Word: molinaro
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...convey some genuine feeling for what goes on in people's minds and hearts. It is a significant and difficult task--especially in a movie industry that is used to milking "real-life human drama" for all the dough it's worth--and it's a task Edouard Molinaro has some success with in his new movie, The Hostages...
...Hostages, which has its American premier tomorrow, recounts an episode that took place in Paris a few years ago, much like the one that began in Washington last Thursday. Though the movie's writers and director have not completely resisted the temptation to fictionalize some of the action, Molinaro's film is true enough to its source material that it has been taken off the French market until the original case goes through its final adjudication...
...think too hard about it), and on that score alone the movie will hold your attention--at least for its duration. And although this is a better-than-average thriller, it is not on that level that the movie makes its real impact. Unlike the newspapers, Molinaro gives his characters a past and a future, bringing them alive in all their multi-faceted dimensions, and offering some comprehension of the way things work on the shady side of the street...
...Although Molinaro uses actors that are too beautiful to be believed--particularly Bulle Ogier and the amazing-faced Daniel Cauchy--he has not fallen into the trap of romanticizing his criminals. This is no Bonnie and Clyde, and in its sophistication The Hostages is way beyond romantics. Sympathy is not beyond the point, though, and that is exactly the feeling the movie handles so well. Be they crooks or be they cops, people are people, and this is the essential truth that the movie doesn't ignore...
...Hunt's opening dream sequences, three naked young blades cower in the deep grass while a pack of chic horsewomen come galloping through the glen. Director Edouard Molinaro thus establishes a theme to justify his title. Then, with stylish clowning, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Claude Rich and Jean-Claude Brialy take out after a galaxy of predatory French dolls in wild, whimsical, aimless and occasionally rather funny fashion...