Saturday, May 24, 2003
Vertigo
Directed by Alfred Hitchock
Considered by critics and audience as Hitchcock’s masterpiece; his most personal and one of the landmarks of world cinema now, it is strange to know that Vertigo was a box office and critical failure back when it was first released in 1958. Only when it was released years later in 1984, that reviewers started to praise its ingenuity.
This review which is based on a newly reissued Universal DVD version featuring extra materials includes a documentary on the making entitled, “Obsessed With Vertigo”. The documentary intercuts the restoration process with the filming process that gives you a better understanding of the movie. Pat Hitchcock, Alfred’s daughter interview adds praise to the canon but it is Martin Scorcese’s appearance that seems to baffle as he finds words to describe its magic. Frankly speaking, I was more enthralled by his looks and the restoration process than all the praise that was heaped onto it. But then, you do not expect any critic to denounce a film that is rated as a Top 10 Movies Of All Time in most movie circles and considering this is studio released PR material?
Vertigo is classic Hitchcock, action paced when it starts. A chase ensues during the night on rooftops. One of them leaps over a gap to the other roof. Another follows. He is a policeman. Then, another tries but instead slips and falls, caught hanging to a ledge in midair. It’s James Stewart panicky face. His big staring eyes and a wide gape revealing fear for the first time in the movie. We see his fear as he looks down. Hitchcock’s trick of using simultaneous zooming in and out to create the sudden dizzying paralyzing height. His police colleague looks back and notices James is hanging for his dear life. He goes over to help but falls down instead. James sees the man fell to his death.
This is a gripping introduction that creates an impact immediately. Immediately, Hitchcock puts James Stewart playing as John Ferguson, under the microscope, to put the story in perspective. The man explains his thoughts to female friend, ex fiancé when they were in college, Midge (Barbara Bel Geddes) why he quitted the force. He blames himself for the incident and is now suffering from acrophobia, the fear of heights which will lead to Vertigo, defined as a condition with a sensation of whirling and tendency to lose balance; dizziness, giddiness.
This weakness of Fergusson was actually a repeat of what we can say a “injured male character” syndrome. James played a photographer in Rear Window with a leg cast. Here, he has a corset which prevents him from lifting his arms but the serious harm done was “Vertigo”. Midge is the parallel of the nurse in Rear Window where she helps Ferguson but is not romantically involved with him. Though, we do know later, that she harbours a secret liking for the man.
He later meets up with college chum, now ship yard magnate Gavin Elster (Tom Helmore), to tail his wife, Madeleine (Kim Novak) whom Elster believes, is possessed by dead spirits. Ferguson reluctantly agrees to the task and finds out that Madeline is obsessed by a dead woman, Carlotta Valdes. Later, she was to jump from a Spanish Cathedral Tower, which Ferguson blames himself after it happened.
One can consider Vertigo as Hitchcock’s masterpiece but it is not typical of his canon. It does not have the murder weapon such as the scissors in Dial M For Murder or nylon string in Rope. The murder weapon, if any and one wants to analyse is probably “fear” which will reveal at the end of the movie. In Vertigo, “fear” is portrayed in shades and different forms. Ferguson’s fear of height can best be summed up where symbols, colours, spirals flood his dreams. It ends with himself falling down like a shadow. Madeline’s fear is one of being possessed. She is self-contained and unconscious as she goes to Carlotta Valdes’ grave and sits staring at the woman’s picture. The audience is hung on the fear of the unknown; the paranormal, the spirit of the dead. Is it real or otherwise?
Otherwise, Vertigo does not create much suspense though its in the suspense genre. It feels more like a love story interwined with complex psychological underplay among the actors that requires on the part of the audience to bring themselves to feel with the characters. There was prolonged silence while Ferguson was following Madeline everywhere she goes which lasted for eight minutes as claimed.
Here, Hitchcock employs more his trademark style. The static shots of the flowers and the way that Madeline’s hair is done to emphasize the eerie similarity of the dead and the living. The camera follows Madeline as if it was under the eye of Ferguson, closing on her as he gets nearer to her when she was at Carlotta’s grave. This was interposed with cuts showing Ferguson’s position to tell us how close he is to her. There are also driving scenes through the window which is interposed with the face of Ferguson to show us how he feels when he was following Madeline.
The irony of the chase is of course Ferguson’s claims that his profession is a wanderer, the same answer that Madeline gives him when he asks her what she has been doing.
Audiences are forced to wander along with the characters who has no idea know where to go next. This is untypical of Hitchcock who is renowned for moving his plot along meticulously on a tight tension that constantly engages his audience. It is not hard to see henceforth why it was such a failure back then.
Critics have instead chosen to focus more on the sexual tension and emotional dramatic overtones in Vertigo, even going as far as claiming it as personal (though Hitchcock never personally himself mentioned that aspect in the bonus material in the DVD edition; and we know him as a man who explains his art to questioning audiences) The cliche of melodrama is best highlighted in the scene where Ferguson takes Madeline in his arms and proclaim his undying love for her while the waves crashed against the rocks in the background.
Ferguson will meet Judy also played by Kim Novak after he has seemingly recovers from Judy’s death, finds himself trying to transform the living woman to the glory of the dead. It is here that critics (again) highlights the intentions of the director; claiming it, in Roger Ebert’s words,
“Over and over in his films, Hitchcock took delight in literally and figuratively dragging his women through the mud--humiliating them, spoiling their hair and clothes as if lashing at his own fetishes. Judy, in ``Vertigo,'' is the closest he came to sympathizing with the female victims of his plots. And Novak, criticized at the time for playing the character too stiffly, has made the correct acting choices: Ask yourself how you would move and speak if you were in unbearable pain, and then look again at Judy.”
James Stewart as Ferguson is overwrought with fears and baggage of his past that piles on as he tries more and more to recreate Judy. His at times restrained, at times exaggerated performance can come through as either being “real” or “fake”. His only spectacular close profiles are those, ironically, are those when we see his fear.
Kim Novak who handles dual roles is walking on a tightrope trying to juggle between different personalities. A woman possessed (or not?). A woman who is in love with a man who wants to see her as another woman who is already dead. And of course, when the ending is revealed to us, we see why her role is more difficult because she is in fact trying to act like a pretender, meaning she does a lot of pretensions in the movie while at the same time, having so much feelings it is almost impossible to untangle. Her credible acting in this two different roles tells us that not only is she a good actor, she can assimilate that into her character and confuses the audience into believing what the story wants us to believe.
Vertigo is not your typical Hitchcock film. Its central tenet is a romance tragedy caught in the tangles of deceit, lust, and the unexplained psychological terror, which tries to create a suspense. I wouldn’t consider it Hitchcock’s masterpiece though.
Janet Maslin of The New York Times says it best, in my opinion, “The commonplaces about "Vertigo" - that it is Hitchcock at his most obsessive, his most perverse, his most sexual - don't even begin to convey how very haunting this film is, or how bizarre. Nor do they describe the sheer daring with which the director, in this film, defies both logic and audience expectations, working in a much riskier and more passionate style than the coolly controlled one that became his trademark.”
Directed by Alfred Hitchock
Considered by critics and audience as Hitchcock’s masterpiece; his most personal and one of the landmarks of world cinema now, it is strange to know that Vertigo was a box office and critical failure back when it was first released in 1958. Only when it was released years later in 1984, that reviewers started to praise its ingenuity.
This review which is based on a newly reissued Universal DVD version featuring extra materials includes a documentary on the making entitled, “Obsessed With Vertigo”. The documentary intercuts the restoration process with the filming process that gives you a better understanding of the movie. Pat Hitchcock, Alfred’s daughter interview adds praise to the canon but it is Martin Scorcese’s appearance that seems to baffle as he finds words to describe its magic. Frankly speaking, I was more enthralled by his looks and the restoration process than all the praise that was heaped onto it. But then, you do not expect any critic to denounce a film that is rated as a Top 10 Movies Of All Time in most movie circles and considering this is studio released PR material?
Vertigo is classic Hitchcock, action paced when it starts. A chase ensues during the night on rooftops. One of them leaps over a gap to the other roof. Another follows. He is a policeman. Then, another tries but instead slips and falls, caught hanging to a ledge in midair. It’s James Stewart panicky face. His big staring eyes and a wide gape revealing fear for the first time in the movie. We see his fear as he looks down. Hitchcock’s trick of using simultaneous zooming in and out to create the sudden dizzying paralyzing height. His police colleague looks back and notices James is hanging for his dear life. He goes over to help but falls down instead. James sees the man fell to his death.
This is a gripping introduction that creates an impact immediately. Immediately, Hitchcock puts James Stewart playing as John Ferguson, under the microscope, to put the story in perspective. The man explains his thoughts to female friend, ex fiancé when they were in college, Midge (Barbara Bel Geddes) why he quitted the force. He blames himself for the incident and is now suffering from acrophobia, the fear of heights which will lead to Vertigo, defined as a condition with a sensation of whirling and tendency to lose balance; dizziness, giddiness.
This weakness of Fergusson was actually a repeat of what we can say a “injured male character” syndrome. James played a photographer in Rear Window with a leg cast. Here, he has a corset which prevents him from lifting his arms but the serious harm done was “Vertigo”. Midge is the parallel of the nurse in Rear Window where she helps Ferguson but is not romantically involved with him. Though, we do know later, that she harbours a secret liking for the man.
He later meets up with college chum, now ship yard magnate Gavin Elster (Tom Helmore), to tail his wife, Madeleine (Kim Novak) whom Elster believes, is possessed by dead spirits. Ferguson reluctantly agrees to the task and finds out that Madeline is obsessed by a dead woman, Carlotta Valdes. Later, she was to jump from a Spanish Cathedral Tower, which Ferguson blames himself after it happened.
One can consider Vertigo as Hitchcock’s masterpiece but it is not typical of his canon. It does not have the murder weapon such as the scissors in Dial M For Murder or nylon string in Rope. The murder weapon, if any and one wants to analyse is probably “fear” which will reveal at the end of the movie. In Vertigo, “fear” is portrayed in shades and different forms. Ferguson’s fear of height can best be summed up where symbols, colours, spirals flood his dreams. It ends with himself falling down like a shadow. Madeline’s fear is one of being possessed. She is self-contained and unconscious as she goes to Carlotta Valdes’ grave and sits staring at the woman’s picture. The audience is hung on the fear of the unknown; the paranormal, the spirit of the dead. Is it real or otherwise?
Otherwise, Vertigo does not create much suspense though its in the suspense genre. It feels more like a love story interwined with complex psychological underplay among the actors that requires on the part of the audience to bring themselves to feel with the characters. There was prolonged silence while Ferguson was following Madeline everywhere she goes which lasted for eight minutes as claimed.
Here, Hitchcock employs more his trademark style. The static shots of the flowers and the way that Madeline’s hair is done to emphasize the eerie similarity of the dead and the living. The camera follows Madeline as if it was under the eye of Ferguson, closing on her as he gets nearer to her when she was at Carlotta’s grave. This was interposed with cuts showing Ferguson’s position to tell us how close he is to her. There are also driving scenes through the window which is interposed with the face of Ferguson to show us how he feels when he was following Madeline.
The irony of the chase is of course Ferguson’s claims that his profession is a wanderer, the same answer that Madeline gives him when he asks her what she has been doing.
Audiences are forced to wander along with the characters who has no idea know where to go next. This is untypical of Hitchcock who is renowned for moving his plot along meticulously on a tight tension that constantly engages his audience. It is not hard to see henceforth why it was such a failure back then.
Critics have instead chosen to focus more on the sexual tension and emotional dramatic overtones in Vertigo, even going as far as claiming it as personal (though Hitchcock never personally himself mentioned that aspect in the bonus material in the DVD edition; and we know him as a man who explains his art to questioning audiences) The cliche of melodrama is best highlighted in the scene where Ferguson takes Madeline in his arms and proclaim his undying love for her while the waves crashed against the rocks in the background.
Ferguson will meet Judy also played by Kim Novak after he has seemingly recovers from Judy’s death, finds himself trying to transform the living woman to the glory of the dead. It is here that critics (again) highlights the intentions of the director; claiming it, in Roger Ebert’s words,
“Over and over in his films, Hitchcock took delight in literally and figuratively dragging his women through the mud--humiliating them, spoiling their hair and clothes as if lashing at his own fetishes. Judy, in ``Vertigo,'' is the closest he came to sympathizing with the female victims of his plots. And Novak, criticized at the time for playing the character too stiffly, has made the correct acting choices: Ask yourself how you would move and speak if you were in unbearable pain, and then look again at Judy.”
James Stewart as Ferguson is overwrought with fears and baggage of his past that piles on as he tries more and more to recreate Judy. His at times restrained, at times exaggerated performance can come through as either being “real” or “fake”. His only spectacular close profiles are those, ironically, are those when we see his fear.
Kim Novak who handles dual roles is walking on a tightrope trying to juggle between different personalities. A woman possessed (or not?). A woman who is in love with a man who wants to see her as another woman who is already dead. And of course, when the ending is revealed to us, we see why her role is more difficult because she is in fact trying to act like a pretender, meaning she does a lot of pretensions in the movie while at the same time, having so much feelings it is almost impossible to untangle. Her credible acting in this two different roles tells us that not only is she a good actor, she can assimilate that into her character and confuses the audience into believing what the story wants us to believe.
Vertigo is not your typical Hitchcock film. Its central tenet is a romance tragedy caught in the tangles of deceit, lust, and the unexplained psychological terror, which tries to create a suspense. I wouldn’t consider it Hitchcock’s masterpiece though.
Janet Maslin of The New York Times says it best, in my opinion, “The commonplaces about "Vertigo" - that it is Hitchcock at his most obsessive, his most perverse, his most sexual - don't even begin to convey how very haunting this film is, or how bizarre. Nor do they describe the sheer daring with which the director, in this film, defies both logic and audience expectations, working in a much riskier and more passionate style than the coolly controlled one that became his trademark.”
Friday, May 23, 2003
Band Of Outsiders
Directed by Jean Luc Goddard
Franz (Sami Frey) and Arthur (Claude Brasseur) plotted to burgle Madame Victoria, who is Odile’s (Anna Karina) aunt when the innocent girl tells them about a large amount of money hidden in their villa house. The money, we were to learn later is hidden in Mr Stolz’s room which Odile claims, the door to room, was never locked. Mr Stolz, though the story never explained who he was, was mentioned as a neighbour to Odile and his money is considered to come from “unclean” sources.
On paper, Band Of Outsiders sounds like a simple heist story but it is characteristic Goddard –linear story structure and improvised actor lines replete with innovative techniques which will influence future generations of directors. The most famous and oft quoted scene in this film is the one where Odile, Arthur and Franz break into a then popular dance called The Madison, in a cafe. This scene would be imitated in Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction where John Travolta and Uma Thurman did a retro number. Critics have also read those repeated dance steps as a significant reminder of how unrelated these people feel towards each other as they are out of synchronization with one another.
Band of Outsiders is experimental, even by today standards. For example, when Franz decided that they should remain silent for a minute, the whole screen descends into quietness. When the three actors were in the living room of the house contemplating what to do when they found out that Mr Stolz room was locked, the screen pans across like a circle, following the actors with Odile trying to run away from the two men, as they continue to engage in heated conversation. The living room of the villa is not only bare but weird with a mirror and a book shelf tugged away in a corner. It resembles a made up set in a studio and when they captured Madame Victoria, the camera is to move further down and we saw a cupboard which they will imprison her.
Perhaps its the relationship among our three protagonists which pulls the audience captivation, more than the burglary that they were executing. Franz seems to like Odile but does not show much concern for her and even allow Arthur to get close to her.
Odile, on the other hand, is reluctant to help out with the burglary and tries to make excuses not to let it happen. She has probably regretted telling Franz about the money though it was never mentioned if she wanted to be part of the crime. Anna Karina who exudes an childlike charm looks dubious most of the time. She seems unable to make up her mind if she likes Franz or Arthur better. We are made to feel as if she is still a teenager. Consider her reluctance to tell a lie to Madame Victoria thought she wants to meet both guys. later, she secretly tells her aunt that she was heading off to the groceries. When she was in the train with Arthur, she suddenly relapses into heaviness, claiming that passengers in the train always looks sad to her.
Arthur, who has the strongest intention on getting the money, fluctuates between being smooth towards Odile when they were together but condescending towards the girl and thinks her a simpleton when he talks in private with Arthur. His friendship with Arthur, though sandwiched with a girl, is cemented by a common knowledge that they are in it together and we do not know how they meet each other and stay with each other. Both of them seem to share a love for the crime world, probably imitated from American movies, when they play out fantasies of Billy The Kid.
If the characters seem slippy, the cinematography by Raoul Coutard is bleak and memorable, where Joshua Clover in the film essay of the Criterion DVD release says, Band Of Outsiders is “a filtered black and white that renders the Bastille neighborhood flat and workaday, the suburban landscape charged and ghostly, Band of Outsiders is more than anything a melancholy love letter to Paris and to time.” The route that Odile took to meet the guys is a secret path among tall leafless trees and involves crossing a stretch of water using a wooden boat. The villa looks dilapidated and is situated in an island separated from the main road. Arthur and Franz looks across the city and talks about their plans emoting their distance away from the city.
Band Of Outsiders has some memorable quotes too. For example, Goddard’s voice over of “Everything that is new is thereby automatically traditional” is a paradoxical statement. Though it is a new form of experimental cinema, it borrows from American B crime plots. Band Of Outsiders is in fact based on Dolores Hitchens' “Fools' Gold”. When Goddard narrates, “In parenthesis, one could discuss their individual feelings but they're clear enough, so let the pictures speak for themselves.” pulls us back to our reality that we are watching a movie foremost. And of course when Franz told the guys to be silent for a minute and remarks that “A real minute of silence can last an eternity.”, the silence in actual fact only lasts for 35 seconds in real time. When Odile tells Arthur, “Marriage is giving your breasts and thighs.”, It can be read as if nuptial ties in the girl’s mind are merely a woman’s physical submission to the husband . On the other hand, she could mean that marriage cuts off a woman’s sensuality and independence because breasts and thighs are considered by our predominately male society as a women’s important body parts which is used to judge their beauty. It can also mean death to the female soul as breasts and thighs are considered women’s beauty and that is what differentiate them from the men. By giving them away, marriage means the death of the women.
Goddard’s films are an acquired taste because they run against the grain of modern Hollywood cinema experience. Hollywood often exploits singular human emotions: drawing laughter, anger or tears, sometimes engaging in sideshow controversy. Band Of Outsiders is not that by any means. Rather, Band Of Outsiders is more multifold and subject to various interpretations. Some people like to call that avant garde. If that’s the only word we can best think of, then Band Of Outsiders, is likely to be the pioneer of the genre.
Directed by Jean Luc Goddard
Franz (Sami Frey) and Arthur (Claude Brasseur) plotted to burgle Madame Victoria, who is Odile’s (Anna Karina) aunt when the innocent girl tells them about a large amount of money hidden in their villa house. The money, we were to learn later is hidden in Mr Stolz’s room which Odile claims, the door to room, was never locked. Mr Stolz, though the story never explained who he was, was mentioned as a neighbour to Odile and his money is considered to come from “unclean” sources.
On paper, Band Of Outsiders sounds like a simple heist story but it is characteristic Goddard –linear story structure and improvised actor lines replete with innovative techniques which will influence future generations of directors. The most famous and oft quoted scene in this film is the one where Odile, Arthur and Franz break into a then popular dance called The Madison, in a cafe. This scene would be imitated in Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction where John Travolta and Uma Thurman did a retro number. Critics have also read those repeated dance steps as a significant reminder of how unrelated these people feel towards each other as they are out of synchronization with one another.
Band of Outsiders is experimental, even by today standards. For example, when Franz decided that they should remain silent for a minute, the whole screen descends into quietness. When the three actors were in the living room of the house contemplating what to do when they found out that Mr Stolz room was locked, the screen pans across like a circle, following the actors with Odile trying to run away from the two men, as they continue to engage in heated conversation. The living room of the villa is not only bare but weird with a mirror and a book shelf tugged away in a corner. It resembles a made up set in a studio and when they captured Madame Victoria, the camera is to move further down and we saw a cupboard which they will imprison her.
Perhaps its the relationship among our three protagonists which pulls the audience captivation, more than the burglary that they were executing. Franz seems to like Odile but does not show much concern for her and even allow Arthur to get close to her.
Odile, on the other hand, is reluctant to help out with the burglary and tries to make excuses not to let it happen. She has probably regretted telling Franz about the money though it was never mentioned if she wanted to be part of the crime. Anna Karina who exudes an childlike charm looks dubious most of the time. She seems unable to make up her mind if she likes Franz or Arthur better. We are made to feel as if she is still a teenager. Consider her reluctance to tell a lie to Madame Victoria thought she wants to meet both guys. later, she secretly tells her aunt that she was heading off to the groceries. When she was in the train with Arthur, she suddenly relapses into heaviness, claiming that passengers in the train always looks sad to her.
Arthur, who has the strongest intention on getting the money, fluctuates between being smooth towards Odile when they were together but condescending towards the girl and thinks her a simpleton when he talks in private with Arthur. His friendship with Arthur, though sandwiched with a girl, is cemented by a common knowledge that they are in it together and we do not know how they meet each other and stay with each other. Both of them seem to share a love for the crime world, probably imitated from American movies, when they play out fantasies of Billy The Kid.
If the characters seem slippy, the cinematography by Raoul Coutard is bleak and memorable, where Joshua Clover in the film essay of the Criterion DVD release says, Band Of Outsiders is “a filtered black and white that renders the Bastille neighborhood flat and workaday, the suburban landscape charged and ghostly, Band of Outsiders is more than anything a melancholy love letter to Paris and to time.” The route that Odile took to meet the guys is a secret path among tall leafless trees and involves crossing a stretch of water using a wooden boat. The villa looks dilapidated and is situated in an island separated from the main road. Arthur and Franz looks across the city and talks about their plans emoting their distance away from the city.
Band Of Outsiders has some memorable quotes too. For example, Goddard’s voice over of “Everything that is new is thereby automatically traditional” is a paradoxical statement. Though it is a new form of experimental cinema, it borrows from American B crime plots. Band Of Outsiders is in fact based on Dolores Hitchens' “Fools' Gold”. When Goddard narrates, “In parenthesis, one could discuss their individual feelings but they're clear enough, so let the pictures speak for themselves.” pulls us back to our reality that we are watching a movie foremost. And of course when Franz told the guys to be silent for a minute and remarks that “A real minute of silence can last an eternity.”, the silence in actual fact only lasts for 35 seconds in real time. When Odile tells Arthur, “Marriage is giving your breasts and thighs.”, It can be read as if nuptial ties in the girl’s mind are merely a woman’s physical submission to the husband . On the other hand, she could mean that marriage cuts off a woman’s sensuality and independence because breasts and thighs are considered by our predominately male society as a women’s important body parts which is used to judge their beauty. It can also mean death to the female soul as breasts and thighs are considered women’s beauty and that is what differentiate them from the men. By giving them away, marriage means the death of the women.
Goddard’s films are an acquired taste because they run against the grain of modern Hollywood cinema experience. Hollywood often exploits singular human emotions: drawing laughter, anger or tears, sometimes engaging in sideshow controversy. Band Of Outsiders is not that by any means. Rather, Band Of Outsiders is more multifold and subject to various interpretations. Some people like to call that avant garde. If that’s the only word we can best think of, then Band Of Outsiders, is likely to be the pioneer of the genre.
Thursday, May 22, 2003
Confidentially Yours (Vivement dimanche!)
Directed by Francois Truffaut
Francois Truffaut’s last film in 1983, Confidentially Yours is widely acknowledged by critics as a tribute to Hollywood’s suspense master, Alfred Hitchcock. It’s easy to see the reference given Confidentially Yours is a thriller based on a wronged man trying to clear his name which is a common classic Hitchcockian theme. Think 39 Steps or North by Northwest.
The murder begins immediately and mysteriously. A man is shot cold-blood and it appears he knows the killer because his last words were “hi it’s you”. Even before he (or we as audience) can register anything, we see a hand in gloves with a gun. A shot is heard and bloods splatter on the man’s face.
The preceding scene immediately draws us to a man emerging out of the bushes from which we infer that this was the place that our victim was killed. The man turns out to be Julien Vercel (Jean-Louis Trintignant ) a honest looking middle aged lad whom we will see next, entering his office and reprimanding his secretary, Barbara Becker (Fanny Ardant who happens to be Francois lover in real life and appeared also in his other movie, “Women Next Door”) because she was rude to his wife.
It appears that she was being fired before their bickering was broken up by the sudden interference of the police inspectors who confirmed our suspicions that our leading man was guilty. Julien had gone hunting and saw the murdered man’s car. Later, we were to found out that his wife’s was the dead man’s lover. If the pieces come too easily, its because things are not what they are though mounting evidence indicates he is guilty of the crime.
Fanny Ardant, as the secretary, whom we learn later, that she has a crush on the boss, then decided to take it into her own hands to help him clear his name by helping him investigate while he was locked up in the office.
Fanny as our pretty leading lady is suitable in her role as a casual yet clever woman who seems able to walk into any situation easily. The fact that she doesn’t look and act like an investigator makes her more believable towards her leads. Watch out for her classic impersonation as a hooker in this film as she tries to get closer to Louison (who is one of the leads) and compare it to the earlier hilarious scene where she tells a male customer looking for a prostitute the time instead of the price. He had mistaken her for one of them. It’s a total conversion.
Fanny scenes with Julien are intense, but mostly funny as they pick on one another. Lover’s fights? Watch Fanny insisting on visiting their prime suspect’s house while Julien outsmart her by following in the car to them finally working out their issues and putting their heads together to work out the next steps when all the leads seem to fail. Confidentially Yours progresses by showing us the latest developments of their findings at the same time, develop their love story.
Though Jean-Louis Trintignant as Julien is in his middle age, he looks like he is still a boy at times. How else to explain why he seemed oblivious to Fanny’s attraction. or his fascination with the walking legs when he was cooped up in the office. When he realized that Fanny was in love with him, he still seems pretty unsure until they were all alone in their office and Fanny came clean with her feelings. It’s as if he was in love for the first time. His inability to be angry with his wife who cuckolded him seems to imply that he was not too sure of their relationship.
Confidentially Yours also throws in certain scenes not relevant to solving the murder which may seem a little clever. When Fanny saw Julien watching the legs through the windows, the camera did a long pan to show us what the fuss was about. Later, Fanny will deliberately walk across the window secretly hoping that he had been admiring her legs. The blonde that came for the interview to replace her engages her in idle conversation and we are amazed at her ability to type using one finger while Fanny makes a silly comment that the girl is even blonde. Is this considered a dumb blonde joke that we are supposed to laugh? I did. Then, she went on to tell her that Julien likes blonde, upon which the camera immediately turned to Julien’s expression lingering between incredibilty and a trace of truth. How are we suppose to decipher that?
Confidentially Yours never fails to engage us because we are constantly seeing something some funny, some serious, some love and some irrelevant to the plot. The characters voice out their thoughts which helps us understand why they do certain things and what they are doing next. We are taken along with them in their search for the real murderer.
Confidentially Yours may not bore the power to move and touch of his early classics such as The 400 Blows or Jim and Jules. But as his last movie, it remains entertaining.
Directed by Francois Truffaut
Francois Truffaut’s last film in 1983, Confidentially Yours is widely acknowledged by critics as a tribute to Hollywood’s suspense master, Alfred Hitchcock. It’s easy to see the reference given Confidentially Yours is a thriller based on a wronged man trying to clear his name which is a common classic Hitchcockian theme. Think 39 Steps or North by Northwest.
The murder begins immediately and mysteriously. A man is shot cold-blood and it appears he knows the killer because his last words were “hi it’s you”. Even before he (or we as audience) can register anything, we see a hand in gloves with a gun. A shot is heard and bloods splatter on the man’s face.
The preceding scene immediately draws us to a man emerging out of the bushes from which we infer that this was the place that our victim was killed. The man turns out to be Julien Vercel (Jean-Louis Trintignant ) a honest looking middle aged lad whom we will see next, entering his office and reprimanding his secretary, Barbara Becker (Fanny Ardant who happens to be Francois lover in real life and appeared also in his other movie, “Women Next Door”) because she was rude to his wife.
It appears that she was being fired before their bickering was broken up by the sudden interference of the police inspectors who confirmed our suspicions that our leading man was guilty. Julien had gone hunting and saw the murdered man’s car. Later, we were to found out that his wife’s was the dead man’s lover. If the pieces come too easily, its because things are not what they are though mounting evidence indicates he is guilty of the crime.
Fanny Ardant, as the secretary, whom we learn later, that she has a crush on the boss, then decided to take it into her own hands to help him clear his name by helping him investigate while he was locked up in the office.
Fanny as our pretty leading lady is suitable in her role as a casual yet clever woman who seems able to walk into any situation easily. The fact that she doesn’t look and act like an investigator makes her more believable towards her leads. Watch out for her classic impersonation as a hooker in this film as she tries to get closer to Louison (who is one of the leads) and compare it to the earlier hilarious scene where she tells a male customer looking for a prostitute the time instead of the price. He had mistaken her for one of them. It’s a total conversion.
Fanny scenes with Julien are intense, but mostly funny as they pick on one another. Lover’s fights? Watch Fanny insisting on visiting their prime suspect’s house while Julien outsmart her by following in the car to them finally working out their issues and putting their heads together to work out the next steps when all the leads seem to fail. Confidentially Yours progresses by showing us the latest developments of their findings at the same time, develop their love story.
Though Jean-Louis Trintignant as Julien is in his middle age, he looks like he is still a boy at times. How else to explain why he seemed oblivious to Fanny’s attraction. or his fascination with the walking legs when he was cooped up in the office. When he realized that Fanny was in love with him, he still seems pretty unsure until they were all alone in their office and Fanny came clean with her feelings. It’s as if he was in love for the first time. His inability to be angry with his wife who cuckolded him seems to imply that he was not too sure of their relationship.
Confidentially Yours also throws in certain scenes not relevant to solving the murder which may seem a little clever. When Fanny saw Julien watching the legs through the windows, the camera did a long pan to show us what the fuss was about. Later, Fanny will deliberately walk across the window secretly hoping that he had been admiring her legs. The blonde that came for the interview to replace her engages her in idle conversation and we are amazed at her ability to type using one finger while Fanny makes a silly comment that the girl is even blonde. Is this considered a dumb blonde joke that we are supposed to laugh? I did. Then, she went on to tell her that Julien likes blonde, upon which the camera immediately turned to Julien’s expression lingering between incredibilty and a trace of truth. How are we suppose to decipher that?
Confidentially Yours never fails to engage us because we are constantly seeing something some funny, some serious, some love and some irrelevant to the plot. The characters voice out their thoughts which helps us understand why they do certain things and what they are doing next. We are taken along with them in their search for the real murderer.
Confidentially Yours may not bore the power to move and touch of his early classics such as The 400 Blows or Jim and Jules. But as his last movie, it remains entertaining.
