The 70s Frenchness of this cannot be overstated: wall-papered interiors, old motor cars, retro designs, white helmet-wearing motorbike gendarmes and enough smoking to give you cancer just from watching it.
There's also no denying this is a very well made film. It looks gorgeous and the soundtrack is addictively nostalgic.
Alas the plot, dialogues and characters are *extremely* limited and barely get the movie off the ground. The lack of depth of characters is probably the worst offence in this picture. They are utterly unrelatable, not believable and the viewer feels no sympathy nor antipathy towards them. They are as believable as cardboard cutouts of themselves. Therefore, the main protagonist's dilemma, not knowing whether to stay with his mistress or his wife, his reminiscence of fond memories, wife, places and children, are of no effect whatsoever. That is the failure of this picture which could have been great had someone bothered to worry about the script rather than the style.
There's also no denying this is a very well made film. It looks gorgeous and the soundtrack is addictively nostalgic.
Alas the plot, dialogues and characters are *extremely* limited and barely get the movie off the ground. The lack of depth of characters is probably the worst offence in this picture. They are utterly unrelatable, not believable and the viewer feels no sympathy nor antipathy towards them. They are as believable as cardboard cutouts of themselves. Therefore, the main protagonist's dilemma, not knowing whether to stay with his mistress or his wife, his reminiscence of fond memories, wife, places and children, are of no effect whatsoever. That is the failure of this picture which could have been great had someone bothered to worry about the script rather than the style.