Word: belmondo
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David Niven and Orson Welles, Ursula Andress and Deborah Kerr, William Holden and George Raft, John Huston, Charles Boyer, Joana Pettet, Daliah Lauri, and in furtive appearances, Peter O'Toole and Jean Paul Belmondo, round out Casino Royale's company. Niven takes everything very very seriously, and has made of Sir James a proud, sensitive, prudish, retired spy in anything but the Ian Fleming tradition. He stutters too, at the start, but as if realizing it's not funny, Niven gives up this device a third of the way into the picture. Orson Welles, given one of the most thankless...
...Belmondo is Gabin's successor as the troubled young tough guy of the French cinema. But cast together, each has stepped out of basic snarl. Gabin is a mellowed inn-keeper, content with the quiet life of his tiny Tigreville. And Belmondo--the nihilistic punk of "Breathless"--is a harried advertising man who hits the bottle more often than any girl friend...
...clear from the start that the two will go on some sort of bender before the end ,(it's a beauty when it comes), but even before then Gabin and Belmondo have bounced their personalities off each other to fine effect. At one points the latently alcoholic Gabin and the actively drunk Belmondo compare the far-flung fantasies each has known while drunk. In doing so, they display both a humor and quiet intensity that rises from more than what they actually do or say. They ("the nobility of drunkards") share an understanding the audience is also allowed to comprehend...
...film is hardly a cry in the wilderness for intemperance. It ends on a slight touch of sadness, with both men realizing that liquor provides only temporary escape from a world as dismal as Tigreville. But along the way, there are some wonderfully mad, hilarious sprees. Belmondo is particularly fine playing matador to a highway full of cars...
More than an appreciation of booze, "Monkey in Winter" is a gentle plea for understanding the dreams some men have. They will wake up to reality by themselves, despite the occasional crutch of liquor, but why burst a bubble before then. Beyond the simple message is simple fun. Belmondo and Gabin together for the first time--and drunk to boot. It couldn't miss, and it doesn...