World cinema lost a great craftsman when François Truffaut passed away from a brain tumour in 1984, but his legacy lives on of course and here in Vivement dimanche! we have a very fitting and enjoyable swansong. Basically a crime/romance film, Truffaut treats us to a sort of pulp noir for the 80s audience, and by golly it works a treat. The plot is scrambled as Barbara Becker goes in search of clues to prove that her boss {ex} is innocent of a murder when all the evidence points to him actually being the killer. It sounds simple but there is much more going on as Truffaut has woven into the mix the complexities of love, there is more to Barbara and her boss Julien than is at first thought, and the journey that Barbara takes is dark and interesting in equal measure.
The cast are simply sublime, I adored every actor in this film because they all give memorable performances to a number of interesting and integral characters. The leads are pitch perfect, Fanny Ardant as Barbara is just wonderful, putting layers into the role the further into the seedy underworld she goes, whilst Jean-Louis Trintignant feeds off Ardant's lead and gives a gusto and perfectly wrought turn to savour, shot in classic black & white to add to the flavour of the genre, the film is a sure fire winner, and the ending is tops as well, 9/10.
The cast are simply sublime, I adored every actor in this film because they all give memorable performances to a number of interesting and integral characters. The leads are pitch perfect, Fanny Ardant as Barbara is just wonderful, putting layers into the role the further into the seedy underworld she goes, whilst Jean-Louis Trintignant feeds off Ardant's lead and gives a gusto and perfectly wrought turn to savour, shot in classic black & white to add to the flavour of the genre, the film is a sure fire winner, and the ending is tops as well, 9/10.