Riding high on the box-office and Oscar success of his previous effort, A MAN AND A WOMAN (1966), Lelouch also saw himself competing in the Best Foreign Language Film category here. However, gold does not often strike twice – and, in this case, would have been quite undeserving had it done so; nevertheless, it did emerge the eventual winner at the Golden Globes, where it defeated Czech Oscar winner CLOSELY OBSERVED TRAINS, Pietro Germi's obscure THE CLIMAX (with Ugo Tognazzi and Stefania Sandrelli), Luchino Visconti's THE STRANGER and Bo Widerberg's ELVIRA MADIGAN! Its problems are many, but perhaps the biggest is the fact that it offers no attempt to say something new: the star casting, surface style and lush score that made A MAN AND A WOMAN so iconic are essentially duplicated here – but to the equally appealing (if obviously idealized) notions of romance, this unwisely adds a pretentious socio-political viewpoint...which invariably renders it a tiresomely long haul!
Middle-aged documentarian Yves Montand, married to Annie Girardot, cheats on her casually until he begins a more serious fling with American fashion model Candice Bergen; however, the latter's stifling attachment to him proves counterproductive, and the two gradually drift apart. He tries to go back to his wife, but she is seeing another man by this time; yet, it seems the couple were made for one another after all. What in Hollywood's golden age would have been dealt with straightforwardly (and possibly more sharply) in half the film's 130- minute duration is here presented like an over-extended commercial (not least because of its travelogue nature which takes characters to Africa, Vietnam, Amsterdam, New York and, obviously, Paris) – complete with the protagonists engaging in a direct-to-camera Q&A session where neither the interviewer nor the questions being put forward are made available to us! Incidentally, the female star of A MAN AND A WOMAN i.e Anouk Aimee' shows up in an uncredited split-second cameo during a boxing match early on.
Middle-aged documentarian Yves Montand, married to Annie Girardot, cheats on her casually until he begins a more serious fling with American fashion model Candice Bergen; however, the latter's stifling attachment to him proves counterproductive, and the two gradually drift apart. He tries to go back to his wife, but she is seeing another man by this time; yet, it seems the couple were made for one another after all. What in Hollywood's golden age would have been dealt with straightforwardly (and possibly more sharply) in half the film's 130- minute duration is here presented like an over-extended commercial (not least because of its travelogue nature which takes characters to Africa, Vietnam, Amsterdam, New York and, obviously, Paris) – complete with the protagonists engaging in a direct-to-camera Q&A session where neither the interviewer nor the questions being put forward are made available to us! Incidentally, the female star of A MAN AND A WOMAN i.e Anouk Aimee' shows up in an uncredited split-second cameo during a boxing match early on.
