Finalmente domenica!

A little similar to L'ultimo metrò (1980), but in the tone of Tirate sul pianista (1960), and this time François Truffaut found the correct tone and the appropriate genre to tell this great story.

The ending is slightly underwhelming, but it is about my only complaint, Vivement dimanche! is a well-crafted and well-acted movie, there is nothing else to say about it.

You should see it if you have the opportunity, independently, it is an important movie. But it is also the last film of Truffaut, and it is a reason more to see it right now!

As a brunette secretary, you're missing a ticked box, and now your job is drifting headlong into rocks, is your boss so homicidal, to kill his wife and her love idol, it's as perplexing as it is, a real flummox. You investigate and research what went down, it leads, to seedy places, around town, iniquities of noir, becomes increasingly bizarre, it's enough to make you scowl, glower and frown. It's not too long before your boss is apprehended, the police, are pretty sure, that he offended, can you get him off the hook, this older man you want to hug, as you desire to make him your future intended.

It's a more than satisfactory reproduction of an early 60s noir whodunit, but the shining light of Fanny Ardant consumes the darkness and casts a spell.

"Delight has no Competitor, so it is always most." Emily Dickinson's epigram satisfyingly describes the sublime last film of François Truffaut "Vivement Dimanche!" 1983 ("Finally, Sunday" aka "Confidentially Yours"). It's a Hitchcockian thriller shot in black & white, with ("A Man and A Woman," "Trois Colours: Rouge") Jean Louis Trintignant as the man suspected of murder(s), and Fanny Ardant as his dedicated secretary going all out to investigate on her own.

It's becoming my best favorite Truffaut film besides "Fahrenheit 451" 1966, and "Stolen Kisses" 1968. Delightful comic rhythm they have, Ardant and Trintignant together, impeccably delivered this fun thriller like a dance between Astaire and Rogers.

Truffaut's thoughtful details abound. There's the dedication to Stanley Kubrick: at Cinema Eden, we see poster of his 1957's "Paths of Glory," which was once banned in France. There's mention of Vietnamese Restaurant. Ah, the "Rear Window" feeling when the pair poked around, entering a stranger's apartment. There's the use of Le Provençal car. And the 'killer' from Barbara's angle, we see the feet but not the face - who could it be? The variety of women characters: married woman, divorced woman, madam, sinister dealer, secretarial applicant, and Barbara.

Barbara is a brunette who looks dumb and smart all at once, insecure about herself yet so confident in her deductions, bold not shy, she's obstinately determined to get the 'killer' so to prove her boss, Trintignant's Julien (whom she secretly loves) innocent. Ardant is Barbara personified. It's so cool watching her moves and energetic responses with Trintignant matching her steps.

A truly colorful black and white light-hearted mystery. The fun is in the dialog and the repartee between the characters, including the detectives and the many phone calls. The delight is in the plot movement, suspenseful intrigue upon intrigue, continuing humor and surprise after surprise as we follow Ardant and Trintignant, even a kiss has a 'movie' reason.

Absolutely satisfying cinematic affair it is, entertaining complete with a melodic end music from Georges Delerue to go with the playful imagery behind the credits roll. I succumb, this is my best loved Truffaut film, "Vivement Dimanche!"

P.S. At times it brings to mind Woody Allen's 1993 "Manhattan Murder Mystery," while certain angles of Fanny Ardant reminds one of Geena Davis' profile.

It's an exercise of style, and not in the best way. I quite liked how it starts, the magic of black and white, the feeling of an old noir film. But the plot is a giant hole, neither thrilling nor funny while it tries to be both, and the chemistry between the lead characters is just not there. Soon all the magic fades and you realize that you don't really care for the fate of those on screen, who did it, who loves whom, whatever. In a few scenes I appreciated the touch of the old master, Truffaut, but in the whole the movie felt artificial and uninteresting.

It is very difficult for us, those who admired and loved François Truffaut to judge the 1983 'Vivement Dimanche!' (the English title is 'Confidentially Yours' without taking into account the ruthless label that fate has attached to it: his last film! It's not Truffaut's best film or even his most original film. One of his first and best films, 'Shoot the Piano Player', had explored the film noir genre more than two decades before and used the same style of black and white cinematography with a predilection for night scenes. Truffaut's friendship and admiration for Alfred Hitchcock and his fascination with his art are well known. 'Vivement Dimanche!' it is also considered a tribute to him, but it is more than that. The director seems not only to quote from his master, but to borrow, analyse, dismantle and reconstruct some of his methods. I don't know if when he was filming 'Vivement Dimanche!' Truffaut knew about his illness or realised its severity, but it does not look at all like a testament film, on the contrary, it is a film that experiments with means of cinematic expression, taking over and respectfully continuing a tradition with which the director was very familiar. Perhaps because of this film, Truffaut's career gives the feeling that 'the film was interrupted in the middle of the screening' and that there was still so much to say.

'Vivement Dimanche!' it is one of those films from which viewers have a chance to remember isolated fragments and frames rather than the ensemble at some time after watching. No wonder, because thestory is extremely conventional, and has a lot of unlikely aspects. This is apparently a police intrigue, a mystery surrounding who is the perpetrator of a series of crimes, what Americans call a 'whodunit', but the director's attention is focused more on the relationship between the main suspect, a real estate agent played by Jean-Louis Trintignant and his secretary played by Fanny Ardant who undertakes the investigation that could prove his innocence while he is hiding. It is clear, however, that the director was more interested in the stylistic aspects and especially the reuse of some noir films from the 40s and 50s - the black and white cinematography, the phones, the raincoats, the close-ups with background contrasts. However, these are combined with some of Truffaut's recurring passions and themes - the cinema theatre that plays a significant role in the film (including the poster and the mentioning in a dialogue of a Stanley Kubrick film, which in perspective acquires the significance of passing of the torch), the theatre and especially the fascination for women that he shared with Hitchcock. The penultimate scene is exceptional and the master would have included it in his films, including the text, which is a kind of farewell, even if it is uttered by a murderer. "Everything I did was out of love for women." Adieu, François Truffaut.