Reviews (8)

Why hasn't Criterion taken notice?
This disjointed, sugary, and intriguing gem needs the Criterion treatment! I was lucky to see this rare one in a film series at a local museum. While not for the impatient spoon-fed Hollywood viewer, it slowly unravels the story of identity for both Celine and Julie. Once the viewer is acquainted with these two captivating ladies, there is another mystery to unravel... the story within the strange house. This one will have you talking long after the credits roll! Did you like Bunuel's "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie?" Or did you enjoy David Lynch's "Mulholland Drive?" Do you like films that make your brain sweat a little bit!? Well, come on and give this a try. If you have seen this, send an email to the folks at Criterion Co website and prod them (and yes, I have!) to make this wonderful film a "Criterion."

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Halfway through CELINE AND JULIE GO BOATING my opening line for this review would have been something like this; "a drawn out, poorly photographed mish-mash of uninspired surrealistic images. However, gradually as the film drew me further into its unescapable web, I began to realize that the films images weren't uninspired, they were simply detached, in the logic of a dream. True to that statement, CELINE AND JULIE is the most realistic demonstration of a dream state I have ever witnessed. It is drawn out, but it's also meditative, not to mention fascinating, and strangely, as in dreams, realistic. Gradually you don't notice the irrationality, like a dream you simply feed off its aestheics. And as the "swiss cheese" plot begins to fill in, your excitment grows as you long for a better understanding. Now, Freuds will no doubt aply their psuedo-symbolism to a film such as CELINE AND JULIE, I myself find it to be a film about a search for inner childhood (notice the "haunted house" plot is the womens attempts to rescue a small girl). It is a film that demonstrates the way imagination gives our lives a needed purpose.

Unique and haunting
A long time ago ...touted this as the ultimate midnight movie, which gives you some idea of what a dreamy trip it is. The ending haunts me to this day, although you will have to be very patient to get to it. An exquisite treat for the avid film buff.

(Trivia note: one of the men in the house is film director Barbet Schroeder)

magical mystery tour
Jacques Rivette has always been a director of rather acquired taste but if you have an open mind and are willing to let the amazing imagery flow over you, seeing this film will literally be like stepping through the looking glass. It is as close to actual magic, not just illusions, as I've seen on the big screen. Despite its length, and this is true of most of Rivette's films, the film is enchanting and entertaining, puzzling but also audacious in its invention. It runs on dream logic and you need not crack it in order to enjoy it. The events flow forward, backward, sometimes repeating themselves as the characters appear to be caught in some bizarre web, reminding me of some of the later Bunuel films where they are trapped in an unending dinner party or go in search of food yet never accomplishing to eat it - but unlike Bunuel, Rivette's film is more of a play on itself than poking fun at the bourgeoisie, breaking down the nature of film (its reality, a la Philip K. Dick) and the art of cinema.

In any event, with perhaps the exception of "La Belle Noiseuse", a classic of more accessible and traditional nature, this film is the best way of entering Rivette's body of work. And if you just allow it, you'll be trapped within for good. It's a good place to be.

One of the best of all French films!
PLEASE lower the price.

Everyone should at least have access to this classic.

It is not as well known as it should be. It deserves better, and most important it deserves to be on my collection, so PLEASE lower the price.

And if there's any justice, CRITERION please take note. ... Read more

Reviews (11)

a MUST for lovers of the book.
Ruiz's version of Proust's monumental work probably comes as close to a faithful interpretation of the spirit of the original work as a film can get. While the movie focuses on the last volume of the novel, key elements of the whole are interwoven throughout, to brilliant effect. Ruiz's surrealistic touches are at times so achingly beautiful that it takes your breath away. Ruiz made some interesting (and brave) choices regarding the plot: Swann and Albertine are jettisoned entirely, and believe it or not, it still works. The casting is uncannily on the money, with the one exception of John Malkovitch as Charlus, who appears not to have the foggiest conception of the character as written by Proust. If you haven't guessed already, this film will be tough going for those unfamiliar with the book. For Proustians: an unmitigated feast.

A Worthy Interpretation Of The Classic On Film
Director Raul's version of Marcel Prousts' Remembrance Of Things Past is captured beautifully and faithfully on film. It was made only recently in 1999, but it is essentially timeless. The strength of the film lies in the many dimensions it has, as with the novel. Proust's vision and world comes to life through the cinema, through good performances by the actors, period details and such beautiful, wistful music. The music and the way the film changes time frames, different perspectives, and the Impressionist, sensory images in memory that Proust created in the book are captured with great effect.

For those who have read the long book, and for those who are Proustian, this film is a sumptuous cinematic feast. You don't have to appreciate French literature and film interpretation, you can just love costume dramas. The French are a different breed. They love their champagne, their waltzes and always, Paris. The frivolous lifestyle depicted in Odette's courtesan climate is but one element of French society, at least as it was in the late 19th century. Swann, as we know, is the author himself. Proust put himself in Swann, and became the restless, troubled youth searching for himself but unable to find peace of mind in a corrupt world of money and societal conventions, a world who looks innocent and glossy but hides a dark secret of prostitution and frail morals.

The cast is superb. The music is delightful. What a great idea they had to cast a now older Catherine Deneuve as the courtesan whom Swann loves devotedly, Odette. This DVD is a great experienc e and I recommend this film to fans of French classics. One note: the film takes place in the latter portions of Proust's epic novel, and some of the characters and side stories were cut off due to time. Like Gone With The Wind for America, Remembrance Of Things Past is an epic masterpiece of French literature. Only there they call it "Au Recharche du Temps perdu" which literally means, in Proustian symbolism, "In Search Of Lost Time".

Great Film, Not So Great DVD
I have been a fan of Proust's novel for a long time, and I eagerly awaited this movie, having read articles about its making and, later, reviews of it. Yet I managed to miss it during the, oh, three days it played in the theater here. So I ordered the DVD the minute it became available, and I had two reactions: 1) For the Proust devotee, this is an amazing, beautiful film, probably the best that ever could be done in capturing the complexity and haunting quality of the novels. But 2) The DVD is a real disappointment: the subtitles obscure the image itself (instead of appearing below it), and they're white, set against what often is a dazzlingly white background. And of course you can't turn them off. So you can't get rid of the damn things, and you can't read them either. The image itself (the parts you can see) is pristine and gorgeous, and the sound is superb. And the movie itself--well, it's a masterpiece. Will you be able to follow it if you haven't read the books? I think so--parts will seem enigmatic, but then that's not such a bad thing. The overall story and point will, I think, be quite clear, and quite moving.

Incidentally, I agree with the reviewer who said Malkovich is miscast. I love his work in general, but he seems out of place here, and it's all too clear that he had to re-loop much of his French dialogue. Still, the role he plays, and the way the director defined that role, are so interesting that you can overlook his performance somewhat.

Proust, Captured on Film
Suffice it to say that Chilean-born director/screenwriter Ruiz tackled a monumental assignment. Reducing Proust's lengthy Trilogy (Remembrance of Things Past), to a few hours of screen time would have been beyond the capabilities of most filmmakers. That he has succeeded so well is a great credit to him and to his creative crew.

The film is told in a series of flashbacks as Proust lies on his deathbed. The flashbacks are not sequential, so at points one has to pay attention to follow along. The rewards are numerous, however. This is one of the most beautifully filmed works that I've seen in ages. The director is particularly adept at pan-shots. The moving tableaux are breathtaking, like living impressionist paintings. This is particularly true in a scene of a music recital at a country chateau. The various figures are situated on moving platforms, so in addition to the moving camera pans, the platforms also slide slowly back and forth, which makes for a kaleidescopic montage unlike anything I've seen in cinema. Ruiz and cinematographer Jorge Arriagada are artists in the truest sense.

Ruiz also managed to collect a top notch cast for the enterprise. Marcello Mazzarella is elegantly stoic as Proust. He is the artistic, calm eye of the storm as the hurricane of WWI France swirls aound him. Emmanuelle Béart, is stunningly beautiful, as always. Catherine Deneuve is a perfectly cast Mme De Crecy, though her on screen time is relatively brief. John Malkovich's French sounds pretty fair to my untrained ear. He definitely has the juiciest role as a jaded, decadent Baron of the Boulevard. Pascal Greggory chews up some scenery, as well as a boefsteak, as the gung ho, effete warrior, St-Loup (well named, as the guy really is quite loopy).

The movie is slow going at times, which well befits an adaptation of Proust, who's not exactly known for his frenetic pacing. This is a film to savor with several repeated viewings. The DVD is an excellent transfer and the English subtitles are accurate and legible. Highly recommended.

BEK

Breathtakingly beautiful
Well, I had only ever heard of Proust before this film from a Monty Python sketch of the "Summarise Proust competition" (contestants had to summarise In Search of Lost Time once in evening wear and once in bathing suit). I was worried I might hate this film, not knowing anything about Proust other than he wrote a multi-volumed masterwork about time and memory. Then I saw it...wow! I cannot praise Mr Ruiz enough for what he has achieved. The camera work, sets, and lighting are stunning. As Marcel's memory takes him back and forth through his life, the sets and furniture often move around whilst the scene is played out - all emphasising the fragility and hallucinatory qualities of his memory. And there is the music...wow again. It is never intrusive but always creates the perfect background to what is happening on screen. It is not overly sentimental and never tries to force you into feeling emotion (unlike someone like John Williams/S. Spielberg who tries to ram it down your throat). As for plot, many characters and relationships are never fully explained or revealed. Many reviewers seem offended that a film expects them to display attention and interest, but I feel that they're missing the point. Plot is often not the point of the film, instead it is a film about time and memory (hence the title!). Plot is not allowed to dominate the narrative structure, it is the emotions and memory of Marcel. The most offensive thing that some other reviewers seem to find about this film is that it is novel and original - what a crime!! I had never read Proust (and I do not speak French to any degree - I feel I should mention this for the reviewer below who complains that those who can't speak French will have problems) before I saw this film, but I have a long enough attention span and an open enough mind to appreciate the sheer beauty of its images and the wonderful originality of its style. I urge anyone remotely appreciative of excellent filmmaking to see this film. It might even, as it has with me, motivate you to read the book. I am now three and a third volumes in and it is the greatest and most beautifully written novel I have ever read in my life. Thank you Mr Ruiz and thank you Marcel! SEE THIS FILM NOW!!! ... Read more

Reviews (11)

Finally the best of Fellini makes it to DVD!
Underrated by moviegoers at large, and underappreciated even by Fellini fans, "City of Women" is in my opinion the best movie Fellini has made. With its dream-like but devastatingly accurate script, Fellini has poured into this movie everything he has learned about women... Awesome!

Until now, fans of the movie had to make do with poor VHS tape transfers, since the film never made it into laserdisc. No more; happily, the new DVD anamorphic transfer is quite good! A must have for Fellini fans.

Great movie, good transfer
City of Women is probably the most complete culmination of Fellini's dreamlike film-language aspirations. The DVD is slightly disappointing because the color saturation is slightly low. Also, I had problems with the dvd because I view on a computer screen. I believe this transfer was made from a tape master: scanline artifacting can be seen here and there and it's a bit distracting. But the image is pretty sharp, and what images...! Also, it's nice to be able to turn off the subtitles for once and watch just those potent, dreamlike, dancelike, painterly images play out before your eyes. They could have done a better job with the transfer, but if you love Fellini this is a must have DVD!

Not Fellini's best, but not his worst
First, I have to say that I am a fan of late-period Fellini. If you prefer his earlier work (pre-Juliet of the Spirits), you may not like his later, more indulgent work.

City of Women is about women, specifically feminists. Women were always one of Fellini's favorite topics, and this film is his attempt to understand the various (often contradictory) aspects of the feminist movement (or movements). As such it's rambling, with no real center or plot to speak of. Marcello Mastroianni (Fellini's favorite alter-ego) plays womanizer Snaporaz, who, upon following a woman off of a train, winds up in the midst of a kind of feminist convention. After roller-skating down some stairs and bumming a ride with a nymphomaniac and some junkies young enough to be his granddaughters, he winds up in a kind of temple to womanizing. It's a strange film.

This film doesn't approach the experimental or lyrical depths of its successor, And The Ship Sails On, but in my opinion it's superior to its predecessor, Orchestra Rehearsal.

The DVD has a decent transfer and a few extras: a brief interview with Fellini (always a treat) and a featurette containing interviews with some Fellini associates and scholars. A decent DVD of a decent film.

Late period Fellini
Starting as early as Juliet of the Spirits, Fellini began a trend toward opulence in his films, at the expense of meaningful ideas. I have no qualms with this decision, he was growing as a director, exploring color and production design more fully than screenwriting. We will always have his indisputable classics like La Strada, Nights of Cabiria and La Dolce Vita. Amarcord is perhaps his best color film. Fellini was probably seduced by the stylistic choices that color afforded, allowing his imagination to run rampant. That is exactly what happened with City of Women.
This film is much better by the end than you would have thought had you walked out at the beginning. I almost turned it off finding it lame, and it is rather thin. Marcello Mastroianni gets off at the wrong stop on a train and ends up in a nightmarish and yes, Felliniesque City of Women. The film sends up feminists, and there's even a lone "macho" man who lives in a huge castle.
The film has fantastic visuals, but they overpower any meaning that there might be in them. One memorable exception shows Mastroianni sliding down a huge slide as his sexual history flashes before his eyes.
I have yet to see a noble film featuring sex as its theme. City of Women is eye candy, and understanding that, you'll probably have a good time.

WHAT CAN I SAY - FELLINI+MASTROIANNI
Fellini and Mastroianni... What an unbeatable combination of tallant. This is history. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

One of the most intriguing films of all time
I disagree with some of the reviews posted on Jonah in that the themes of the film are outdated and that the characters are not as well-develped as they should be. I believe that the film is DEFINITELY NOT outdated because it revolves around people and the ideas, thoughts, and wisdom that human beings can give to their fellow man and woman. Sure, the politics are not the same in Europe anymore, but did you honestly believe that the political climate of Europe in 1976 would still be relevant in 2004, 28 years after the film was made?
I believe that Jonah captures the changing political climate in Europe in the mid-1970's quite elegantly;I sure have never seen anything like it before or since. I also think that the characters need not be developed further, because Tanner intended for each of them to be archetypes for the changing socio-economic climate in Europe, and in the world. If you study each character in this manner, then they are perfect the way that they are.
Bottom line: find this movie where ever you can. Rent it from a nearby library, (I doubt that Blockbuster carries it)or buy it from eBay, or here on Amazon. It takes a great deal of concentration, but every second is incredibly rewarding to the attentive movie viewer. I have never ever seen a film with dialogue this captivating, and I wish that I were alive in 1976 (I am currently 19)so that I could have seen the film when it was first released. I only wish that it could finally be released on DVD. I have searched the internet over many times for a copy of the film on DVD. I even recently purchased a DVD-R player, and due to the copyright guard on the VHS copy that I rent frequently from my neighborhood library, I was unable to make the digital transfer. Regardless, the VHS will suffice for the time being, and once again, (I cannot stress this enough)find a friend who is into art house films or investigate at a library and watch this film. You will be surprised.

jonah jonah jonah
I think that the film is great because I love Jonah

A pretty film that hasn't aged well
Alas, in the year 2001 this film does not appear to have aged very well. It is full of the type of moralizing and philosophizing that was so the rage -- especially in France -- in the '60s and '70s, which now seems hopelessly naive and irrelevant. Plot? Characterizations? Linear storyline? Who needs these when we're expounding on the Major Issues of Our Times!? Prettily filmed, with an attractive cast (most of whom don't get to do all that much), but ultimately a fine example of cinematic navel-gazing. I liked this film when it first came out -- but now, for the life of me, I couldn't tell you why.

On "Jonah"
Jonah Who Will be 25 in the Year 2000 may or may not be among the best films ever made, but it is surely one of the most interesting. Not only is watching this film an eminently worthwhile activity; it is also worthwhile to consider WHY watching it is worthwhile. For one thing, it is hard to seize on any one idea as the film's theme. It is about freedom. But it is also about the nature of time and memory, about historical change, old age, education, mysticism, situation ethics, revolution, and the relative merits of animals and humans, just to name the most apparent. Jonah tells the story of eight characters in search of a polis. All have names beginning in "Ma." ("Marx?" "Mao?" The names remind us that this film comes from a time when such questions were relevant.) The eight characters spin off a profusion of ideas, explicitly in their conversation and implicitly in their actions. Ideas reverberate throughout the film, as the characters work and hope for a better system (the hope symbolized by infant Jonah). But their efforts to achieve a better system raise the question as to what this new system will be like. Here the film is less than optimistic. The happy union of collective achievement and individual fulfilment is never achieved; it remains only an ideal -- an ideal that demands reflection and criticism. If we are ever to achieve the good society, we have to think well, an activity for which the characters of JONAH provide good models.

"Jonah..." will visually and emotionally astound you!
"Jonah who will be 25 in the year 2000" is a truly remarkable film that portrays the "New World" after the World Wars and political revolutions. Ultimately, it is a heart-felt drama of the realities of the human condition. The Directing and filming is first-rate. My older brother whose name happens to be Jonah, will be 25 in the year 2000, also. Talk about coincidence! ... Read more

Reviews (3)

chilling & effective
the movie tells the story of two sisters, working as maids, who through a sad combination of servitude, ignorance, psychological ailments, incest & lack of privacy, brutally murder two of their employers.

the film captured me from the first scene, and i was riveted throughout- i gave it 4 instead of 5 stars, because i wanted more on their early childhood- but as the director comments in the included interview- 'what you leave out is as important as what you leave in'.

highly recommended!!!

TRUE LIFE INCEST AND MURDER
Based on Janet Flanner's 1933 Vanity Fair article, MURDEROUS MAIDS (Home Vision Entertainment) vividly creates a sympathetic but unapologetic account of the notorious Papin sisters life when they are sold into servitude by their self-centered mother. Incest, murder and the haves vs the have-nots are at he heart of the most famous French crime of the 20th century. Memorable, insightful, artistic and chilling.

I'm so far Down it seems like Up to me
If you are depressed, just lost your significant other, lost out on that promotion, just had your car reposessed...do not go see Jean-Pierre Denis' "Murderous Maids." It's a real downer. But a downer with just the right amount of the absurd and the ridiculous to make it viable as entertainment.
"Murderous Minds" tells the story of Lea and Christine, two sisters who are sold into servitude by their mother; into the house of a French Bourgeoisie housewife who literally checks the dusting with a white glove. Madam is very persnickity about the household cleaning and the food bills and for a time forms a bond with the eldest sister, Christine who shares Madam's adherence to the highest standards. That is until Madam finds Lea and Christine "en flagrante delicto." Then the title of this little film comes into play and the tone changes from "A Room with a View" to le grand guignol.
Christine is the lynchpin of this film and she is a great character fulminating with rage and passion that inevitably leads her down the path towards mental illness...or is she merely having a very bad week? Lea the younger sister is a giggly mass of jello more than happy to be molded into a lover by Christine. Both actresses play their roles to the hilt and beyond culminating in the prison scenes in which both come very close to literally chewing the scenery. But it is all such a hoot that we care little and gladly suspend our disbelief; even though we do it with our mouths agape. Anyone remember Ken Russell's "The Devils?"
I suppose one could nit pick the weak psychological and social motivations of the characters and the film: why exactly is Christine so upset? Why does the mother find it necessary to take her younger daughter's wages when she herself is employed?
One of the major set pieces of "Murderous Maids" is Christine in the Mayor's office hysterically demanding that Lea be emancipated from their mother that ends in Christine being thrown out for causing a scene. It is so filled with over-ripe passion and hate it singes your ears and makes your stomach ache. Now that is moviemaking!
"Murderous Maids" is the kind of movie that dares you to laugh it off or ignore it...but it is so fabulously over-the-top in a Douglas Sirk/Roman Polanski way that you won't be able to. ... Read more