Odelecol
Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.
Fairaher
The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.
Plustown
A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.
Armand
it is its virtue. and its purpose. not to impress or to be remarkable. only a nice mixture of color, joy, music,crumbs of comedy and lovely actors. and it is enough. a film of Ingrid Bergman. and Jean Marais. Mel Ferrer and Juliette Greco as perfect spice. and few adorable scenes. a film of romance, songs and joy. short, a Jean Renoir and piece of a long chain of period. an oasis. not complicated, not really bad, far to be boring. charming at whole. and, sure, full of lovely situations. a film who remembers a special lost sensitivity. and nothing more. because, as Disney creations, essence in this case is the spell. the delicate and precise magic. and mission is complete.
loschavez
I couldn't help seeing some of the negative remarks here, making light of a truly venerable French film. They don't come any more glamorous.Seeing Ingrid Bergman as captured by Jean Renoir also reduces the cavils to ordinary vanity on the part of pompous reviewers. After all, it's Le Comedy Francais, not Ingemar Bergman diamond-cutting. To understand this kind of refined madcap, you have to lighten up! Even today with two world wars and world-wide depressions behind us; Ingrid the mother of all film actresses appears effortlessly artful and glamorous. Champagne doesn't age as spectacularly as this movie has. Together with the grandiose military posturing of Jean Marais, and with France in its Belle Epoque, Renoir gave us his own brilliance to treasure. Spoiler alert: Sorry to say poor Mel Ferrer alas, was out of his league. But he never danced better. The cameras betrayed his inner ardor, he was in love with Ingrid, as what virile hunk wouldn't be, holding her close? I'd have tumbled for her in a New York minute. The camera never loved her more audaciously either. Here is a lovely old movie with class.I have only two plebeian thumbs. They serve little purpose here but to contradict so many art connoisseurs in these pages who presume to teach Jean Renoir et Companie how to film a French romantic farce. Well, I offer two thumbs up! To all who remember the grace and beauty of Ingrid Bergman, then: SEE THIS JOYOUS MOVIE!
writers_reign
Several posters have quoted Renoir voicing his desire to make a film showing Ingrid Bergman smiling to camera. The short answer is wouldn't we all whilst the harsh reality is that only a select few got to do so. At this stage of her career Bergman couldn't get arrested; in 1949 she left Hollywood to make a picture in Europe, fell for director Roberto Rossellini and never looked forward. After five turkeys in Italy she was probably ready to open a vein but within the year, after making this for Renoir, she was back where she belonged and with an Oscar to boot for Anastasia. This is one of three movies that Renoir made in color around this time and on balance it's better than The Golden Coach, which isn't hard, and about even with French Can Can. Renoir probably figured that with so much going for her Bergman could get away with a couple of wooden leading men and Renoir picked two doozys in Jean Marais and Mel Ferrer, solid mahogany in both cases. The plot is actually based on a real incident in French history but Renoir is content to give it a once-over-lightly and concentrate on replicating the paintings of his father in set up after set up. In its pastel colors it resembles another film of the period Les Grandes Manouvres which is no bad thing. All in all it remains a pleasant trifle showcasing a beautiful and charismatic actress.
vostf
Jean Renoir once told he wanted to make this movie to see Ingrid Bergman smile to the camera. This is the strength and the limit of Elena et les hommes. Ingrid Bergman smiles, living buoyantly in this colorful political farce. She and every other character involved goes nowhere. Hence the movie can be seen as a light series of social shafts of wit, something Renoir has always been good at showcasing. He delivers this, his nephew delivers a really nice cinematography but on the whole it looks artificial and vain.Not a great movie so, but it's always a pleasure to see Bergman smile.
