Knowing that this was the last film Romy Schneider would ever make before she died barely halfway through an average life-span inevitably colours the way we approach it; it is the product of a highly respected writer, Joseph Kessel, and a journeyman director whose blushes I will spare, the two leads co-starred on other occasions and the male, Michel Piccoli is still going strong with a new film in the salles even as I write; the female enjoys iconic status and deservedly so, gracing several fine films in her tragically short career. Here she gets to play two roles in two time zones and relishes both. To call the story hackneyed is to call Stallone an acting joke, in other words, what else is new, but there is no denying the powerful 'presence' of Ms Schneider. If she had to go she did so with honour.
Review of The Passerby
