Lou123

A very good second film for this young director, and in a genre which is not always a "day at the beach" for french directors... I'm not talking about directors like Melville or others of that generation, but for some of Canet's generation which prefer too easily to use sophisticated special effects and endless fights to fill up their scenes. Canet always stays close, very close to his characters and their feelings, and his storyline/plot and gives the audience an excellent humanistic suspense…

The film exists by itself, and doesn't need to be compared to the novel (that I read and liked), because it's transposed in another culture, with different rhythms, variations in the original characters

**** SPOILERS*****

(thanks Mr. Canet for making the psychopath "fingers" killer … a woman ! . Good idea !. And François Berleand, as a police inspector who has a little obsessive-compulsive disorder, and giving yourself the most disgusting part). Excellent choices that add subtle details to the french version.

Two hours of good cinema, good directing of actors, and needless to say that François Cluzet is a great great actor (Gee, brought me to tears at the end, very moving last scene BTW).

An excellent adaptation, well directed, not pretentious ! Canet gets his degree. Congratulations !

Unfortunately only saw part 3 and 4 of that documentary on TV but It was very interesting, giving a great view of European and American cinema of those times. I particularly liked the way it was constructed. The evolution of cinema through historical human events, followed through the eyes of two witnesses, a woman expatriated in Hollywood and a man living in Paris.

It brought up different themes, among others... how American cinema has invaded (for the better and the worse) our screens, the censorship that started in Germany in the 30s, how politics and cinema can get along well sometimes, how actors were building their careers, the great creators like Renoir, Duvivier and Carne... among others...

Many US/French "classics" that after seeing the documentary you want to discover or re-see... May I recommend this documentary ?... Yes, my pleasure !

Love and life... hidden, and alive, in a box you've kept since childhood... in which you have enclosed everything you cared for... There's some some evocation of "Toto Le Hero" and "Amelie Poulain" in that film... but the film goes behind the curtain of Toto and Amelie...

Total love, total game, total selfishness... It's a metaphor, a dream, a way back to suffering and happiness... They play, they suffer, and they're happy, together...

I spent a good moment with them...

Marion Cotillard is an actress I've really discovered in that film... very moving, very true... and that accent typically parisian that I've not heard recently in many films. She's certainly one of the greatest french actress of the late ten years.