Lancoor A very feeble attempt at affirmatie action

Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

sbasu-47-608737 Let me leave aside the glamour coefficient of Romy, which was in large measures in this movie, she looked glamorous even in a prim suit here, and it was no wonder that every one was making a pass on her, from the judge, to the defense lawyer to her husband's best friend, and becoming her mortal enemy when she rebuffed them and that is the basic crux of the story. This is a story more into study of human sexuality, or rather a man's and as pointedly told in the end "It's a man's world, where all the law's are made by man" The main two character around whom the story revolves are the spouses Wormser (Romy and Steiger) and their problem is the lack of physical relationship due to the husband's health, first we are made to belief it was his heart problem, and later told that he was impotent, it was one of those, or something else, wouldn't be divulged till the end.Anyway lack of physical relationship (for couple of years by then), the young and glamorous wife falls in the arm of a young pulp-fiction-writer, and they plan to murder the wealthy husband, frame it as an accident, and then legally walk off with the money. From there the crossing and double crossing starts between not only the three main figures (husband wife and lover), but a few others too. The police suspects, but without the corpus delicti, and also the prime suspect (lover) supposed to be dead in and accident the case falls flat, and the widow is acquitted, despite police rightly suspecting her. Nothing out of the ordinary in the deduction process, may be a bit Sherlock-ian, but the evidences for deductions were all there, even to audience, to come to the conclusion the detectives (or rather one) did. As some have pointed out, there had been twists and turns, including resurrection, but that didn't create too much of aberration, and rather brought the story to a some-what predictable end, without surprises. By surprise I mean, creating situations to force the end, here everything fell naturally without manipulation, even the end.The characters of the men, all swarming around the glamorous young woman were all well portrayed, even their 'male' mind-set was clear by the epithets they used for her, especially considering that she was a deprived woman than a depraved woman. But ce'st la vie, don't we still look at most with that eyes? The crime graph would show that it is really a man's world. If a woman resists, either she is subjugated or termed as bitch or even worse.This deprivation could have serious implications too, and that is again natural. Here, her all internal feelings remained in, the ember was covered in the thick ash courtesy the physical needs and could come out when the ash was rudely shaken.

MartinHafer First, as another reviewer pointed out, the two leads (Romy Schneider and Rod Steiger) do their parts in English and the rest of the cast are speaking French--making it irrelevant whether or not you watch the French-dubbed or English-dubbed version. However, and this is odd, you probably should NOT watch the film with captioning, as the subtitles are inferior to both dubbed versions! I know this makes no sense, but often the subtitles were inaccurate or didn't convey the message as well as the actors originally spoke! I actually watched about half the film in French and then watched the other half in English. But boy were those subtitles annoying--even getting little details wrong.As for the film itself, through the first half of the film, it all seems pretty familiar--especially for a tale directed by Claude Chabrol. He made a career out of films about infidelity and murder. However, midway through the film, the film has many excellent twists and turns. BUT I CANNOT REALLY TALK ABOUT THEM WITHOUT WRITING A FEW SPOILERS, SO BE ADVISED!!! Romy and boy-toy, Jeff, begin a torrid affair as the husband (Steiger) drinks himself to oblivion. Eventually, the lovers come up with a plan to murder Steiger and live off his fortune. Unfortunately for the lovers, the plan goes awry but it isn't certain exactly what happened--all we know is Romy is now being blamed for possibly killing BOTH men, as there isn't much trace of them.When Steiger returns later and is indeed alive, this created a wonderful opportunity for the film, as Romy suddenly found that her formerly impotent husband is very potent indeed and their dead relationship is rejuvenated. This would have been a wonderful point to end the story. In essence, the woman's lover is killed by the impotent man, who, in doing this regains his own power and sexuality--a somewhat kinky but fascinating idea. Unfortunately, while this was where the film was going, the movie had an additional 30 minutes of plot twists that did a lot to confuse everything and make the story much more difficult to believe. It's a great example of a film that didn't know when to stop. Without the next 30 minutes, I'd have scored the movie an 8. With it, the impact is greatly lessened. I strongly agree with the review that saw this film as needlessly complicated--a problem common to many of Chabrol's films.Finally, a note to parents that this isn't a great film for kids due to its sexual nature and nudity. Miss Schneider, at age 37, is quite lovely in her many nude scenes--it's a real shame her life off-screen was so short and tragic.

adverts Well done thriller - I won't add to the other comments save this -- just so you know -- Rod Steiger and Romy Schneider were filmed speaking in English while all other characters were filmed speaking in French: So, you have two choices (assuming you're either English or French speaking - and not Spanish): Watch the film in French (with or without English subtitles) - but keep in mind Rod Stieger and Romy Schinedier's voices will be DUBBED into French. It is definitely not Steiger speaking French (although I think Romy speaks both languages) Watch it in English - and the voices of the all other (French) actors (except Steiger and Schneider) will be DUBBED into English.Didn't bother me tooo much...but I'm a Steiger fan - so I needed to hear him speak in his native tongue.

Artemis-9 more important than the carefully analysis of a wife/husband relationship gone sour, with a cunning game between the husband and the wife's lover, is the magnificent depiction of the relationships between a number of characters. The whole bourgeois world that Chabrol so often chastised is here, with unforgettable roles by Romy Schneider, Rod Steiger, and Jean Rochefort. Sum-up: Film's photography is neat; Justice... has got "dirty hands".