La promesse de l'aube

A skilfully made bio-pic with really inpregnating and 'wise' words on the male psychy Production is round and very professional.

The film is almost entirely told as a flash-back, in which the life of the tormented writer is told in his own words. It is the equally gruesome, as beautifully told "confession" of a crushing motherly love and the destruction of the child's psyche under that pressure. All storylines are more than interesting, the two actors shine, but there is a postponed climax on script level. When it's there - horrific in it's consequences - we are one hour and a half in the movie. And that is too long to keep the attention fully focused.

The horrific consequences of the destructive mother lie at a deeper level of development of the writer and, in my opinion, should have been expressed less poetically and more realistically. But that is a style choice. It's a French movie after all, right?

Nonetheless, with great pleasure and deliberation, I have looked at the ode to a ruined life, where the talent of being a writer turns out to be both a victory and a curse.

A great story, well told and represented. A good movie starts in a great script. French cinema continues to bring us the finest art.

The demands in the name of love seem too harsh, even absurd. Maternal love is great, and so it is. But I don't think the maternal love in this film deserves to be publicized. The greatness here is entirely due to Roman's success. If Roman did not succeed, is there a circle in his maternal love. Roman's success depends on faith and luck. Mother's love is great, and it's hard to have a second Roman.

Watched it on a recent flight to Paris and glad that I did since I probably wouldn't have paid to see it (not the biggest Gainsbourg fan) and would've missed out on a modern classic. The two main characters in the film, the mother (Gainsbourg) and the son (Niney) carry the film due to the inspired performances of the actors playing those roles. Gainsbourg, in particular, gave a finely-tuned, nuanced performance that perfectly captured the extraordinarily devoted yet overbearing character of Nina; I'm now a big fan! Also inspired were the cinematography and the breathtaking dogfight scenes, which were probably the best I've seen in any war film. The first half of the film does meander a bit and the pace of it gets a bit patchy (hence the 9 stars instead of 10) but the second half more than makes up for it. I didn't know the film was based on a true story (i.e. Romain Gary's biography) until I read the closing credits, which made it that much more impactful and emphatic since real people actually lived the epic events portrayed in the film. The closing credits also had another shock but I won't reveal it here so that I won't spoil the film! All in all, this was probably the best film I've seen in a long while; it felt genuine, engrossing and it left me with tears in my eyes, though the airplane food may have contributed to that.

Absolutely DIVINAL! Majestic interpretations and how history grabs you to the screen is remarkable