A Outra Face da Felicidade

PierreGaspard -Huit is a minor director whose best work remains an entertaining "capitaine Fracasse",thanks to Jean Marais 's acrobatic prowess.The rest are mediocrities such as the remake of Max Ophuls's "liebelei" ("Christine" though once again the cast is appealing:Delon,Brialy,Micheline Presles and Romy Schneider for her French debut ), "la mariée était trop belle" , the appalling "les lavandières du Portugal" ,and a would be spectacular "Sheherazade which cast Godard 's Karina as the famous princess.

"A belles dents " though it did get a parent guide 16 (!) would not shock a nun today.That is to say it's old-fashioned and harmless;actually,it was already obsolete in 1966,almost a decade after Vadim's less-than-exciting "and God created woman" .Mireille Darc is an updated Brigitte Bardot,but her character is more a go-getter than the heroine of Vadim's film.Peter Van Eyck is an equivalent of Curd Jurgens's character in "et Dieu.." (both were German,by the way!).and the male romantic young lead,so to speak is none other than Brigitte Bardot's former husband Jacques Charrier.

This is a boring work.

'A belles dents' (= French for something like 'voracious') offers us a pretty flat story, that doesn't need any further exploration.

Much stronger is this film's picturing: set in a very, very mid-Sixties style, it shows at times some quite original scenes. Complete with a touch of fashion, as was fashionable in those days. Surely warming the heart of everyone around at the time.

Female lead Mireille Darc always easily adapts to fashion, by the way. Thus adding an extra 10% to her performance. In fact, many of her films state in their credits that 'miss Darc was clothed by ......', followed by the name of a famous lady's fashion designer.