An Exercise In Nonsense

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

A very poignant movie with a harsh subject and a claustrophobic setting. For me it was a riveting experience. Most of the film is deployed against the background of a French police station of the province. The gist of the story is communicated by the interaction between the two female leads, Sophie Marceau, the guilty woman that after ten years of the facts, comes to denounce herself for the assassination of her abusive husband, and Miou-Miou, the old hand and weary lieutenant of police that, due to her bad luck, was on duty filling the night shift. At first, I was very doubtful about seeing this kind of film. I hate to spend time watching appalling crimes in the news media . Lately one of the most commons is that of beat up women, poor human beings that has to endure a very hell in earth, trapped in the intimacy of a relationship that went very wrong. But cinema is art and in my opinion, Jean-Paul Lilienfeld, the director and the script writer of the film, was very skillful in the way that he presented the flashback scenes, those that show us the awful violence that the character of Sophie Marceau must suffer. If he would used a more graphical approach, the emotional charge of the viewer would be impossible to bear and the taste of the entire film would be put in doubt. But the technical approach was impeccable, and the spectator empathizes with the protagonist without loosing her/his mind and the attention to the plot. And of course, kudos for the leading ladies. Sophie Marceau, the guilty one, and also the victim, was right in the money all the time. A great piece of acting in a long and solid career beginning at the age of thirteen in the successful film La Boum. And Miou-Miou, another wonderful trouper of the French cinema with 89 titles under her belt, was a perfect unmovable object for the irresistible force of the stubborn Sophie Marceau. It's a clash of two strongly determined women, that in the end, learn to respect each other. In conclusion, an stirring story of a very much mistreated woman, seeking to put an end to her suffering that it has not ceased with the death of her nasty husband, and of a very cynical and weary police officer that learned something about herself in the process.

At first sight, the audience think of Claude Miller's GARDE A VUE. Almost entirely shot in one set, the face to face between the two leads: a police officer and the suspect. Here, a very strange and unusual tale, where a widow - Sophie Marceau - goes to the police station to testify against herself. She declares the murder of her late husband, ten years ago, a violent husband who regularly beat her. And the inquest at this time concluded as an accident, or suicide. Yes, a weird and surprising story, where, I was also surprised to see that Marceau seemed not convinced by her character. But the very endingSPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERSis poignant at the most, terrific. Marceau is finally imprisoned and she talks to her son, during one visiting room, and she tells him that she killed his father - his god - ONLY to prove to her son that she was not ONLY a victim. She wanted him to be proud of her.Terrific. And the subplot about the female police officer - Miou Miou - and her own mother and father, is also very unusual and excellent.I will finish by pointing out the Marc Barbe character, as the violent late husband. Barbe is the absolutely perfect character for such a character. No actor in the world would have played it better than him. No one. He seems to be born for such characters. Remember him in TROIS HUIT. The prefect disgusting bastard. A very good actor. But is he really only an actor in such characters?