Place Vendôme

The story of a woman that for meny years remained distracted from her own life, from the passions that made her feel alive. The importance of true love is compared with the material value of diamonds. Only one of these two truly lasts in time. She's got to choose witch one values most for her, the thing that will make her find happiness and psychical steadiness again. Award for Deneuve in Biennale di Venezia 1998 (55 festival d'arte cinematografica di Venezia)

The plot of this film may centre around scams in the the diamond trade but don't expect slick plotlines and witty, glamorous characters. The film offers instead a look behind the glamour at individuals worn down by their lives, by wrong decisions and damaging relationships. These relationships have developed between characters involved at some time in questionable aspects of the trade and appear to suffer as if mirroring the dishonesty and deceitfulness of the scams. It is a story told at a slow pace allowing the details to unfold and to enable us to get to know the characters and understand their motivation. The acting is superb, particularly Catherine Deneuve, and the film ends on a note which suggests some kind of atonement and reconciliation.

This movie is neither complicated nor complex, but its reading is rather incomprehensible. I have the feeling that Nicole Garcia tries to artificially fill an emptyness with a kaleidoscopic narrative, fuzzily alternating with the different characters on the one hand, the present and the past on the other hand, but without giving any explaination about who, what, when, why, ... like within a slow, very slow hubbub. Although the high level actings and the permanent elegance, this movie is globally frustrating and boring.

This film would get absolutely no attention otherwise. Story/plot are a convoluted mess; direction and editing are mediocre or worse. Production values are high, but that's pretty typical these days. Lurches from one jarring and opaque scene to another. Especially bizarre is a scene where Deneuve is quite abruptly shown on a train, drunkenly involved in a tough game of cards. Also a very annoying thread runs throughout the film, where various women are showing yelling at men who are bothering them "no leave me alone", then there's a jump to the next scene where they are in bed together.

elegance is the basic virtue of this beautiful film. the elegance of story and performances, the elegance of details and the tension. and, sure, obvious, the elegance of Catherine Deneuve. a film about the confrontation against the past, the revelation about old experiences, the struggle for survive and the rules of a small world in which the gems are more important than the people. short, a seductive film. for the theme and for the inspired way to translate it in the image. for the beautiful science of trip in essence of the gestures and states of characters. for the air of an universe who seems be artificial. and for the great job of Deneuve.