Film Reviews by CSF

I loved the film. I think it makes considerable effort to be fair. Both parties made mistakes, the problems to solve were so difficult that three centuries are not enough to achieve a better civilization, not even 20 centuries...

Religion and fanaticism are usually generated by poverty. The people who try to be 'human' are crushed by the fear or the ambition of the others. Nothing new, we all have been through that situation. The actors were playing right, the story is very convincing and help to understand this part of History. Only films can make mistakes visible and understood.

The film is very exciting because, all along, it makes me wonder how I would have managed, what solution I would have chosen, what I would have done or not done. The love story in the film shows that Romeo and Juliet will exist and repeat for ever in any civilization.

The pilot of a war plane is about to die and on the ground, a young woman tries to accompany his death moment by talking to him on the radio. This film is romantic (pure love), fantasist (disney like), innocent (even the bady is sweet), almost lyrical, extremely naive. They don't make them like that anymore! It probably reflects the change of our society. To watch with a scone/crean/strawberry jam and a pot of tea when the weather is awful and you feel lonely. However David Niven is not triggering any emotion. He is too stuck up, like a dummy.

The characters, the idea, the setting, everything was brilliant but the story was too far fetched. I had too many questions about it that remain without an answer.

We have there all the worn out topics of Psychology and Philosophy: The meaning of life, the Absurd, the depression. If the director/author wanted to illustrate these topics, then he was almost successful. I was bored, and, at the end of the film, depressed . The only scene I found slightly amusing was when the hero loses his face...literary. No trace of emotion.

On the technical point of view, it is extremely well done.

Alphaville said exactly what I wanted to say but, because I love Woody Allen, I put one more star. Still it is far from being his best film even if worth seeing.