Word: noiret
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...does not deal in satire that could threaten or amuse, that could give the sequences substance and, therefore, true impact. His careful chronicle of the dietary excesses of four men is like a prank-a loud, bad practical joke. The men-Marcello Mastroianni, Ugo Tognazzi, Michel Piccoli and Philippe Noiret-hole up in an old house to eat themselves to death, to kill themselves with the very staff of life. Along the way, they also enjoy the company of some whores and a pudgy schoolteacher (Andrea Ferreol), who dispenses her fatty favors equitably and withstands the dietary assault better than...
...large and noteworthy cast, only Bogarde and Philippe Noiret (as a diplomatic attache) manage to survive the confusion with any dignity at all. Worse, there is absolutely no trace of Alexandria itself, that city Durrell called "the wine press of love." Fox dispatched a second-string camera crew for a brisk six weeks' worth of location filming, but Cukor shot most of the picture at home in California-on a set that conjured up visions of Sidney Greenstreet-Peter Lorre North African thrillers. The ersatz locale is painfully obvious. "Justine," wrote Cyril Connolly, "is the spirit of Alexandria, sensual...
Alexander ... well, Alexander (as he would say) must be everything a man would like to be, but above everything else he must have a sense of humor that is infectious (how else could he tolerate La Grande?). Phillippe Noiret has that sense of humor. He achieves that cliched, but still rare, level of acting, where you find it totally impossible to believe that he is an actor and not simply an extraordinary character that the director found and built a film around...
...heavy help from the makeup and wardrobe departments, she seldom departs from her customary screen self, and all seven women suffer from an unflatter ing family resemblance. Most of the blame, however, must fall on De Sica, who has wasted such talented actors as Arkin, Sellers, Michael Caine, Philippe Noiret and Vittorio Gassman in a ponderously directed, flaccid work. Better than anyone else, he should know that a tour de farce is like a striptease: there is no point in the performance if the material does not come off in style...
...would have the gall to tell it again: the sleepy middle-aged husband, the nubile wife, the young stranger (Henri Garcin). But Jean-Paul Rappeneau, 33, has an appetite for the absurd and an unerring eye for casting. An actor in the mugging tradition of Toto and Fernandel, Philippe Noiret is excellent as the pawky, paunchy husband; and Catherine Deneuve, as his restless wife, is as light and tart as a lemon soufflé. They and their fellow farceurs prove that in the right hands the flip side of war and the flop side of marriage can still be made...