Une pure formalité

Misconstrued. I drowned in the jumble of dialogue, the insanely edited flashbacks and the amount of water everywhere. One star for the unusually depressing Morricone, the other for Depardieu and Polanski. (06/06/2021)

A totally dialogue-based flick with which it may be more than clear to you how the murder happened but which won’t let go of you and which will force you to watch dialogue after dialogue involving Gérard and Roman. Gérard Depardieu speaks Italian in this one, which was quite unusual for me, but on the other hand, he shows off some excellent acting, which is actually standard for him. The truth be told, this film made me realize why I like Gérard in the first place. These days he’s not as convincing anymore, but the films he made in the past speak volumes. For instance, this mere formality, which in Gérard’s acting history is no mere formality at all. (05/05/2017)

I was almost giving Tornatore a fifth star and opening a bottle of Champagne in celebration of this riveting conversational detective movie with an almost horror atmosphere. The conversation between two men, a writer and a police superintendent, gets weirder by the minute; there’s something unsaid hanging in the air. And then comes the twist (which I really wasn’t expecting). Used by a less competent director in a less competently made film, it would piss off everyone for fucking with the viewer. It’s hard to explain it without spoilers, but it’s kind of self-serving, because it doesn’t matter what happened before in the story. And it’s really true here, because it fails to clearly reveal and explain all those weird things that had been banging around my head for an hour and a half. In short, an excellent movie experience with a slightly bitter aftertaste. (17/12/2013)

While some people go round the mulberry bush, these two just sit in a room with a leaky ceiling. They don’t get out of their chairs for almost the entire movie, let alone leaving the room. And still, it is more suspenseful and more enthralling than many a “fast and furious" action movie. It’s the type of movie that is relies heavily on a strong screenplay with polished dialogs, but mainly on the actors. And the result proves that both Depardieu and Polanski give the best performances of their careers. An indisputable and flawless five-star affair that could aspire to being one of the best movie experiences I have ever had. So why did I give only four stars? Because I would have had to have seen it at least 2,973 days ago. Then I might not have guessed so soon what is going on here. To my own detriment. Oh dear... P.S.: A week later things are a little clearer in my head and since my only criticism of this movie is basically a “pure formality", I find I cannot hold back that fifth star in the end. (18/03/2008)