Reviews
Les grandes personnes (1961)
Under-rated early Jean Seberg, clear subtitles
After making Breathless (and before its success) Jean Seberg made three movies in France exploiting her youth and American accent. The first, Loveplay, is available but only in a poor quality copy, nor is it as rewarding as Time Out for Love. The third, Five Day Lover, probably was never released in video. For Jean Seberg fans Time Out for Love shows her off very well. She first appears as a pig-tailed brunette, Ann, a Nebraska nursing student on a summer vacation. The intention is that she is awkward and naive, but she looks great, especially in a sweater. Later she is transformed by her sophisticated friend, Michele (Micheline Presle), into a glamorous version of her cropped hair Breathless look. Both women share a love interest in a cold-hearted charmer (Maurice Ronet) who has seen better times. As in Loveplay, inevitable disillusionment follows, with the suggestion of life long consequences. Jean and Maurice Ronet are not as engaging as her pairing with Jean-Paul Belmondo in Breathless. But the photographic quality of my copy (Hollywood's Attic release) is far superior to what is available for Breathless, and unlike Breathless, the subtitles are almost all quite readable. If you like Jean Seberg, as an actress or a woman, you should enjoy this film.
Touch Me Not (1972)
Implausible, not so thrilling thriller with an odd twist at the end.
This movie does not have the production qualities you would expect of a Lee Remick movie. The industrial espionage motivation is puzzling as presented, yet murder is all in the game. The movie concludes with a long night-time pursuit of a delusional Lee Remick through a building by a knife wielding killer. His final tactic backfires, and the surprise reason somewhat redeems "Touch Me Not."
La récréation (1961)
Low budget follow-up to Breathless, for Seberg fans only.
Jean Seberg, after bombing in Otto Preminger's St. Joan, had her greatest success playing an American in Paris in Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless. In the same year (after, not before, Breathless) she was directed by her husband, Francois Moreuil, in this film (La Recreation, aka Love Play, aka Playtime). Again she plays an American abroad, but this time an innocent one (a boarding school student), who is attracted to a next-door sculpture. He and his mistress are painted as decadent, and he has committed a hit-and-run. The affair ends in crashing disillusionment for the Seberg character. My copy was very streaky, as most probably are. I am borrowing some here from "Played Out, the Jean Seberg Story" by David Richards (1981, out of print). The film is very dated - I would recommended it only to Jean Seberg fans.
Ever After (1998)
Deceptive trailer
The reason I went to see "Ever After" was because the trailer used "The Mummer's Dance" - a haunting song by Loreena McKennitt. But this song was not in the actual movie. In fact the movie was more one for kids, and in no way reflected the mood of Mummer's Dance. Though I managed to sit through it, I felt cheated. A further complaint: though totally fictional, "Ever After" does a disservice to viewers in implying that the Cinderella story is only a few hundred years old. On the contrary, the Cinderella theme is remarkable for its presence all over the world, and its great antiquity - probably thousands of years old.