Cubussoli Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

PodBill Just what I expected

Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

LouHomey From my favorite movies..

nicholas-rogers I have never seen such a nicely made piece of rubbish in my life. I am still working out what the film was about and what was its cause. There was none and I felt I wasted an hour and a half, as well as £1.50 hiring this from the library. Nonetheless, it was beautifully made, the camera work was nice, there were interesting statements about love and Sandra Majani has a very nice bottom.So what does happen exactly; well, it's about a man called Victor Chmara (Hippolyte Girardot) who doesn't do much with his life apart from living off his fathers inheritance. He falls in love with the beautiful actress Yvonne (Sandra Majani) and becomes best-buddies with her mysterious old friend Dr Meinthe (Jean-Pierre Marielle). They all have a great time together and then things go wrong after a strange motor/fashion show. Victor wants to go to the USA, Yvonne doesn't, and the Doctor just continues being camp. If I tell you anymore, I end up telling you the ending, so that's enough of the synopsis. There are ingredients in this film that I liked. The camera work was sometimes interesting and there were some nice landscape shots. The dialogue, the heart to hearts, the warble about their lives, the philosophical statements about 'never letting her (Yvonne) go' were very romantic and very poetic. The acting by Jean-Pierre Marielle as the camp doctor was also amusing. Otherwise, his character is totally wasted in the story and has a far bigger role than that is necessary. For me, Patrice Leconte's reason for adapting Patrick Modiano's book Villa Triste to the big screen was all about Sandra Majani and seeing her nude. She was a poor actress. Her movement and the way she carried herself was half-hearted. That goes for Hippolyte Girardot as well. He plays someone a little too stiff to be in love. Either the actors are poor or the director is, because there are bad performances all around, and it's the director's job to make sure that these types of performances do not happen. Another of his problems was conveying the messages in the story. They were mixed up and statements of romance were just thrown together without thought of the plot. To me it just seemed pretentious and the director was trying to be too clever with little resources. The story had little meaning other than not to let love go when you have it. That and to see a beautiful French lady naked, which was admittedly quite nice. The statements of love were unsubtle and the acting didn't really convey any proper emotion. Totally unconvincing and I hope Yvonne's bad smelling perfume goes away. I give this film two.

shu-fen '"Le Parfum d'Yvonne", it's famous, every one knows it.' A then 23-year-old Swiss girl told me very excitedly when we so by chance stayed in the same drab pension at the Moslem Quarter in Old Jerusalem City in Jerusalem, Israel. That was 1994 and so I watched this movie in Vevey when I went to visit her later in 1995. Yes, entertaining and erotic to some extent. Changes from the original book are largely on the age of the characters like Victor is 18 in the book but a 30+ in the movie.Its attractions are apparent: 1) Switzerland is famous for its natural beauty 2) young pretty sexy starlet who dares to undress in a sensuous way. She once takes off her brief panties at the pier of Lake Geneva and gives it to Victor as a gift 3) the story is told in flashback, perhaps in the early 60's where the actual incident takes place in 1958, nostalgia is always a hit to Europeans 4) tantalizing and sensuous love scene between Yvonne and Victor 5) the mysteries of Yvonne, Victor and homosexual Dr. Rene Meinthe, their own personal stories are not known at all 6) they meet at the hall/foyer of a hotel, a dream place of men and women to meet their romance or love, immediately they start their romance in such a beautiful place 7) Unreal is the word for the atmosphere, it is a dream, Yvonne is a big secret herself, she is unreal, hard to get hold of 8) Nice music, I especially remember the older man who sings "Sa Jeunesse" in dark voice.All these are effective elements for a blockbuster movie. To me, it's a past-time entertainment without much to tell. So pitiful that Sandra Majani did not do any more filming after this one, she is really a sweet girl.

dbdumonteil Adaptation of a novel by Patrick Modiano, "le parfum d'Yvonne" represents another Patrice Leconte's success. To make this film, the director drew from several elements dating from his previous movies. Thus, the doctor Meinthe (excellent Jean-Pierre Marielle) is very close to Michel Mortez in "Tandem" (1987) while Yvonne's sensual beauty evokes Mathilde's in "the hairdresser's wife" (1990). So, Leconte turned a novel into a personal movie.This movie tells a past love story that brings on a deep nostalgia due to gorgeous summer pictures enhanced by a luminous photography. It's almost a poetic and dreamlike work. And however, this happiness is too good to be true. Indeed, behind this idle and free life, hide zones of shadows. Victor Chmara claims to Yvonne that he is a wealthy Russian earl but he's nothing of the sort. He's just a young man who fled Paris so as to avoid his military enlistment (we are in 1958 and at this time, it is the Algerian war). Moreover, he wants to go to the USA but Yvonne refuses because Victor can't speak English. So, she leaves him and there's this famous sentence that says: love stories, in general don't have a happy ending. It is true.Leconte built his movie on a long flashback and he alternates the story with two of the main characters' current situation. From this moment, we can take down a strong contrast between the shiny pictures of a celebrated and distant summer and the dark photography to connote a dull present that shows the main characters' distress and bitterness (especially the doctor Meinthe).A beautiful and bitter movie. If you are a fan of Patrice Leconte, don't miss this one.

Floresco As the audience of this movie you will drown into the atmosphere of boredom from three non-characters who are heading straight for the ending you all expect from the beginning. I still liked it though.