Freaktana A Major Disappointment

Derrick Gibbons An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Rexanne It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Caryl It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

richard-1787 I gave this movie 2 stars because I didn't want to be as cruel as the people who released it were on an innocent public. I don't know that I have ever seen so much talent so completely wasted.Fortunately - I guess - for me, I just read a new and very detailed book on the Liberation of Paris last week, Robert Neiberg's The Blood of Free Men: The Liberation of Paris, 1944, which I strongly recommend to anyone who actually wants to know the whole, very complicated story of those days. I can't imagine what I would have gotten out of this movie had I not read that book first. This movie does not do a good job of making clear what is going on, especially the infighting between the FFI, de Gaulle's forces, and the Parisians who were fighting for their freedom.But that's just the start of it. The real culprit in this movie is the script, which tries to cram too much into one movie. There are far too many unexplained little incidents, and not enough explanation of the important issues.There are also a lot of great actors in this movie, but the script gives none of them any chance to act, to develop a character. Orson Welles makes Swedish Ambassador Nordling come off like a loony. He was anything but that. The portrayal of the German commandant in Paris isn't much better.Having Yves Montand pop out of a tank for two minutes and then get shot in the back was perhaps the most ridiculous waste of talent in this movie.The movie lasts almost three hours, but you'd swear it went on much longer than that. There is no sense of drive, pacing, tension, etc.And the music, by Maurice Jarre, does nothing to help a bad situation.In short, this movie was a colossal waste of time and money. It's long and boring and not very informative. Read Neiberg's book if you actually want to know what happened. If you want to be entertained, find some other movie. This one will neither entertain nor enlighten you.

jvdesuit1 The first disappointment is not to have been able to see the movie in an original French version. When you know the real voices of Cremer, Delon,Dux, etc, you're exasperated from the very first minute. I watched the movie on YouTube. And I stopped one third from the end when Bradley gives Leclerc the go to liberate Paris.There are also huge missing and errors. Nordling had a heart attack on August 22nd and his brother Rolf met Bradley the next day to get Leclerc . Others claim it was Gallois? Who tells the truth especially at the time the book was written and the film shot? But of course we all know of the antagonism between the Communist resistance and the other side! Thank god the communists did not win in the end to take power as they would surely have if permitted. De Gaulle was there to prevent such an eventuality. I doubt unless Morandat gave the information to the production, that he did not know where Matignon was located.No, although René Clément is a great director, I don't think this is a masterpiece, and this major event of Paris history remained to be treated with more accuracy and it would not need 3 so long hours to digest. A French movie has been released this year (2014) Diplomatie ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3129564/ ) which I have not seen fearing that again it was betraying history. It would appear that it presents the decision not to burn Paris in a 24 hours period. Only those having seen the movie can answer the question. It is certain that it took more than that to make Von Choltitz take his decision.The best review of René CLément's movie is probably the one of SgtSlaughter on this site. He clearly exposes why it is so important in our history (I'm French and living in Paris since 1953). I'm not surprised to see that there are no reviews by french people here, the movie doesn't deserve it.

writers_reign For better or worse War and Art are linked inextricably. The first wave of novels about the second world war emerged in the closing stages and in the immediate post-war years and with the exception of Irwin Shaw's The Young Lions (arguably the finest because it spans the entire war in Europe and North Africa) they tended to cover small theatres and/or the fringes (Mr. Roberts, The Caine Mutiny)with one, From Here To Eternity, set largely in a peace-time Schofield Barracks and climaxing with the Japanese air attack on Pearl Harbor. Virtually all these novels were filmed in the 1950s, the first full decade of world peace but by the 1960s a new trend appeared, the Blockbuster Second World War Epic consisting of a broad canvas chock-full of blink-and-you'll-miss-them stars from Hollywood and Europe. The Longest Day kicked things off in 1962 and four years later Rene Clement weighed in with this entry on the liberation of Paris. Clement had made one of the first films about the second world war with Bataille du rail and gone on to distinguish himself with tiles likes Jeux Interdit so was an acceptable choice to make a film about ending the darkness in the City Of Light. Yes, it's uneven, yes, it's ponderous, yes, it's turgid in parts but it is a fairly accurate record of how it was and the street fighting skirmishes are highly effective. You may not want to revisit it but you will, or should, want to see it once.

Robert J. Maxwell I'd like to recommend this movie because it deals with a subject of such historic significance, but I found it confusing. It meanders all over the place, like the Seine. The Germans have been ordered to destroy the city, including its historical monuments, by an insane Adolf Hitler, if it is ever in danger of falling into Allied hands. That's clear enough, but then the waters turn turbid. The General in charge, Gert Frobe, is reluctant to follow the order for humanitarian reasons but will evidently do what he's told. He's held up by the French resistance, who gather their small arms and fire on German patrols. (They were a lot more organized than I'd realized.) A messenger is sent to the Americans to ask them to divert from their plans to destroy the German army and aid in the liberation of Paris. The request reaches General Bradley who agrees. The Free French Army enters Paris, followed by the Amis, and shortly the Germans are subdued and the city saved.For me, the most stirring moment is when two men activate the bells of Notre Dame. What a job. The huge old chimes weight tons and are covered with cobwebs and it takes a heap of huffing and puffing to get the clappers going but this is the liberation of Paris.It's one of those "spot-the-stars" movies, with more famous faces than you can count, and every other time one of them first appears on screen, the director, Rene Clement, moves the camera in for a close up in case you might miss the dimple in the middle of Kirk Douglas's chin. Well, maybe it's understandable since you've only got about 30 seconds to spot it. A central character would probably have helped to integrate these loosely linked tesserae.The sound is so terrible it distracts a viewer from the already fragmented story. The voices are all dubbed, of course, and only occasionally by their real-life owners, like Orson Welles and Tony Perkins (in a stereotypical and dispensable role). The gun shots sound as if they were lifted from an inexpensive Italian war movie. Loud incidental noises have been added to the sound track -- the crunching of boots on gravel, the clicks of a bolt action rifle. Maurice Jarre's score isn't bad, however closely it resembles some of his other works during this period.The visuals are okay. Some black-and-white news footage from the street fighting is integrated into the drama. But it's not a gripping film and not very innovative. If a man is shot, he twirls around and dies in conventional Hollywood fashion. Nice shots of some Parisian tourist spots though. We get a good look at Napolean's tomb.I'm glad that Paris wasn't destroyed. The greatest sandwich I ever had was at a nondescript café in the Gare du Nord. And it's good to see the Free French Army in combat in a movie like this. They may have been organized in exile but they did a splendid job alongside the rest of the Allies in Italy, particularly at Monte Cassino.