le corbeau ( the raven ) is a 1943 french film directed by henri-georges clouzot and starring pierre fresnay , micheline francey and pierre larquey .

the film is about a french town where a number of citizens receive anonymous letters containing libelous information , particularly targeting an abortion doctor .

the mystery surrounding the letters eventually escalates into violence .

the film caused serious problems for its director after world war ii as it had been produced by continental films , a german production company established near the beginning of the occupation of france , and because the film had been perceived by the underground and the communist press as vilifying the french people .

because of this , clouzot was initially blocked for life from directing in france and the film too was suppressed , although both bans only lasted until 1947 .

the film was remade as the 13th letter ( 1951 ) by otto preminger .

le corbeau

le corbeau <EOT> alan williams , “le corbeau” , le corbeau , dvd booklet , the criterion collection , new york , 2004 , p . 2 . judith mayne also regards le corbeau as the first french film noir . see le corbeau , university of illinois press , urbana and chicago , 2007 , pp . 29 , 30 .

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trailer for the 1943 french film le corbeau ( the raven ) . directed by henri - georges clouzot .

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table of contents for le corbeau : the raven , henri - georges clouzot , 1943 / judith mayne .

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le corbeau is directed by henri - georges clouzot and co - written by clouzot and henri chavance . it stars pierre fresnay , ginette leclerc , pierre larquey and micheline francey .

the restaurant at le corbeau serves regional cuisine and it also features a bar . guests may dine on the terrace during the summer . a continental breakfast is served every morning .

please inform le corbeau in advance of your expected arrival time . you can use the special requests box when booking , or contact the property directly with the contact details provided in your confirmation .

please inform le corbeau of your expected arrival time in advance . you can use the special requests box when booking , or contact the property directly using the contact details provided in your confirmation .

le docteur rémy germain : [ examining denise in his office ] now breathe . [ puts his head against her chest and listens for a few seconds ] le docteur rémy germain : breathe normally . see more »

le corbeau is rather short , but the brief length supports the storyline more than hindering it . we aren ' t subjected to countless vapid subplots or random encounters without meaning . rather , every conversation and suspenseful moment expertly leads…

second viewing : may 6 , 2018 second review : almost 12 years later , le corbeau is still a remarkable film . clouzot made so many great movies , that this is actually one of the more minor films , in my opinion .

a mysterious writer of poison - pen letters , known only as le corbeau ( the raven ) , plagues a french provincial town , unwittingly exposing the collective suspicion and rancor seething beneath the community’s calm surface . made during the nazi occupation of france , henri - georges clouzot’s le corbeau was attacked by the right - wing vichy regime , the left - wing resistance press , the catholic church , and was banned after the liberation . but some—including jean cocteau and jean - paul sartre—recognized the powerful subtext to clouzot’s anti - informant , anti - gestapo fable , and worked to rehabilitate clouzot’s directorial reputation after the war . le corbeau brilliantly captures a spirit of paranoid pettiness and self - loathing turning an occupied french town into a twentieth - century salem .

a mysterious writer of poison pen letters , known only as le corbeau ( the raven ) , plagues a french provincial town , unwittingly exposing the collective suspicion and rancor seething beneath the community’s calm surface . made during the nazi occupation of france , henri - georges clouzot’s le corbeau was attacked by the right - wing vichy regime , the left - wing resistance press , the catholic church , and was banned after the liberation . but some—including jean cocteau and jean - paul sartre—recognized the powerful subtext to clouzot’s anti - informant , anti - gestapo fable , and worked to rehabilitate clouzot’s directorial reputation after the war . le corbeau brilliantly captures a spirit of paranoid pettiness and self - loathing turning an occupied french town into a twentieth - century salem . today it stands as one of french cinemas masterpieces , a dark and subversive study of human nature . essential viewing .

but of course , it makes all the difference in the world who is saying what to whom behind what cloak in occupied france . are you an informant or working for the resistance ? more than just sinister gossip , the poison coming from the pen in le corbeau is thematically intended for some and not others operating underground . in short , it’s political . clearly , i was unaware . and i have to think now that the reviewer who called the white ribbon a “distant cousin” to le corbeau was not so unaware , although i still maintain that these cousins are too distant to kiss .

john f . sweets , choices in vichy france : the french under nazi occupation , oxford university press , 1986 , p . 43 . for some interesting insights concerning the film’s depiction of gender crisis and use of film noir imagery see mayne , le corbeau , pp . 55 , 65 - 66 , 77 - 78 .

hotel corbeau is just a 6 - minute drive to crochères forest , which is the largest forest in the burgundy region . free public parking is available on site .

see gregory sims , “henri - georges clouzot’s le corbeau : the work of art as will to power” , modern language notes vol . 114 , no . 4 , 1999 , pp . 743 - 779 , who views the film as a fascist text . for various opposing views see ehrlich , pp . 177 - 184 ; alan williams ( above citations ) ; eric gans , “clouzot’s cruel crow” , p . o . v . no . 20 , 2005 , pp . 51 - 58 ; and judith mayne , “henri - georges clouzot’s le corbeau and the crimes of women” , the journal of twentieth century french studies vol . 4 , no . 2 , 2000 , pp . 319 - 341 .

just this week i watched and reviewed michael haneke’s the white ribbon ( 2009 ) and in my review i referred to shirley jackson’s short story , the lottery ( 1948 ) . now i am commenting on henri - georges clouzot’s film , le corbeau ( 1943 ) —which another reviewer has called a “distant cousin” to the white ribbon —and which makes me think of shirley jackson yet again ; this time , her short story , the possibility of evil ( 1965 ) . i categorized the white ribbon as a “poison - in - the - well” piece . others may or may not find this categorization convincing , but there can be no debate that le corbeau is a poison - in - the - pen piece .

le corbeau is the story of a town sent into a state of turmoil and soon trapped in a web of deceit and lies by character assassination . corbeau means one who writes poison pen letters or crow . technically raven is grand corbeau ( big crow ) , but the film always translates le corbeau as the raven so we ' ll run with it . one reason the writing by chavance ' s and clouzot ( clouzot came up as a screenwriter and reworked all the scripts that weren ' t his own ) works so well is that it only starts out attacking the different person , the new physician in town dr . remy germain ( pierre fresnay ) . remy is also an easy target for the raven ' s letters because he is wealthier than perhaps anyone in town , and he ' s somewhat effete , detached , supercilious , and possibly surreptitious . the raven ' s letters expose germain as a lecher and abortionist who has blamed marie corbin ( helena manson ) for stealing morphine that he himself took , and makes a practice of screwing his patients .

le corbeau has been both attacked as anti - french propaganda and praised as the authentic voice of french cinema , but what is certainly true is that it captured the foul dog - eat - dog french wartime mood of denunciation that swept the country . unsurprisingly , it is hardly one of clouzot ' s most popular films , particularly in france , where patriots have condemned it bitterly .

the dictation , supervised by vorzet , although inconclusive , has thrown some suspicion on denise . shortly after , germain catches her writing him a corbeau letter to announce that she bears his child , and immediately accuses her of having written the others . but in the film ' s most moving scene ( and its only use of close - ups ) , denise tells germain to look into her tearful eyes to witness the truth that she is not le corbeau . germain cannot refuse the truth ; he and denise decide to keep their child - and we assume they will marry and leave st . - robin together .

certainly the sourest film about the french during the second world war was made during it - and by a frenchman , henri - georges clouzot , who was employed by a nazi production company . le corbeau ( 1943 ) depictes a small town torn apart by poison - pen letters . in this town , a purported microcosm for france under occupation , everybody has a shameful secret - and a motive for denouncing their neighbours .

if you ' re looking for a reason to believe the worst about our species , clouzot is the director to watch . his bleak worldview and paranoid claustrophobic atmosphere were influential on the american film noirs that would become low budget staples a few years after le corbeau was released . hitchcock ' s films were lighter and more playful than clouzot ' s to the point where hitch can be seen as a cheerful cherub in comparison .

“we have stayed at le corbeau before and chose to return for our overnight stop on the way to the alps . the proprietress is a lovely charming lady who was so helpful to me as i had inadvertently booked the wrong date ! apart from that , the hotel is an old building which is being tastefully refurbished and the food is just wonderful . everything is spotlessly clean and i have no hesitation in recommending this hotel . ”

눇 we have stayed at le corbeau before and chose to return for our overnight stop on the way to the alps . the proprietress is a lovely charming lady who was so helpful to me as i had inadvertently booked the wrong date ! apart from that , the hotel is an old building which is being tastefully refurbished and the food is just wonderful . everything is spotlessly clean and i have no hesitation in recommending this hotel .

even today , those who praise le corbeau as clouzot ' s masterpiece speak of its darkness and cynicism , its jaundiced denial of moral certainty . yet my impression is quite different . i see it as a film about trust and love , on the one hand , and the harsh but real necessity of moral judgment on the other . no film more forcefully denounces mob persecution and scapegoating , not to speak of the notorious occupation practice of informing on one ' s neighbors through anonymous letters . although anything but a political propaganda piece , le corbeau is an affirmation of humanistic values antithetical to those of the german occupiers and their vichy collaborators . and in its affirmation of these values , it accepts the necessity , obvious in wartime but rarely faced so honestly , of violent extralegal means , means whose obvious interpretation in 1943 - yet no one to my knowledge has ever suggested it - is as an apology for violent acts of resistance .

but le corbeau ain’t just any old film . this taut , tightly wound 91 - minute feature is a despairing and morally complex look at the things that damaged people living in a dangerous time will do . that it is a thinly - veiled examination of the many difficulties of living in vichy france is the common wisdom today , though that allegorical aspect of the film seems to have initially slipped past the folks at continental - film who okayed the movie and the censors who allowed its release . so there’s some interesting meta - criticism going on w / r / t the film in that folks wonder about the morality of taking money from the nazis while making a final product that is essentially anti - nazi . ’tis a real head scratcher , that one . but in the end , for any film of this sort to succeed , it must work at both literal and allegorical levels , and le corbeau most certainly does that .

i think that my review proves yours . the conditions under which it was made and the circumstance in which it was originally screened—this is indeed the key to fully appreciating le corbeau . while i continue to feel that the film is not endogenously profound , the exogenous factors you observe have taken my sorry ass to school with respect to the clandestine communications it portrays . i absorbed from the film a general philosophic—and therefore , not especially deep—investigation about people in general passing information and disinformation .

both the left ( resistance ) and the right ( vichy ) agreed in finding le corbeau demoralizing and " anti - french " : unfounded rumors were spread that the film was shown throughout germany as a demonstration of the decadence of french society . on the contrary , the germans understandably disliked the film for its theme of anonymous letters ; ironically , it was only because it was produced by a german company that it ever got past the censors . as a result , despite its immediate box - office success , le corbeau was pulled from the movie theaters only three weeks after its release ; it has led a checkered career ever since . despite its masterful direction and acting , its powerful characterizations , and the extraordinary density of its social commentary , le corbeau has never achieved the revered status of such films as renoir ' s la grande illusion or carné ' s les enfants du paradis . nor has clouzot ever received his due as the creator of some of the most distinctive and powerful films ever made . the filmmakers and theoreticians of the nouvelle vague treated renoir and cocteau with reverence and carné with respect , and reserved a special admiration for alfred hitchcock , the subject of a book - length study by eric rohmer , longtime editor - in - chief of cahiers du cinéma ; clouzot , although sometimes ( in my opinion , mistakenly ) called the " french hitchcock " for his suspense films , was considered at best a skillful hack . the eclipse of his reputation is due in large measure to the enormous influence of the nouvelle vague / cahiers du cinema on the french intelligentsia .

denise ( ginette leclerc ) , the supposedly obvious “femme fatale” of le corbeau , condemns the film’s supposed hero , dr germain , in the following terms : “you may be right doctor . but i feel sorry for you . you are what is saddest and strangest… a bourgeois . ” later influenced by another poison pen letter , germain fears that he may be the father of a “degenerate child” . but a close - up of denise not only undermines his contamination by nazi - vichy racial values but also his misreading of a supposed “slut” .

henri georges - clouzot ' s le corbeau is a masterwork of suspense . it toys and twists the audience ' s perception until we are unsure of which way is right . what clouzot does best , however , is taking the viewer ' s expectations and throwing them straight out the window . the traditional tropes and narratives are tossed aside in exchange for a fresher , more intuitive process . the film presents certain evidences as fact , and then proceeds to fly in your face , taking us on an unexpected roller coaster of deception and intrigue .

an important secondary element in le corbeau is the pervasive undercurrent of sexual tension , visible in laura ' s frustration with her aging husband , marie corbin ' s spinsterish bitterness , denise ' s promiscuity , and most interestingly of all , in the sexual awakening of pubescent fourteen - year - old rolande , denise ' s niece , whom one of the letters accuses germain of seeking to make his mistress . in the pivotal scene with the swinging lamp , vorzet even claims that germain would sleep with rolande if she seduced him . but if this suggestion of sexual disorder reflects the paranoid world of the corbeau , in rolande ' s last appearance on screen we see her smiling as she uses her nascent feminine wisdom to reassure denise that germain will not leave town without her . in the same way as human truth and justice put an end to the social crisis fomented by the letters , the lovers ' mature relationship takes over the sexual terrain from rolande ' s adolescent longings , as well as from denise ' s aimless licentiousness and from laura ' s illicit desire for germain that created the corbeau in the first place .

this absence of technique is also the reason his films like le corbeau and les diaboliques succeed so well as mysteries . the problem with so many mysteries is they work under the misconception that the entire purpose of the film is solving the puzzle . this seems to result in the plot becoming nothing more than a series of clues and red herrings , the score becoming a fire alarm to alert us that one of the aforementioned is about to happen , and in the worst entries some pretentious technique being employed that gives away the answer once we pick up on the trick . these all lead to the intelligent viewer being able to solve the mystery , and the end simply reassuring them of their brilliance . while the focus of two doctors in le corbeau becomes getting to the bottom of the mystery , the focus of the viewer is more toward why the town as a whole has eaten this all up and become so out of control . that clouzot is not overly concerned with the outcome greatly enhances the impact of his highly detailed character study , illustrating that anyone could be behind the poison pen letters because the entire population is rotten .

not to take this too seriously though . le corbeau may be far from trite , but it is just as far from profound . the cynicism coming off of the thing is mostly for show . it’s an exercise in style that draws heavily on american noir . there is some wonderful cinematography that achieves this feeling within a provincial french town , which is cool in its own right . one that especially stood out for me is the nurse / nun wearing a flowing black habit and veil , running away from vigilantes in broad daylight against white - washed walls of old stone . “the raven” indeed .

the film’s visual style and characterisation are crucial towards understanding that ambiguity may not be a convenient cloak behind which director and screenwriter chose to hide but essential to depicting the complex nature of existence within an occupied country and how this may affect its inhabitants . ehrlich notes that despite the fact that le corbeau was the most controversial film of this time its style resembled the dominant contemporary trend : “the film’s atmosphere , its sense of self - enclosure and isolation from the world are typical of the ‘isolationist’ tendency of the french school . ” ( 9 ) yet , this enclosure may be part of the film’s critical interrogation .

meanwhile , the film satisfies another noir requirement : a dark sense of humor delivered by way of hard - boiled dialogue . for all the suspense and unwholesome interactions , i found myself laughing along the way , and i do believe le corbeau should be appreciated as a form of satire . to call it a “distant cousin” to haneke’s the white ribbon , well , the distance is very , very great , my own middle - man references to shirley jackson notwithstanding . i’ll not pursue this further except to say that haneke appears to have adopted kubrick’s title as the intellectual ice man of cinema…minus the sense of humor .

a particularly unsparing look at humanity and our ability to turn on each other , le corbeau has been dirtied by history from the day it exited the womb . made by the german funded continental films , henri - georges clouzot was banned from making films until 1947 ( lifted from its initial lifelong stamp ) . it was seen as anti - french at the time it was made , it is now seen in a more anti - nazi light and more broadly an anti - people light . the misanthropy is locked and loaded even though room is made for people to find each other and for the guilty to go punished .

context is key to fully appreciate the greatness of henri - georges clouzot’s le corbeau . shot in the first year of the nazi occupation under the watchful eye of german - controlled vichy france , and by logical extension , the film industry , through continental - films ( who understood the value of movies as propaganda better than they ? ) , clouzot’s film had to walk quite a tightrope in order to escape the censors’ scissors . not only that , it had to withstand the attacks of french patriots who viewed clouzot’s willingness to work with the german controlled film institute as proof that he was in the first rank of collaborators : a man who had sold his soul to the devil just so he could continue to make movies .

finally , it comes out that the first letter was written by laura herself in an effort to seduce germain ; the others , she claims , were dictated to her by her husband . insisting that laura is insane , vorzet gets germain to sign internment papers , and laura is carted off to a mental hospital in another scene reminiscent of a gestapo abduction . but when germain , on denise ' s suggestion , returns to vorzet ' s house to discover the truth , he finds vorzet dead at his desk , bleeding onto a final , unfinished corbeau letter ; the hospital suicide ' s mother , whom we see leaving the house in the final sequence , has cut his throat with her son ' s razor . laura was right ; vorzet was the corbeau .

le corbeau is based on a real incident , in which the southern town of tulle was subjected between 1917 and 1922 to a series of over 1000 anonymous letters , including pornographic drawings , signed l ' oeil du tigre ; the scandalous revelations of these letters provoked several suicides . after a lengthy dictation organized by a lyon police doctor and graphologist , the handwriting was discovered to be that of one angèle laval , an amorously frustrated former civil servant ; arrested and tried in 1922 , she was given a suspended sentence and lived on for another fifty years . a screenplay inspired by l ' affaire angèle , originally entitled l ' oeil du serpent , was written by louis chavance over the period from 1932 to 1937 , then reworked with clouzot in the course of production in 1943 .

though not clouzot ' s most accomplished film visually , le corbeau has one exceptional sequence where the suspected raven , marie corbin , flees a mob of angry townspeople . with each edit , the camera alternates between two perspectives . when she ' s running from it , it seems to be watching her , chasing her . when she ' s running toward it her face is always obscured , in opposition to the high contrast black and white of the rest of the film , which has the look and feel of a film noir except most of it takes place in broad daylight . finally , the noise of the mob becomes overwhelming and we get a close up of her running terrified . the camera isn ' t level during the running scenes , it is , well , rather twisted .

the reception in france for the sorrow and the pity contrasts markedly with that accorded to a recent french wartime memoir , michael quint ' s strange gardens . this was a french literary triumph of 2000 , hailed by le monde as " a jewel that warms the soul " . in britain , the book was less well received : critic boyd tonkin called it " an anodyne crowd - pleaser " .

there is such a thing as objective symbolism . the matching of the still lamp with the moving lamp reflects not only the passage of time but the transition from a world of relativism associated with vorzet to a world of moral certitude exemplified by the mother . germain seems to side with vorzet , and in his subsequent remarks about the corbeau and even about the priority of the mother ' s life over the child ' s he takes a more measured position than previously . but when the film ends with germain opening the window curtain to show the mother ' s departure down the crooked street as vorzet ' s blood stains the last letter of the corbeau , we can hardly assert that the film itself is on vorzet ' s side , or even germain ' s . on the contrary , it shows us that the scourge of the corbeau could be lifted only by the mother ' s brutal act , and that more delicate souls like germain in fact depend upon such acts to maintain society ' s moral order . if we situate the film within the ethical context defined by the german occupation of france , then just as vorzet ' s ambivalence relativizes the guilt of collaboration , the mother ' s act cannot but recall the deeds of the resistance .

what ' s scary about the film is it not only becomes difficult not to believe the poison letters , it becomes hard to place all that much blame on the raven . every character has their selfish and dishonest antics . denise fakes illness then when that doesn ' t work makes herself sick in order to get time alone with dr . germain . rolande extorts money from adults under the premise of getting her out of a jam , and constantly spies on dr . germain . after denise distracts dr . germain from his escape of watching the " innocent " children play , a letter germain received from le corbeau blows off the windowsill into the playground . a little girl standing against a tree as punishment claims to not have seen it only to pull it out of her pocket as soon as he gives up his search , and begin to read it with a big grin on her face .

note : contents data are machine generated based on pre - publication provided by the publisher . contents may have variations from the printed book or be incomplete or contain other coding . le corbeau contents : acknowlegements ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . . i synopsis ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . . 1 introduction ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . 3 part one : production contexts ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 6 part two : the film ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . 43 part three : reception ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . . 77 conclusion ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 111 le corbeau : credits ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . 116 henri - georges clouzot : filmography ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . . 118 bibliography ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . . 119 appendix : figures ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 126

the moral ambiguity that critics see in le corbeau is not absent , but neither is it the film ' s ultimate message . we are offered visions of both germain ' s broadened humanity and the mother ' s vengeful resolve . the first is more congenial and hopeful , and holds the future promise of a better world , but it relies on the second to put an end to the time of hatred and despair . vorzet , played to perfection by pierre larquey in the supreme acting achievement of a long career , is a highly seductive character whose " demonstration " offers us the noble wisdom of tout comprendre , c ' est tout pardonner . yet as we should have learned from our earlier readiness to participate in the townsfolk ' s condemnation of the disagreeable marie corbin , séduction n ' est pas raison . the truth is not to be found in mere appearances , the film tells us , but in denise ' s eyes - and in the mother ' s razor .

as you have pointed out , shirley jackson’s possibility of evil , published over two decades after the release of le corbeau , has much in common with clouzot’s film . both are built around the same premise : an anonymous citizen is writing poisonous letters attacking the townspeople’s misdeeds , in the hope that it will lead them to correct the error of their ways . instead , in both story and film it creates a climate of paranoia and dis - ease that spreads like a virus , infecting everyone in it path . at first , the townspeople try to ferret out the epistle - writer , but soon grow frustrated with that , and instead turn their paranoid concerns to the most prominent victim of these insidious attacks , dr . germain . complicating our reaction to these events , as the persistent victim of many of these smears , germain is not a particularly appealing hero . he is cool and aloof , detached and even a little arrogant . and the charges made against him may have merit : germain just might be guilty . and we just might cheer his fall .

truffaut , tavernier and malle also probed wartime dilemmas with honorable fearlessness . truffaut ' s the last metro ( 1980 ) questioned the value of artistic endeavour during the war . this was not just a matter of truffaut encouraging us to think about the compromises made by such french artists as charles trenet , " le fou chantant " , who entertained wehrmacht officers at the folies and the gaieté parisienne . rather , truffaut ' s film encouraged us to reflect on the suggestion that by continuing to stage plays and concerts in paris , french artists may have contributed to making occupied paris seem normal to its citizens - and that to do so was perhaps morally contemptible .

the suspense in clouzot ' s films is generally generated from the relative absence of contrived or filmic qualities . while hitchcock would provide the audience with information the characters themselves didn ' t possess - for instance the gas spill in the birds - to get the audience chirping instructions at them , clouzot simply created a corrosive atmosphere where you knew the humans would get themselves into much trouble . the thing is , you didn ' t know which wrong action or miscalculation would lead to their demise , so there was no relief . certainly that was the case in his most successful suspense , le salaire de la peur ( the wages of fear ) where the main characters could be blown up at the slightest bump because their job was transporting a truckload of nitroglycerine .

but the critics inevitably pass over the contrasting scene that follows . vorzet departs , leaving germain in the room . as the lamp continues to swing , clouzot signals the passage of time by dissolving in a superimposed image of the lamp having come to rest . we tilt down to see germain in the morning , asleep with his head on the teacher ' s desk , having clearly spent the night in the classroom . he is awakened by the arrival of the suicide ' s mother , who tells him she is now working as a cleaning - lady at the school , ominously shows him her son ' s razor , and informs him that she has a good idea of the identity of the corbeau but is waiting to be absolutely sure before taking action . germain expresses shock , but she is unmoved .

the best - known scene in the film , which provides the key to its overall message , is also the most misunderstood . vorzet confronts germain in a schoolroom at night . germain affirms his moral reprobation for the corbeau and declares his certitude in knowing right from wrong . vorzet , accusing germain of being just as contaminated by the letters as the rest of st . - robin , counters with a little demonstration . the two doctors stand in front of a globe ; the room is lit by a single naked bulb hanging from the ceiling . vorzet pushes the light fixture so that it swings back and forth , casting its moving shadow on the globe ( on which europe is visible ) as he claims that the boundary between good and evil is similarly unstable . when germain tries to grab the bulb to stop its swinging , he burns his fingers , whereupon vorzet announces that his demonstration is conclusive : moral truth cannot be grasped by mere mortals .

our situation as clouzot ' s spectators is judiciously balanced . with respect to the satiric elements of the film - the mutual blackmail of the chief doctor and the bursar , the hypocritical storekeeper who abandons germain for another doctor because of the letters , the postmaster taking for himself a corbeau letter addressed to his wife - we stand back ironically . but as regards the plot ' s driving enigma - discovering the author of the letters - we are put in the same position as the other characters , particularly germain , and are induced to jump to the same conclusions , suspecting first marie corbin , then denise , never vorzet . rather than being terrorized along with the victim , as in a film noir , or repelled by the mob , as in lang ' s fury or duvivier ' s postwar panique , we become part of the persecuting crowd . yet there is no final lynching to pin on us . like the good doctor , we learn that those we suspected were innocent . the guilty party , whom we presumably have not suspected , is indeed punished , but not by " us " ; the mother , half - hidden by a veil , dons in the film ' s last shot the black plumage of the crow .

one enters any major film festival with hopes of discovering a budding auteur , a new voice from some previously unheard - from part of the world—a julián hernández or corneliu porumboiu or bong joon - ho . at this year’s toronto international film f…

for most of its history , french cinema has undergone periodic upheavals characterized by massive changes in many areas—personnel , economics , typical film style and content , and so on . the german occupation resulted in perhaps the most striking of t…

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alan williams is the author of republic of images : a history of french filmmaking , and is a professor of french at rutgers university .

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jenny lamour wants to succeed in music hall . her husband and accompanist is maurice martineau , a nice but jealous man . when he knew jenny is making eyes at brignon , an old businessman , in . . . see full summary »

dominique marceau is on trial for the murder of gilbert tellier . the counsels duel relentlessly , elaborating explanations for why the pretty , idle and fickle girl killed the talented and . . . see full summary »

in 1900 , miquette , the pretty daughter of the widow grandier , decides to become an actress after seeing a play performed by the monchablon theatre company . unfortunately , madame grandier . . . see full summary »

an adaptation of abbe prevost ' s classic french novel ' manon lescaut ' , updated to post - world war ii france , in which a former french resistance activist rescues manon from villagers who want . . . see full summary »

a psychiatrist , desperate for money to keep his faltering practice running , makes a deal with a spy to hide a mysterious person in his clinic in return for a million francs . as soon as the . . . see full summary »

stanislas hassler blazes the development of modern art in his gallery , packed with works of surprising shapes , colours and textures , and where exhibitions turn into media events . gilbert . . . see full summary »

an aging , world - weary gangster is double - crossed and forced out of retirement when his best friend is kidnapped and their stash of eight stolen gold bars demanded as ransom .

in a decrepit south american village , four men are hired to transport an urgent nitroglycerine shipment without the equipment that would make it safe .

a gangster escapes jail and quickly makes plans to continue his criminal ways elsewhere , but a determined inspector is closing in .

henri - georges clouzot ' s unfinished masterpiece , l ' enfer ( 1964 ) , is reconstructed in this film which is part drama and part documentary .

a vicious series of poison - pen letters spreads rumours , suspicion and fear among the inhabitants of a small french town , and one after another , they turn on each other as their hidden secrets are unveiled - but the one secret that no - one can uncover is the identity of the letters ' author . . .

une petite ville comme il en est tant en france . [ original version ]

the screenplay is based on a true story which took place in tulle ( corrèze , france ) in the 1920s .

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movies and tv shows are certified fresh with a steady tomatometer of 75 % or higher after a set amount of reviews ( 80 for wide - release movies , 40 for limited - release movies , 20 for tv shows ) , including 5 reviews from top critics .

the drama is set in a french village where some nasty soul has been causing a local uproar by sending poison pen letters to prominent citizens . the prime target is the local doctor with the mysterious past ; as the town paranoia increases , it is he who becomes the prime suspect , but in the end , the real culprit , the is revealed . he is the last person any one would have suspected .

clouzot , always a painstaking filmmaker , has constructed a plot of fiendish intricacy whose wild twists implicate one character after another until justice is finally served .

polished , impersonal work , it puts forward little more than a spirit of free - floating misanthropy .

this exposé of a malicious small town in france must be one of the most depressed films to emerge from the period of the german occupation .

clouzot , often called the french hitchcock , is not just a master of suspense but is also most adroit at implicating his audience .

although the story gets a little out of hand in the end , this film possesses a good share of the qualities we seek from a french producer . . . a tender regard for detail , perfect casting , and simple but thoughtful photography .

recognized now as an early classic of film noir , it was clouzot ' s masterpiece of psychological suspense , misinterpreted and reviled by all political viewpoints at the time .

an involving mystery , a bitter portrait of a community at odds with itself and , with its unlikeable characters , stark use of shadows and pessimistic moral outlook , an exemplary forerunner to the whole genre of film noir .

very shrewdly designed to work as a mystery thriller - - complete with red herrings - - and it undeniably holds the viewer ' s interest throughout with the mystery .

an absorbing thriller that surprises us with the way its mystery becomes always more gripping and with its pessimistic view of mankind and the rottenness hidden inside all of us - and it came out in a perfect time for that sort of discussion during the german occupation of france .

this was quite a spooky flick . the mystery keeps you guessing even after the movie is over , if you know what i mean . nevertheless , it ' s quite entertaining . a little bit of editing would have made it even better .

one of the most controversial films of all time , clouzot could have lost his career for some of this films undertones were it not for support from philosophers and other film makers with some influence . the film is marvelous , tangling a very interesting web of sub plots and philosophies into a thriller that delivers incredible suspense despite the fact the chaos was delivered more through menacing words than acts of violence . i thought i had the culprit , infamously dubbed " the raven " , pegged early on , but clouzot through me a few solid curve balls in the end to leave me doubting until the reveal , which i got wrong . a great thriller and a must see from early french cinema .

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in the village of saint robin , the population receives anonymous letters signed as the raven spreading rumors and accusations . dr . rémy germain , who is having an affair with laura , the wife of the psychiatrist dr . vorzet that works with him at the local hospital , is the main victim of the raven . his affair is disclosed and he is also accused of abortionist . when a patient of the hospital commits suicide after receiving a letter telling that his cancer is terminal , the loathed nurse marie corbin is arrested since people believe she is the raven . but soon there are other letters and dr . vorzet tries to identify who might be the notorious raven .

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styles of substance : the extraordinary image : orson welles , alfred hitchcock , stanley kubrick , and the reimagining of cinema , by robert p . kolker

as evelyn ehrlich recognises , the issue of whether occupation films may be read as either pro - vichy ( unless they are blatantly propagandist ) or pro - resistance is highly problematic . direct causal connections are impossible to detect and directors often

hid behind the formal beauty of their mise - en - scene and the elegant construction of their screenplays as if to draw a curtain between their ideas and anyone in the audience who might be offended by those ideas . censorship did not determine the new styles and subjects that emerged in the 1940s ; rather it helped promote a tendency that was already gaining currency . ( 6 )

as judith mayne observes , appearances in this film are deceptive and “the woman who looks like a vichy poster for womanhood” acts like a lunatic while her supposedly guilty and sexually repressed sister - in - law becomes the victim of mob rule . by contrast , in one of the most revealing close - ups in the film , denise asks germain to look into her eyes so that he can directly perceive that she is not a guilty woman . as opposed to scenes in the film showing people looking at each other and the point - of - view image showing rolande spying on germain through the key - hole of his door , this shot argues for the importance of direct perception rather than indirect , prejudicial , misperception .

alan williams , “the raven and the nanny” , dead ringers : the remake in theory and practice , ed . jennifer forrest and leonard r . koos , state university of new york press , new york , 2002 , p . 152 .

for the role of this period in postwar french history see evelyn ehrlich , cinema of paradox : french filmmaking under the german occupation , columbia university press , new york , 1985 , pp . 173 - 177 ; and edward baron turk , child of paradise : marcel carné and the golden age of french cinema , harvard university press , cambridge , massachusetts , 1989 , pp . 347 - 350 .

“france of the new springtime must be the creation of the young . ” marc bloch , strange defeat : a statement of evidence written in 1940 , trans . gerard hopkins , oxford university press , london , 1949 , p . 175 .


happily ever after ( french : ils se marièrent et eurent beaucoup d'enfants ; translation : they married and had many children ) is a 2004 french comedy drama film .

the film is written and directed by yvan attal , produced by claude berri , and starring charlotte gainsbourg and yvan attal .

it was released in english in north america .

for english-speaking audiences , the film is highly recognizable for the lengthy cameo appearance of johnny depp , who speaks fluent french .

the soundtrack also features radiohead .

happily ever after ( 2004 film )

happily ever after ( 2004 film ) <EOT> johnny - happily ever after 2004 speaking french fluenty . how beautiful ! ! !

johnny - happily ever after 2004 speaking french fluenty . how beautiful ! ! ! - youtube

johnny atuando no filme happily ever after falando fluentemente francês - 2004 johnny acting in this film and speaking french fluently .

johnny depp . . . and they lived happily ever after ( 2004 ) . . . creep - radiohead ( cover by lior davidi )

happily ever after is never as insightful or as funny as woody at his best . but the film has a fine - tuned approach to human behavior .

looking for movie tickets ? enter your location to see which movie theaters are playing happily ever after ( 2005 ) near you .

available on dvd ! urltoken the trailer for the movie " happily ever after . " based on a best - selling manga by yoshiie gouda . with english subtitles . dvd now available ! urltoken

if i spent a lot of time performing a census of the cast , it is because the movie seems to rotate among its characters as if taking inventory . nothing happens in " happily ever after " that i cared much about .

tres amigos , tres mujeres y alguna más ocasional , engaños y desamores . podría contar esto menos directo pero esta es precisamente la forma directa en que se narra este film francés del 2004 del director tarsem singh .

told from the male perspective , despite a deceptive focus on attal ' s real - life partner , charlotte gainsbourg , who plays discontented wife to his distracted husband , happily ever after shows why betraying their allies comes so easily to the french : they practice it at home .

" happily ever after " is among other things a dirge for the death of the french style of adultery . these parisian philanders seem no more chic than your average cheating american . recall the elegance of the adultery in a film like renoir ' s " rules of the game , " and then regard a couple in this film having a food fight . of course , in renoir the elegance was all upstairs among the aristocrats , while the gamekeeper and the footman chased each other around the kitchen , fighting over the gamekeeper ' s wife . has everyone in france moved into the kitchen ?

this film is not currently playing on mubi but 30 other great films are . see what’s now showing

johnny depp ' s special appearance and the last bit was quite predictive after the montage of gabrielle answering calls about the house .

if charlotte gainsbourg is present in a certain film , you automatically know it will be good - at least a little bit good . and so ' . . . and they lived happily ever after ' is one of those ' a little bit good ' films . it discusses life and marital issues that people have to face sometime half way through their lives ( if they made those sorts of choices earlier on , that is ) . it ' s decent . it ' s french . what more could anyone want if you ' re just looking for a film to waste some time and distract you from real life for a night ?

though this french film features good acting , it lacks the wit and charm one would expect to see .

challenged by a friend to watch something at random from a foreign obscure film list . well here we are !

i really enjoyed this film ' s cross - section of people dealing with various facets of coupledom , love , fidelity , marriage , etc . the elevator ride with johnny depp was quite poetic and a wonderful close to the film .

the reviews say that happily ever after is a film about infidelity . it is not . comparisons to they don ' t live here anymore or even closer miss the point . other lovers are mere punctuation . imagined or consummated , adultery is just an illusion here—not an escape from or rebellion against ( i love you , vincent says , and i love my wife ) , but the spark that makes the marriage work , or makes it feel like it might as well ( “i don ' t care if it hurts ; i want to have control” ) . know that superstition about three on match ?

there ' s nothing much wrong with the film ; my complaint is that there ' s nothing much right about it .

the tomatometer score — based on the opinions of hundreds of film and television critics — is a trusted measurement of critical recommendation for millions of fans . it represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show .

if there are support groups out there for single women still wishing they were not— happily ever after — from director yvan attal ( my wife is an actress ) , who also stars—should be run on a loop through all of their meetings . it would cure them in an instant . ( i ' m beginning to wonder if my satisfaction with being single hasn ' t everything to do with my spending some formative romantic years in paris ) . the tongue in the title ' s cheek is not entirely sardonic , though . . . cataloguing as it does the myriad ways in which successful marriages make people miserable , the film ' s message is ultimately pro misery .

" the ballad of narayama " is a japanese film of great beauty and elegant artifice , telling a story of startling cruelty . what a space it opens…

there ' s nothing much wrong with the film ; my complaint is that there ' s nothing much right about it . why do i need to see it ? what do i learn ? why should i smile ? does the movie approve of the feminist wife , disapprove , or consider her merely as a collection of character traits ? why is so little made of the indians , who after all have mastered the happiness the others seek ? what does it say about a couple when a food fight escalates into an action scene ? i don ' t know , and i don ' t care , and if they are all really going to live happily after it will not be in this movie or even , at their rate of growth , in its sequel .

happily ever after - a woman revisits the ‘ex - men’ of her past as she seeks to understand why a fairy tale ending eludes her . available on itunes : urltoken get it on google play : urltoken watch the full film on jman : urltoken subscribe to journeyman for daily updates : urltoken tatjana bozic is on a quixotic journey to discover why her romances seem doomed to fail . she ' s revisiting the ' ex - men ' that populate her whimsical , sometimes stormy , past . what happened , she wonders ? why didn ' t they work out ? a funny , skilful doc , with a little bit of all of us within . witfilm - ref . 6136 every week journeyman offers a brand new documentary , fresh out of the cutting room . they ' re award winning documentaries , some destined for the festival circuit and some for broadcast . the one thing you can know is that here you get to see them when they ' re fresh , often before they appear anywhere else . to watch them in full go to our vod platform at http : / / jman . tv

movies and tv shows are certified fresh with a steady tomatometer of 75 % or higher after a set amount of reviews ( 80 for wide - release movies , 40 for limited - release movies , 20 for tv shows ) , including 5 reviews from top critics .

the final leg of shooting is underway in paris on the french remake of us film humpday ( special jury prize at sundance and selected in the cannes directors’ fortnight 2009 ) . title - less for the time . . .

a down - on - his - luck american indian recently released from jail is offered the chance to " star " as the victim of a snuff film , the resulting pay of which could greatly help his poverty stricken family .

french take on infidelity . moving at times , but in all honesty i struggled to sympathize with any of the male characters , which left the film feeling a bit tawdry even though the female characters were beautifully developed and acted .

it ' s like the director didn ' t know what his story would be about so he mashed all of his ideas into one film . also why is johnny depp at the top of the credits when he was in 2 minutes of this whole movie ? ?

i found i liked this admittedly sometimes uneven french comedy / drama about love , marriage and fidelity much more the 2nd time around . yes , there are still moments that are banal and cliché ' . and yes some of the supporting characters tend towards stereotypes . but there ' s a life and a playfulness to the film , an almost delirious sense of energetic film - making , peppered with both a truly odd but effective johnny depp cameo , and some great rock songs popping up along the way . the basic story exploring the inherent rockiness of marriage may be old hat , but the cinematic approach and the performances ( especially charlotte gainsbourg ' s irresistible young wife and mother ) make many of the old ideas often feel new . a film of memorable moments ; sexy , complicated , funny and sad . much like love it can bit over sweet , or painful , but is very worth the time

i don ' t have much to add , the film does very little with regards to investing you into the world at all , and yet its not badly directed by any stretch . it just gets bogged down into . . . well . . . useless non - enlightening scenes about love and sex that…

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from all appearances they have a strong , if not - what - it - used - to - be marriage . there are still highs in their relationship ( particularly when they pretend they don ' t know each other ) , though they are more playful than passionate ( how they cover each other with food - stuffs shows the difference between an affair of 9 ½ weeks and a marriage of 9 ½ years ) , and they don ' t whine or yell . the film ' s odd sideline of a soft - spoken indian couple with an active sex life after 20 years notwithstanding , vincent and gabrielle are the couple to beat ( the other couples serve just to put them into relief ) . and wouldn ' t you know it , therein lies the rub . . . something is rotten . . . etc . and so forth .

the film . . . is . . . forgettable . however , there is one sequence that i thought was just great in a music store with no dialogue - and great music to boot ( it was worth watching just for that as a self - contained sequence ) . phenomenal direction and acting actually , it would be better if it wasn ' t johnny depp though : /

if the movie had given gabrielle and the man something to actually say or do , none of these questions would be anywhere near the surface of my mind . depp would be playing a role , instead of making a cameo . the cuteness of his appearance is an emblem of the film ' s self - absorbed satisfaction with itself : it need not extend itself to involve or amuse us , because its characters are so content to circulate among each other ' s genitals .

these two men join in an occasional poker game with fred ( alain cohen ) , a bachelor and obsessive ladies ' man , and an indian man who enjoys frequent and satisfying sex with his wife after 20 years . the plot , which is generous with its characters , also provides vincent with a mistress ( angie david ) , who at one point is actually talking to him on her cell phone while sitting at the next table in a restaurant from vincent ' s wife . we also meet vincent ' s parents ( anouk aimee and claude berri ) and the mistress ' s mother ( aurore clement ) , looking uncannily like a mistress herself .

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it begins with three men . they’re in their early forties and are taking stock of their lives . vincent lives with gabrielle and georges lives with nathalie . they each have a five year old son and feel as though they’re suffocating , becoming staid and have even been trapped by a society that pushed them into working , getting married and having children . they’re envious of the third man of the trio . fred is free , single . he goes out with beautiful women and doesn’t live by the clock . naturally , fred dreams of only one thing : to be like vincent and georges – settled and married with kids – and to try at last to give a meaning to his life . but we learn that vincent is having a relationship with another woman , “a mistress . ” no one knows , none of his friends , know about the relationship . but gabrielle does . but he doesn’t know that gabrielle knows . from then on , we follow her . we see her coming to terms with the situation . she loves her husband and waits for him patiently . she’s a real estate agent and we find her at the end of a rather calm day in virgin megastore where she is listening to a disk beside a man she doesn’t know . her imagination begins to run wild , the way it does each time she gets a client to visit an apartment , when she imagines another life , for better or for worse… without the man she loves .

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is the love compatible with coupledom ? and what of freedom and fidelity ? these are some of the questions facing two married men .

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a young refugee traveling from russia to america in search of her lost father falls for a gypsy horseman .

a " normal " guy who is married to a hot actress gets worried that she is involved with her costar . this worry turns into jealousy and causes problems in their relationship . this is a story about trust and a comedy about the actions between men and women .

the story of john wilmot , a . k . a . the earl of rochester , a 17th century poet who famously drank and debauched his way to an early grave , only to earn posthumous critical acclaim for his life ' s work .

the story of two adolescent boys who are guests at a florida resort for the week - end . their only interest is , of course , chasing girls , but fate has much more in store for them .

american journalist paul kemp takes on a freelance job in puerto rico for a local newspaper during the 1960s and struggles to find a balance between island culture and the expatriates who live there .

manoli and fernando are a couple of communist ideas which wants to live their love freely running away from any bourgeois convention . at first , the couple refuses the help from manoli ' s . . . see full summary »

jacob asch is hired by gerald mcmurty to find his ex - wife laine and their son in palm springs . jacob finds laine and a teenager named donnie who may or may not be gerald ' s son . he also . . . see full summary »

a young new yorker goes to arizona where he finds freedom to both love and dream .

an unimpressive , every - day man is forced into a situation where he is told to kill a politician to save his kidnapped daughter .

: i got the wrong door . not like it ' s a crime ! i got the wrong door . let ' s call the police . " you ' re surrounded . you got the wrong door .

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attal knows that no matter how adult we feel when we say , ' i do , ' marriage is all child ' s play : jealousy , lies and pure , unconditional love . perplexing , but not a bad option .

a meditation on the joys and frustrations of monogamy that manages to be a diverting and funny character study at least most of the time .

attal taps into that unexpectedness - - the inability of just one person to captain the course of a relationship no matter how hard they try - - and he plays it for all it ' s worth .

there are a few quality moments , but this fairy tale is far from enchanting .

whatever points screenwriter / director attal is trying to make about relationship envy get lost as the marital conflicts become more contrived and shrill .

attal doesn ' t illuminate vincent ' s motives for straying , and unwisely suggests vincent ' s philandering and gabrielle ' s daydreaming are somehow morally equivalent .

in a world filled with empty lust and marital discord , yvan attal ' s wistful comedy is about a guy who loves his wife .

an interesting study of three men who are friends , in different marital situations , and who have different approaches to love and happiness . it explores fidelity and what constitutes happiness within the family unit . charlotte gainsbourg is lovely in this as gabrielle , wife of vincent ( yvan attal ) . some bizarre games transpire between these two and the cover art is taken from one of those playtimes . lots of interesting camera work , a lively script , and some lovely actors keep things from becoming too trite , but it ' s not all that deep either . mildly entertaining at best .

this is a really realistic story and fine acting especially by the core cast . the only problem i had with it is the ending seems to be inserted smack dab in the middle of the story , which left me a bit confused . its a bittersweet tale about marriage ; an old subject to be sure , but refreshing with this french perspective . enjoy !

basically the story of a man forced to finally see the injustice around him . riley’s movie is designed to do the same thing to you . …

roger ebert ' s speech on empathy for the " 11th hour " series on april 9th , 1994 , being republished here in honor of his birthday june 18 .

roger ebert was born on this day in 1942 , and died a little over five years ago . i owe a good part of my success…

a look back at robert zemeckis ' half - animated classic , who framed roger rabbit , on its 30 - year anniversary .

a tribute to the late tab hunter , a gay matinee idol and hollywood trailblazer .

the movie opens with a man making a crass pickup attempt at a bar . the woman who is his target efficiently dismisses and humiliates him , turns her attention to another man , and picks him up . in no time at all they are plundering their netherlands in a parked car , and it is only when they get inside an apartment that we realize they are man and wife . it ' s a game to bring a little spice into their marriage .

that couple is vincent , played by yvan attal , who also wrote and directed the movie , and gabrielle ( charlotte gainsbourg , his real - life wife ) . another couple in the story is the miserable georges ( alain chabat ) , whose feminist wife nathalie ( emmanuelle seigner ) finds fault with everything he does , including buying gender - appropriate toys for their children . what does a little boy need ? a toy vacuum cleaner , obviously .

there is a scene where gabrielle is at a virgin megastore , listening to an album on headphones , and johnny depp joins her at the same kiosk and listens to the same song . they smile enigmatically , about the album , i guess , and he walks away . later , gabrielle , who is a realtor , discovers she is showing an apartment to a man who is - - why , it ' s johnny depp . they get on the elevator , and find themselves kissing , and the elevator goes up , and up , and up , no doubt being circled by the stairway to heaven .

scenes like this cause me to become unreasonably restless . does gabrielle know this man is johnny depp ? does the movie ? does depp ? is the movie so cool everybody knows he ' s johnny depp but just doesn ' t say so ? is his appearance intended as an endorsement ? or is he not supposed to be johnny depp , in which case why was he cast ?

an interview with terry gilliam , director of " the man who killed don quixote . "

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one of them doesn ' t make it . ( for all their casual sexuality , the french are barely more tender towards “the other woman” than we are , or the saudis , for that matter , but i digress . the other is irrelevant . ) .

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it starts with three men , they ' re in the early forties and they ' re thinking about their lives . vincent lives with gabrielle , georges with nathalie . they each have a 5 year old boy and they feel like they ' re suffocating , becoming " bourgeois " and trapped by a society that ' s forced them to work , marry and have kids . . . they ' re jealous of fred ' s freedom , the third man , a bachelor who sleeps with pretty girls and has no schedule . ( original title : ils se marrièrent et eurent beaucoup d ' enfants )

johnny depp from 6 to 53 years old - evolution from 6 year to 53 years .

a meditation on the joys and perils of relationships , which follows three male friends and the women in their lives .

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what makes a marriage ? georges and natalie argue and shout constantly ; fred , a bachelor playboy approaching 50 , sleeps with many women , loving them all , living with none . vincent , nearing 40 , best friend of georges and fred , is married to gabrielle and they have a son . he keeps his feelings to himself . he and gabrielle are playful and passionate with each other , then bored and detached . is vincent holding back , and if so , why ? a colleague accuses him of believing in romantic fairy tales . gabrielle imagines them separated . are the basics of life women working and men chasing skirts ? is marriage the alternative to possibilities ? written by

charlotte gainsbourg and yvan attal play parents to their real - life son ben attal . see more »

features tom and jerry in the hollywood bowl ( 1950 ) . see more »

is love compatible with coupledom ? and what of freedom and fidelity ? these are some of the questions facing two married men .

just charming and well made enough to get by , but never particularly engaging and ultimately not very rewarding .

they say so what if there ' s a goal keeper , that doesn ' t mean you can ' t score a goal and win . but from personal experience and being an acod i think any person who encourages an affair with the knowledge of the other being in a relationship is just nasty or inhumane .

it ' s maybe true that mankind isn ' t made for monogamy and most animals tend to have a polygamist approach to life . but having the knowledge and breaking up a relationship is just bad .

mantiene una estructura clásica en el montaje centrándose en la fotografía . las actuaciones definitivamente muy buenas sobre todo por parte de charlotte gainsbourg , yvan attal

um roteiro que não sabe bem de onde vem e pra onde vai . yvan attal até tem uma mise - en - scène interessante ao longo do filme , mas se perde na condução / construção de seus personagens . o cameo de johnny depp no primeiro momento é estiloso e parece conduzir a trama a algum lugar , mas só parece . . pois logo em seguida tudo volta ao " normal " e sua reaparição ao final somente coroa o péssimo mal gosto deste filme . vale pelas aparições da emmanuelle seigner num papel divertido , mas infelizmente subaproveitado .

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three parisian men in their early 40s re - examine their love lives in yvan attal’s second outing as director , which also stars his real - life wife charlotte gainsbourg .

johnny depp ' s cameo . . . that scene is the dream of 90 % of women .