Vivere per vivere

I saw the movie when it was theatrically released in 1967.I enjoyed it a lot.But when I saw it again on the telly a few years back,I asked myself:"How could I have come to like that?" I could say the same of all the Lelouch I saw when I was young.Those movies have become dated ,politically correct (with the exception of "la vie l'amour la mort" but it was Lelouch dutifully stepping into the shoes of André Cayatte),sometimes entertaining (le voyou:1970;la bonne année :1974),often so overlooong and pretentious they are almost unbearable (toute une vie:1974;les uns et les autres:1981).

"Vivre pour vivre" is still watchable,at a pinch ,for the actors (the best of the three leads is arguably Annie Girardot).The historical context (the Vietnam war) adds nothing to the psychological plot and dates the movie.

Vivre pour vivre is a great movie. Under the direction of Claude Lelouche, Yves Montand was at his best. The music of Francis Lai, music writer of "Un homme et une femme", "Love Story" among other famous movies wrote a music melody for each of the main actors of the movie. The moments of silences when accompanied by the photography and the music tell more than what words can describe. In the background of a love story is a frame of a war. The atrocities and the protests against the war in Vietnam are evident. Unfortunately we do not see this movie on the TV screens in the USA.

Yves Montand is a reporter who used to travel to in-war places during the 60s. Due to long periods of home absence without his wife he usually had other love stories. In this routine he met (Candice) Candice Bergen whom he fell in love immediately. His wife (Annie Girardot) finally perceived the way he ignored and lied her. All this compelled her to live her own life and finally leaving his husband alone. There is a Spanish proverb: `One never knows what one has until it is lost' and this is the end of the reporter.

Although this picture was nominee by best foreigner picture, it wasn't enough to convince me as high class production, Yves Montand may not a better choice to the role, a chauvinist man who has many women in his feet, most probable by his money, when he gets Candice Bergen a beauty girl 25 years younger is too much, a sort of French's stuff, smoking all the time spreading a fancy fake appearance, also another French trademark, the best of the picture were the outrageous images from war from Africa and Vietnan, displaying a deepest dehumanization of those endless bloody conflicts just for a senseless power, pointless killing and pain and all those herelings's interviews which some them don't mind over such slaughter just to able to get enough money to allow to their children best study condition in highest quality school at Europe to the future, at all costs, how many lives they needed killed, all remains are Montand's vehicle!!

Resume:

First watch: 2019 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7

Yves Montand is a documentary film maker married to Annie Giradot. He cheats on her. He begins an affair with American model Candice Bergen and takes her along on a shoot in the Uganda and crosses the border to interview the men at a training camp for mercenaries. When they return to Paris, she wants him to tell Mlle Giradot, but he says he needs time to disengage.

Claude Lelouch's follow-up to A MAN AND A WOMAN is about the ability of love to survive when one of the partners is in a job at once exciting and frustrating, and whether it is love at all. Lelouch alternates between his principals engaging with each other -- although Montand gives a performance in which he seems to be acting all the time -- and montages: war footage, African wildlife, the aftermath of a battle in Viet Nam,Montand and Giradot after their breakup, with Lelouch's longtime collaborator Francis Lai doing the score.

Mlle Giradot offers a fine performance, as does Montand. Miss Bergen is not so engaging, although that may be a deliberate choice.