Um Momento, Uma Vida

Al Pacino is BOBBY DEERFIELD in this touching and moving film about a race car driver in a indifferent marriage who falls in love with Lillian (Marthe Keller). Deerfield buries his feelings and forgets his past until a reckless and passionate woman (Keller) who also lives in death's shadow shows him life's possibilities to the fullest. Beautiful scenes shot in France and Italy make this film even more romantic as well. As Pacino said during the filming of Bobby Deerfield, "I might have been closer to that character, what he was going through, than any character I've played". Why this film is not out on dvd is beyond me, it is fantastic. Funny and touchingly romantic. This was during Pacino's best years.

This movie is hard to locate and seems to be a true lost gem. Both Al Pacino and Marthe Keller are true hedonists who fall in love. But there's more. Keller is dying of cancer and Pacino is a racing driver who lives for the adrenalin buzz of speed and excitement. Both get to realise the reason behind their own "Live for today" motivations. Keller is the society girl who falls in love with Pacino and their manic lifestyles compensate one another. A very poignant and truly touching movie which will bring a lump to your throat.

In prime 1970s fashion, the beginning of this movie, as well as many scene transitions, are shown with long shots, awkward zooms, lengthy silences, and random cuts. During the first ten minutes, I wondered what I was getting myself in for, besides two solid hours of Al Pacino eye candy. The good news is my hobby of staring at beautiful people on the screen won out, and I was rewarded by a really beautiful film . . . and two solid hours of Al Pacino eye candy.

Ladies, this is what a chick click looked like in the 1970s. A closed-off, cold racecar driver can't resist the kooky, outspoken woman he meets by chance, and his soul learns about love and life. If your boyfriend sits through this movie with you, keep him. There's nothing manly about this movie, even including the very brief racing scene and the presence of Al Pacino.

Somehow, director Sydney Pollack knew exactly what women in 1977 wanted to see and filmed it. Even despite the 1970s camera angles and the European pacing, this movie resonates with women. Every woman wants to meet a man who's lost his passion for life; every woman wants to be able to be completely herself, win the guy, and have him fall so desperately in love with her he'll feel his world will end without her. Every woman wants a man to look at her the way Al Pacino looks at Marthe Keller. Ladies, rent this movie, fall in love with Al Pacino, and then go rent Frankie and Johnny.

On a more serious note, this movie is a drama. I'd hate to recommend it and have some unsuspecting female watch it thinking it's on par with Pillow Talk. It's more on par with Love Story, but it's an infinitely better film. Marthe isn't annoying or riddled with an entitled attitude, and Al has so many layers of love, pain, gratitude, and sorrow in his expressions, it's just rude to compare him to Ryan O'Neal.

"Bobby Deerfield" enjoys,so to speak ,a very low rating on the site ,which is probably unfair.Pacino's usual characters and Bobby Deerfield are worlds apart.And coming after the brilliant " dog day afternoon" it could only be a let down.

I saw the movie when it was released and even at the time it seemed rather obsolete and old-fashioned.Adapted from an Erich Maria Remarque novel,it mixed a Douglas Sirkesque melodrama with French nouvelle vague with a bit of the long Cassavetes-like conversations thrown it. It's European to the core.Besides,the two actresses are Swiss (Keller) and French (Duperey).The former is the only interesting character of the movie but it's an endearing one:a short chat with a nurse tells us about her health ,but it will be an hour and a half before Pacino learns it.Keller's joie de vivre is infectious and sometimes the things soar.But it never really lasts and some scenes are boring.The metaphors are a bit ponderous ,as Keller is off on a balloon trip.The races -Deerfield is a race driver- are dully filmed and won't convince "Grand Prix"'s fans.

The best scenes are to be found in the hospital where Deerfield pays a visit to an injured friend,and then the small trip through the splendid landscapes of Switzerland .

Although BD cannot match Pollack's best works (they shoot horses don't they?;Jeremiah Johnson;This property is condemned)it's a whole lot better than later mediocre thrillers like "the firm".

The film at the beginning shows a man who is basically incapable of letting go of the control of his destiny, of all circumstances, radically removing himself from his true self, his soul, his freedom, his soul was dead, then he goes through a little transformation throughout the film, and what died in the man at the end was his false self, his self constructed personality and image, so that his real self could come to life. Now he was facing the way out of his tunnel, to be open to and not resist all possibilites. The film's slow pace and meandering style showing all kinds of things that may not seem important to anything in the film beautifully reflects in a poetic way the openness to all possibilities the viewer himself is meant to face as well, just like Bobby at the end of the film, when he's coming out of the tunnel of his own self imprisonment.

Come out of that tunnel and you'll feel this film speaking messages in hidden or subtle ways. That's what life is about. To be open to all possibilities means no expectations and control of all things to come. The trust in the universe comes with the death of our manufactured self, the woman dying in the film was like a message to Bobby Deerfield, like a mirror of his own death he had to face to become born again. Life and death is part of the whole, to fear death is to fear life.

Some could take this film as a message to motor racing these days as well, or any sport or part of life, how too much protection can take away from life, it kills the human spirit. People seek danger so they could feel at that orgasmic crossing point between life and death so they could feel alive.

This film was reflective of my own healing, I was going through disabilities and challenges of my own physical body. Years passed and one day at that time I decided to stop feeling sick, to get myself out of the prison of my mind, and miraculously what happened is that my body started getting back in shape, and at the end I was becoming more connected, more open, exuberant. I stopped seeking explanations, or the truth, I was open to mystery that is life.

I am open to my crazy self now, I let it all come as it may, I live like never before. That is what I took from the experience this film was for me at one time. I can't say this film did it for me, this film was a sign, a divine reminder, a portrayal of the theme and feeling I adopted in my own transformation.