The Other Side of Midnight

It's the time to breathe… to fall in love… to feel the heartbeat of every living moment of every endless day… It's a very romantic time… It's a time for dreams and heartbreak and hope… A time when fantasies can come true…

In Paris, the enchanting Noelle—young and vulnerable—lives out her fantasies at the jagged edges of her broken dreams dazzled by its glamor… In Washington, the beautiful Cathy—taken by surprise with her own success—is unaware of its price… Larry—loved by both women— is a sly liar… Constantine Demeris has the power that extends beyond wealth, the power that knows the price of every woman's heart and every man's soul…

Sidney Sheldon's story has all the suspense, the intrigue, and the emotions that explode when fantasy collides with destiny… His four unforgettable people live the romance, the passion, the betrayal, the hate and revenge against the midst of WWII, in Three countries: France, United States and Greece

...that a film with copious amounts of nudity can be as dry as dirt. It looks like a handsome production replete with a Michel Legrand musical score and Oscar nominated costumes from Irene Sharaff. But the leads, Marie-France Pisier and John Beck, register zero on the charisma scale. It is hard to care about anything related to them. And the lamentable thing drags on for 166 minutes.

The one saving grace is Susan Sarandon, who, even in a bad film in a sadly supporting role, still has that certain zest and spark of a true star about her, even though her palmy days would not completely arrive for another decade or so. But the rest of the film is apathetic and completely bored me.

I saw this movie upon the persistent recommendations of my lady co-employees thinking and hoping that there may be sense after all in their insistence. But of course, knowing them I expected this to be another chick movie, a maudlin love story.

To my surprise, it had a lot of suspense and I also appreciated the fact that it captured the ambience of the European countries that served as locales.

It did well in the Philippines. I saw it with a standing room crowd and it took me a while to grab a seat. But I doubt if it was well received in the US.

If this were to have been done twenty years later with a modern sensibility, gullible stars, a more lethal editor, and a spot more atmosphere, it could well have ended up as a hit. The budget was obviously good, and the photography is mostly excellent despite its too-frequent descent into seventies syrup. The lighting (and look) tends to be pretty uniform - for example, Wartime Paris was apparently a beautifully colorful time, and the mood gay and sumptuous, but then so is everything else, right down to the fitted carpet. The debt owed to the black and white classics is apparent, but there is something very unconvincing about using the old styles of movie-making with full-on glossy, TV color. A shame they didn't go all the way, and let the hammers fly -for heavens' sake give me some deep shadow when the lights are on. All in all, the zoom lens is over-active, the script underwhelming, and the score dreary. The performances, however, are lively and committed and the styling and costumes sometimes inspired. "Entraptured" as I was, I couldn't help feeling I was watching a Judith Krantz novel....oh, that's right - it's Sidney Sheldon! Compelling nonetheless...

Producer Frank Yablans and 20th Century Fox spent some serious cash on "The Other Side of Midnight" filming scenes on location in Paris, Washington, DC and Greece. It certainly looks good on screen. The lush musical score by Michel Legrand made the movie sound more important than it really is. (When is a Legrand musical score not lush?) But the plodding epic WWII romantic story about two women who are in love with the same pilot, adapted from the best selling Sidney Sheldon novel, should not be taken too seriously. The movie is so soapy, I'm surprised Procter & Gamble did not co-produce the movie.

Marie-France Pisier tries her best to flesh out (pun intended) her character of Noelle, using her body to get to the top. But the scenes with Sorrell Booke as a businessman who bought Noelle from her father, Christian Marquand as a filmmaker and Raf Vallone as a Greek tycoon, were rather embarrassing and I did not feel any sympathy toward her character. John Beck fared even worse as a very uncharismatic, two-timing cad.

It is interesting that after "Midnight", Pisier (who I remember from a much better movie from two years earlier, Cousin, Cousine) went back to appearing in movies in her native France and Beck continued to appear in soaps, this time on television.

Somehow, I thought Susan Sarandon fared best because she was the best actor of the three leads. I felt more sympathy for her character Catherine than Noelle. And what has happened to Sarandon after this trash-fest? Can someone say a thinking man's sex symbol? (Oscar-winning performance as Sr. Helen Prejean in "Dead Man Walking" notwithstanding.)

Why a 5 out of 10 instead of a 1 or 2? I remember reading many negative reviews when it was first released in 1977. However, unlike what was reported in the IMDb Trivia section, the movie did have a long run in theaters and was a moderate success at the box office. Even though I was very leery of the film's 2 hour, 45 minute length, I caught the movie on cable TV. This movie is like a trashy summer novel, I could not put this movie down. Without giving the ending away, the plot twists almost made the film worth my time. Having seen the movie several times in the past few years, The Other Side of Midnight is a bad movie but I plead guilty to admit that it is so bad, it's good.

Update (5/10/2007): I tried to re-watch this movie and ended up fast forwarding through the boring parts. I guess my original review was rather generous.

If you cut down the "getting to know you" musical montage scenes, the transition scenes where people are walking from one beautiful scene to another and delete the gratuitous nude scenes, it might have been better. The movie is also filled with script exposition and not enough actual scenes that might have made the movie more interesting. The scenes between Pisier and Michael Lerner, who plays an investigator trailing John Beck's character, are especially deadly.

Sarandon's performance still holds up. She exudes more depth to her character than the script allows.

I sense that the movie was made by some dirty old men whose idea for a "chick flick" was to see the main female characters naked. A naked male lead? Not a chance.