Faits l'un pour l'autre

Really nice to read all of the comments and know that the film was appreciated. I first saw the film in NYC as a sneak preview before 2001 Space Odyssey. My companion and I agreed that there was no reason to stay after Made For Each Other. I searched for that film in every TV schedule for more than ten years...it must have been practically every day, because when I did find it(and made my copy!)i never saw it again. Always the other movie of the same name with James Stewart. I found these comments because I was trying to find a copy of the DVD online, so if anyone hears of of how to find it...share!! the copy of my copy is getting old! the french would love this movie even now.

Great comedy is rarer than the unicorn. Why keep this funniest of funny films from us? How about the initial scene with the encounter group and the hyper-anxiety frazzled to the bone woman complaining about the toilet that has leaked for years on end and has driven her far beyond mad. To which another male group participant meekly offers, "Did you try jiggling the handle?"

Can two therapy session flunk-outs (Taylor&Bologna) at last find happiness, maybe with each other?

Hilarious original. I laughed from beginning to end. It may be New York centered, but the humor has broad everyday appeal. Take that family dinner at Giggy's (Bologna) parents, a feast from heck. Catch the guys at the table. Think they're going to miss a bite with all the hysterical women yelling and crying around them. Heck no. They just keep chomping away like all the bickering and hubbub is an everyday event, which it probably is.

What a beautifully observed narrative. Note how often the camera focuses on reactions to the speaker instead of the speaker herself. Some of those expressions are priceless, especially during that wacky therapy session that ends up in a group dog-pile. Or catch Panda's (Taylor) cheesy nightclub act, where the humiliated Giggie wishes he could disappear but doesn't know where the magic might come from. The movie's really a series of these hilarious set-ups, as the two balky lovebirds try to figure out who they are.

But no wonder they have an identity problem. In hilarious flashback, we learn how the two hapless kids are bombarded by humorously unfulfilled parents. As a result, Panda chases fame with the world's worst show-biz act, while a confused Giggie goes from the priesthood to Black Power to the Marines and into therapy.

The movie's also poignant at times and in a non-sappy way. Since each of the lovebirds figures the other is just temporary, they're constantly demeaning the other in thoughtless ways. Of course, it's usually done in humorous fashion, as when Panda dumps the naked Giggie onto her bedroom floor and into the clutches of her addled mother, while she rushes off to her existential nightclub act. Actually, they keep bumping off one another like a couple of careening billiard balls.

I expect Taylor and Bologna worked their own relationship into the material. But whatever the source, the movie's expertly done, with a comedic flavor unlike any I've seen. In fact, the 100-minutes holds up surprisingly well, even after four decades, probably because it's so richly human as some might say, with just the right touch throughout. Anyway, in my little book, the movie's a genuine sleeper from start to finish.

Saw this film for the first time tonight, on Turner Movie Classics.

Having missed the first few minutes, and altogether ignorant of the film, I didn't know that it was 30 years old. But the principal's bright orange, full-length coat of an unidentified material, brought on a rush of uncertainty. She is no beauty, this woman - yet she reminds me of (somebody) Derisher, of "Nanny", only rubber-faced and unpretty.

There's a great deal in common and feel with Neil Simmon's plays - the pain and torment of love among the unloveable, e.g., the girl friend kicks her boy friend in the groin and asks, "How much do you love me now?").

The parental years of the principals are identical to "Torchlight Trilogy" - grotesque and self-parody. The principal's vulnerability is totally believable and rather marvelous.

Thirty years on, there's a lot of elemental clinical psychology

to "Made for Each Other". And one wants to keep that in mind.

The Neil Simmon-like crying scene at the end was highly effective and moving until a moment before the clench, when one realized that one was a voyeur to a dreadful, cathartic and eventually successful, if not somewhat mangled, love match.

I agree that this is "Like real life" but it's also Felinni-esque and somewhat grotesque. Probably the most moving scene for me was the New Year's Eve dinner scene when the mother gets hysterical, and her son leaves the room to tell her to friggin' SHUT UP! Killing. --And yet highly poignant with the poor Jewish guest sitting there getting slayed.

I didn't dislike the movie, and did laugh out loud at times. It was utterly professional at all times, never manipulative - but there is a sense of passe to it that goes beyond the orange lip stick and tomato-red bola. En fin, glad that I saw it.

I've loved this movie ever since I saw it when it came out. I have a tape, which is deteriorating, copied off Encore. In general, the film translates well to tape--the biggest loss are car scenes where two-shots become alternating one-shots, and the squabble outside the diner, a three shot in the theater (inscrutable dude leaning against store shutters), now mostly a two-shot, which really removes a lot of the dry wit. I'm writing this because I see that the DVD has been released on September 28 for $4.95, but I haven't found any information on who released it, where I can get it, or anything else. Does someone out there know the answer? I'd like to buy a replacement for my old tape and copies for my friends. Letterbox would be great! But I won't hold my breath.