gift for portraying the childish emotions that beset adult activities makes this film enjoyable for a wide audience.

"Nothing about Robert" is the description of empty, mediocre, hateful and paranoid existences... If the leading characters declare once in a while their love, they really like to let suffer each other. Is it a comedy or a drama? Is there even a plot? I had the pleasure of watching this unclassifiable movie because the characters in their vileness and outrageousness make one laugh. I loved their complexity which makes them at the same time close and odious. Especially, I discovered Valentina Cervi, actress with a very disconcerting performance, which interprets an exoplanet in the intellectual Parisian microcosm. Luchini is faithful to himself i.e. one always wonders from when he does a little too much. Sandrine Kiberlain is perfect in all the details.

I don't even want to waste my time describing how bad this movies is. Avoid it at all cost, you'll thank me. But anyway, here goes:

A very good example of french movie crap. Plotless, pointless, depressing, just plainly bad. A waste of talent, time and money.

I disagree with MeisterK's comment that this is a "plotless, pointless, depressing, just plainly bad" film. (In any case, depressing just doesn't fit with the rest of the epithets. It takes a *good*, dark film to affect today's jaded audience to/near the point of depression.)

This film is certainly not one made to please the masses, but genuine works of art are rarely created with that intention. This is a very rich and intelligent film. The writing is impeccable and the directing just as good.

Michel Piccoli gives a great performance, as do Luchini, Cervi and Kiberlain.

I think people were confused that there were no heroes and heroines. Just flawed people trying to hide their imperfections and behave in a polite bourgeois fashion despite the mayhem created by the film review. It's not a movie to sit gawping at with popcorn. I was fascinated and laughing at the same time. I've never forgotten watching it.