SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

GurlyIamBeach Instant Favorite.

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

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

audrey lescaux This film is remarkable.Beautifully shot, full of inventions, the film is extremely refreshing as most of Honoré's work. The tone is pop and lighthearted, while addressing unconventional subjects, such as elder's sexuality.The casting is impeccable as always with Honoré. If the duo Deneuve-Sagnier and the depiction of a female character of that generation had a taste of dejà-vu (Ozon? Todd Haynes?), Honoré managed to make it feel like unexplored territory. But that's with Vera's character that Honoré is at its best. Mastroianni is AMAZING!! You've never seen a woman in her late 30's depicted that way in a movie.The downturn of the film are the singing parts. It really doesn't work and it's even painful to watch. Other than Jacques Demy's films, one can think of Resnais's "On connait la chanson", Ozon's "8 femmes" or Ducastel & Martineau's "Jeanne et le garçon formidable" as examples of the successful mix of serious subject matters and musical. But with Honoré, it doesn't work (with the exception of the elegant telephone scene with Duris and Preiss in "Dans Paris"). It's tempting to just recommend to skip the singing parts as the film is otherwise quite long.Other than that, the film is a must see.

jerush I was surprised to see that most people across the internet hate this movie. I don't (and I am a recent Film grad, to qualify that). In fact, this is one of the most perfect movies I've ever seen, and one of my top 3 favorite French films. I was incredibly surprised by how long it was. A musical-y epic? But towards the second half I could actually sense how devoted Honore must've been to this movie, and why he didn't want to compromise it by condensing it. I watched this on my laptop logistics-wise, so I didn't have the same experience as someone stuck in a chair in a too-cold theater. The soundtrack? Exquisite. The cast? Perhaps could've been improved upon, but it's the familiar Honore cast and as such carries with it solid chemistry that was essential to the story. It channeled the Umbrellas of Cherbourg, with its lovely palette of colors. Yes, it has songs, and *yes* it took creative license. My imagination is vivid, so I didn't have to tax it too much to buy the story. I think the <25 demographic would prefer it more than the 30+.I feel that people had problems with it because they were expecting a da Vinci, but this is highly Impressionist in spirit.

writers_reign It takes a lot to get me to pay good money to see one of Cristope Honore's wet dreams and it'll take even more after this bad joke. The selling point such as it was took the shape of a chance to see Catherine Deneuve playing opposite her real-life daughter Chiara Mastroianni, as they did a couple of years ago in A Christmas Tale. I really should have known better, after all Honore did little for Isabel Huppert's career when he featured her in Ma Mere albeit Huppert has a penchant, unlike Deneuve, for appearing in sleaze and is such a great actress she is able to live it down. For Deneuve it must have felt like a sentimental journey of sorts given that her breakthrough role came in The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg where one hundred per cent of the dialogue was sung. Here it's something like seventy per cent and in forty eight years the lyrics here are just as banal as Demy provided for Umbrellas but the big difference is 1) Demy had the benefit of Michele Legrand's melodic gifts and was himself a gifted director whilst Honore is lumbered with a tone-deaf composer and couldn't direct a sex-starved sailor to a hooker in Hamburg. One to forget.

wvisser-leusden The well-made "Les bien-aimes" (= French for "the well loved-ones") shows a pretty extended plot. Stretching from the 19-Sixties up to 2007, it focuses on the lifetime so far of the baby-boom-generation. Of those born between 1945 and, let's say, 1953.You may also consider "Les bien-aimes" as an intelligent soap. It contains all ingredients for recognizing a Babyboomer's life. Acted out by a number of France's best actors and actresses, Catherine Deneuve prominently among them.In spite of its serious tuning, this film nowhere and never puts any weight on your mind. Which is characteristic for the French cinema. Another French characteristic: it leaves you with a good aftertaste.