Alicia I love this movie so much

BoardChiri Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

erling-eliasson Stepping out of the cinema in Cannes one early evening in the summer of 1981 with the comment of a Frenchman: "C'est excellent!" I felt a genuine sympathy for that person. To me he looked to be in his 50/60es and he may not live anymore now more than 30 years after that night, however, he spoke exactly what I felt, and still feel after all these years. I was 25 then and very sensitive to colorful and sentimental stories; and here was one that had a storyboard of the classics and with the outline and looks of something very modern with a certain freshness - and lots of heart. I was immediately taken and still is. It lives in me inseparably with the memories of my youth. It may not be the greatest film ever made, it may even just be a second-rate piece of art. I really don't know. And I don't care. This is one of the best films I have seen. I hold as dear as books like Tolstoy's War And Peace, Thomas Mann's The House of Buddenbrook, music like the Tchaikovsky's symphonies and the songs of Serge Reggiani. It may be just a dream. It may not stand chance by a review. Still I would like to thank Mr. Lelouch and the whole cast for an unforgettable and magnificent experience. C'etait vraiment excellent!

maryclare53 Delighted to see this film again, which I first saw in 1981, in Paris. Most of it was as I remembered it , but one or two things were different. I realise it would not be everyone's choice, but the panorama of people, events and places is something I can luxuriate in. Still amazed that Geraldine Chaplin has such a smoky voice! Towards the end when characters appeared to be duplicated it was not always easy to follow - I speak good French, but even so, I think I would have benefited from a translation and some good subtitles. On the whole, though, the intricacies of the plot were revealed without difficulty and the insistent Bolero of Ravel drew it all together.

Rob Sutherland Life is too short to watch films more than once, but make an exception for this Masterpiece.The threads are thinly woven - the Russian Ballerina, the German Pianist, the American Bandleader, the Parisian musicians. Their stories cross tangentially, and in a film with almost no dialogue the music drives them on through three generations.This is a movie about love and family and emptiness and death, but also about redemption despite the complete lack of sentimentality in the film. The climax to the thread about the search of the mother for her son is unbearable to watch, despite being held in still-frame longshot. Every action, every nuance, every gesture...This is a movie of recurrence - the scenes in the Paris station with first the Jews, then the Germans being herded onto the train, then finally the TV special. The way in which the American Bandleader whistles to his father, then his daughter's husband whistles to her in the same way. Even the recurring shots of the blind accordionist.Possibly the ending is too neat. Perhaps the threads should remain frayed around the edges. But the symmetry of the overall structure reinforces the theme of redemption over many generations and through love. The 20th century has seen many horrors, but this is an optimistic film.I cannot recommend this movie too highly.

teach25 I saw that movie when it came out, and it is a great movie. I have the music for it and I still listen to it after all these year. I had the music on a record then on a cassette and now on a CD. I am looking very hard to find this film on DVD. I want to share that movie with my friends.