New wave old wave this a movie film fans love to analyze. For a simple un-corrupted by preconceptions view I offer the following:
Plot: Naive but wealthy country bumpkin Charles arrives in Paris to study law....lives with his cousin Paul who shows him the latest new fast lane life of Paris (1959) = Beatnik goofy eccentric endless partying with women who really just want amusement and sex not overly serious relations. Charles falls for one such girl...Paul takes her away as a sort of lesson to Charles about her true nature. Charles flunks his law exam and then in despair and suppressed jealousy tries to kill Paul in his sleep by putting one bullet in a revolver a la Russian Roulette....Paul sleeps on after the click of the firing pin and after waking playfully points the gun at Charles and kills him with that one bullet (which he of course knows nothing about).
The film is talky and somewhat boring. I was not on the edge of my seat when Charles turns to reverse Russian Roulette and felt it anticlimactic when Paul accidentally kills him at the end.
There is symbolism everywhere every detail in every set thought out. This is not bad---for example: one pretty obvious one has Charles paging through the Code Penal while the girl he is in love with flicks on and off a light--you know a foreboding of his Russian Roulette.
I like the time travel in these movies....for that you need lots of street scenes to see the cars (the most enjoyable part of this movie for me--far too little of it though)...The bohemian apartment life just made Paul look like an idiot...if they were meant to underline the wild loose eccentric life they do the opposite--appear trite and forced.
I remember reading somewhere that Charbol loved American cars---there is an odd on in this movie a Nash. He also reportedly watched 3 American movies a day--I auppoaw during his formative years.
It took me 2 settings to view this film...
Unless you grew up in France of the late 50s and early 60s speak French (myself)...or like to micro analyze sets and dialog...don't really recommend.
Plot: Naive but wealthy country bumpkin Charles arrives in Paris to study law....lives with his cousin Paul who shows him the latest new fast lane life of Paris (1959) = Beatnik goofy eccentric endless partying with women who really just want amusement and sex not overly serious relations. Charles falls for one such girl...Paul takes her away as a sort of lesson to Charles about her true nature. Charles flunks his law exam and then in despair and suppressed jealousy tries to kill Paul in his sleep by putting one bullet in a revolver a la Russian Roulette....Paul sleeps on after the click of the firing pin and after waking playfully points the gun at Charles and kills him with that one bullet (which he of course knows nothing about).
The film is talky and somewhat boring. I was not on the edge of my seat when Charles turns to reverse Russian Roulette and felt it anticlimactic when Paul accidentally kills him at the end.
There is symbolism everywhere every detail in every set thought out. This is not bad---for example: one pretty obvious one has Charles paging through the Code Penal while the girl he is in love with flicks on and off a light--you know a foreboding of his Russian Roulette.
I like the time travel in these movies....for that you need lots of street scenes to see the cars (the most enjoyable part of this movie for me--far too little of it though)...The bohemian apartment life just made Paul look like an idiot...if they were meant to underline the wild loose eccentric life they do the opposite--appear trite and forced.
I remember reading somewhere that Charbol loved American cars---there is an odd on in this movie a Nash. He also reportedly watched 3 American movies a day--I auppoaw during his formative years.
It took me 2 settings to view this film...
Unless you grew up in France of the late 50s and early 60s speak French (myself)...or like to micro analyze sets and dialog...don't really recommend.