La femme d'à côté (1981)

 

Two ex-lovers wind up living next door to each other with their respective spouses. Forbidden passions ensue.

From memory: A highly dramatic, passionate and ultimately tragic amour fou tale relies mostly on the strong performances by Ardant and Depardieu.

Halliwell (no star): "Rather uninteresting melodrama with a failure to communicate its apparent personal importance for the director."

Maltin***: "Somber, compassionate study of human nature and emotions,nicely acted by the two leads." 

Vivement dimanche! (1983)

8 Femmes (2002)

A man is murdered, and the eight women in his household each seem to be more eager than the others to know the truth.

A tongue-in cheek homage to Agatha Christie-styled murder mysteries, staged as a closed-room musical and with an otherwise great cast playing their roles in exaggerated hysterics, is not really something one can feel nostalgic for.

On rewatching: Watchable, but could have been so much better...

Halliwell**: "Highly artificial, witty, enjoyable pastiche of a country house murder mystery, with bravura performances from its stellar cast, representing four generations of French acting, who burst into song at unexpected moments."

Maltin**1/2: "Wonderful opportunity to watch some of France's most formidable females in an odd whodunit-melodrama-musical...Fun to a degree, especially when the actresses sing and dance, but awfully forced."

Un Amour de Swann (1984)

When the elegant and educated bachelor Charles Swann falls in love with a courtesan, his friends in the most powerful and fashionable circles of Paris in the 1890's warn him against marriage.

Well produced with top credentials in all departments, the result is a unloving, coldly calculated adaptation of Proust's story; alone Hans Werner Henze's excellent score gives an impression of what this movie could have been.

Halliwell**: "Reasonably successful attempt to film part of an unfilmable book. Comparisons with Letter From an Unknown Woman are inevitable."

Maltin**1/2: "Lavish but lifeless telescoping of Proust's Remembrance of Things Past with Irons surprisingly stiff...Redeemed somewhat by the latter [Ornella Muti] and Delon (as a homosexual baron), a sexy under-the-covers scene, and Sven Nykvist photography. "