Rating: Summary: Excellent! Review: I watched this movie when I was in France last year and it is wonderful! The main character is played by the same actress that was in "Amelie" but don't expect little Amelie... the film takes many amazing twists and turns and over all it is very very good. Definatly not missing much if you don't speak french and have to read the subtitles as there arn't too many hard to catch cultural references. :-) Enjoy!
Rating: Summary: Petals from a flower... Review: I would first like to start this review with a warning. This is not a romantic comedy, as you would probably presume by looking at the cover of this box. That is what I thought when I first discovered this "gem" of a film. I picked it up to enjoy with my wife, and strangely, I found myself enjoying it more than her.
Without giving too much away (or more than already has by others), this is a twisted story where we, as viewers, have the opportunity to see the plot unfold from both of our main characters. Audrey Tautou takes a devilishly good turn from her innocent character in Amelie to play an artist who falls in love ... or so we think. As we watch her whirlwind romance with a married man hit their ups and downs like any normal relationship, we get comfortable and stable with the film ... then suddenly it changes. We rewind backwards and are shown the story through the eyes of her "boyfriend". Our image of this film enhances as we are handed the unexpected.
This was a beautiful film. From not only the cinematography, but also the characters and the story. This was a rarity. It is not often that you find a film of this caliber in today's modern cinema. Normally, films have a very structured story with its theme defined early within the film. Not this masterpiece. If you assume that you know this film prior to finishing it, then you will be the laughing stock of the town. I have seen several films in my lifetime, and I can honestly say that I never saw this story unfolding. I was one of those that expected the beginning to be the entire story ... boy, was I surprised.
Tautou carries this film on her bare shoulders. She gives a stunning performance as a woman with a heart full of love for a man that she encounters. Her turn from Amelie proves that she is a very versatile actor. She emotionally pulls you from your seat and glues you to the screen. Add to this the sheer brilliance of the story; with all of its twists and turns, and powerful cast that only accentuates Tautou's absurdity only helps propel this story from average to amazing.
This is one of those films that I can watch time and time again without it loosing its appeal. I would suggest it for anyone that has ever had a secret admirer. For anyone that has obsessed over anyone from afar, this is the film for you. A-la Sliding Doors, this film was impressive.
Grade: ***** out of *****
Rating: Summary: Another Side of Audrey Review: If you are looking for the happy world of Amelie, this film may not be for you. But if you are looking to see Audrey Tautou in a well written, well acted engaging thriller you have found your film. I unfortunatly new the twist going into the film, but took a friend with me who new nothing about the story and didn't want to know anything. She fell in love along with Audrey Tautou and was shocked along with the audience to learn that everything is not always the way it appears. I loved Amelie and I love this film also, in a different way of course.
Rating: Summary: Audrey reinvents Amelie as bad, bad girl. Review: In facial drama Audrey Tautou owns a controlling interest. While "He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not" is a romantic comedy that completely eludes and subverts expectations, Tautou plays right into them as an elfin, perky doer of progressively bad deeds, and thus does much of the eluding and subverting.
Tautou is Angelique, and the name doesn't just sound like "Amelie;" she's the same prototype: A cute, lonely, falsely chipper waitress prone to mysterious notes and objects of affection, in this case a cardiologist, Loic (Samuel Le Behan). And director Laetitia Colombani does indeed begin the film as a lighthearted, meet sweet romp through Paris. It is everything but.
Quickly - and directly - Angelique's motives begin to unravel. She claims to be having an affair with Loic, and she claims his wife, Rachel (Isabel Carre) is merely trying to ensnare him with a pregnancy. But Angelique seems more wishful than involved. Then wishful becomes obsessive. Then dangerous - when Loic fails to show at the airport for a getaway to Florence, Italy, Angelique is more than crushed, forcing her two best friends (Clement Sibony and Sophie Guillermin) into criminal compromises. A third through the film, after Angelique has caused enough damage for two or three fatal attractions, we see her committing suicide.
Then "He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not" does a daring, clever thing: It rewinds itself to the very beginning and shows all the same events from the perspective of Samuel, who, it becomes clear, does not really know Angelique. Nor does he know who is suddenly mailing him paintings and gifts. The movie's second half is not so much a revelation - although we learn how two events (Samuel's arrest and Rachel's miscarriage) came to occur - as an accumulating, suspensful dread. What a pox Angelique has put on this man's life.
The grinning, smirking villain, Tautou is excellent - as distraught here as she was resilient in "Amelie." A fine line separates the two characters and Tautou walks it, subtly changing her body language and trademark pouts beyond curiousity and playfulness. It is not reinvention but rearrangement, and it is as hard as method acting, and the mark of a star who can pull it off. Notice how Angelique sits - slumped, a knuckle resting immaturely between her open legs. Or her sudden smile-to-frown moments around Loic. Though we begin to suspect an unhealthy romance, Angelique's pathology resonates better in Samuel's section of the movie. Colombani could have only pulled off such a split structure with a memorable face to attach to Samuel's distress. Tautou is the girl.
Rating: Summary: A love that cannot be Review: In HE LOVES ME, HE LOVES ME NOT, Audrey Tautou once again has proven that she cannot be pigeonholed into the type of character she played in AMELIE. Each of her films validates the claim that Tautou is much more versatile and talented. In this film Tautou plays Angelique, a young woman in love with a married man. Angelique waits patiently and anxiously on the sidelines while his marriage deteriorates and he comes to claims her. While the audience is treated to what appears to be a typical romance during the first half of this film, the movie is suddenly rewound and an entirely new perspective on the same events is revealed. Multiple perspectives lead to new viewpoints.HE LOVES ME, HE LOVES ME NOT is a smart thriller movie which certainly caught me by surprise. When I rented this DVD I didn't expect to be treated with a film that delved deeper than a French romance, and I didn't expect to be fooled. Highly recommended.
Rating: Summary: Surprising Review: In the beginning of this movie, my impression was that this was Amelie part 2. What I like about it is that Adrey Tauto (sp?) is so cute, even the viewer's think she can do no harm. Without ruining the movie for you, I'll tell you that she gets into some interesting things. Things you wouldn't expect. It definitely defied my expectations at every move. I have seen few french movies I like. This one is a testament to their capabilities. Instead of focusing on decorations and whatnot, this movie sticks to a strong and compelling story. I highly reccomend it.
Rating: Summary: A heartbreaking story of a love gone insane Review: L, is for the way you look at me... A La Folie...Pas Du Tout, or roughly translated, Madly...Not At All-- is one story but with two different POV's. First, we see things from the point of view of lovable Angelique, an art student who's on the way up. She's won the Hanska Scholarship to an art academy, which is a big foothold to gaining artistic fame. She is also minding a large house for the Dubois-Lollins while they are off to Washington. And yes, those charming smiles that won audiences heart when she did Amelie are in plain evidence here. The song "L.O.V.E." by Nat King Cole, played as her song, is a soothing remedy for what lies ahead. O. is for the only one I see... However, she has a crush on a handsome blond cardiologist named Loic Le Garrec, who happens to be married to a lawyer. She believes that he will leave her and marry her. She seems oblivious to the attentions of fellow student David, who's in love with her and waiting in the wings. According to her, she got a rose from him, which she sends him in memory of how they first met. She keeps sending him notes, and also a birthday gift and makes dinner plans for his birthday, only to be stood up. A dream trip to Florence ends up with her waiting at the aeroport till closing. She's totally heartbroken and cuts back and forth between scenes of her running to exhaustion along the barred gate of his house to her angrily destroying photos, shredding a wedding dress, etc. She is ready for a new start until something happens that brings back her feelings for him, and that takes her down a darker path. V is very very extraordinary... Well, from Angelique's POV, Loic is painted as quite a cad, someone who used and dumped her. But from Loic's POV, we see a different picture of him, as he is a dedicated cardiologist who loves his wife Rachel. He is however, beset by an unreliable receptionist Anita, who messes up his schedule among other things until she is fired and burned out by incessant patients complaining of heart maladies. He is actually clueless to the situation: who sent him the rose, the notes, the present? There are some things that neither she nor the viewer doesn't know about from her POV, but when the viewer sees them, it's an "Oh, I see" situation, where the gaps to the half-complete story is told. And his wife is actually loving and devoted, though naturally suspicious, especially as the notes tell Loic that Rachel won't keep them apart. Another technique that makes this film work wonders is the occasional brief loopbacks into the past that fill in missing information, which is a result of wrongly drawn conclusions, and other times, tarnishes Angelique's image. E is even more than anyone that you adore... Audrey Tautou is best known on these shores as Amelie. Angelique is Amelie gone down a self-destructive path. My mother, known my deep fondness for Amelie, told me stay away from this film lest the ideal I built around Tautou be crushed, yet I find her performance winning, making her a capable actress. However, not much info is given on Angelique's childhood. Apart from the Mr. Cat doll she made out of string, buttons, and fuzz, there isn't much to go on. What else about her upbringing made her this way? The quote shown at the ending not only reflects how Angelique felt but is a note of hope for those lonely romantics leaning towards self-destruction: "Though my love is insane, my reason calms the pain in my heart. It tells me to be patient and keep hoping."
Rating: Summary: Aptly Named, Charmingly Deceptive... Review: My wife picked this one up at the library, in no small part due to our love of Tautou's Amelie performance. However, a few minutes in, I feared that I had been transported into some sort of purgatorial French version of a Meg Ryan romance film. Imagine my surprise and delight when the movie takes a very unexpected twist, delighting me to its thrilling end! A great movie that is very clever in its pacing, directing, and acting.
Rating: Summary: He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not Review: OH I love Audrey Tautou! She is so cute! And she doesn't disapoint me one bit in this movie! A wonderful double sided Thriller that takes you on a ride with the sweetest psychopath you'll ever meet! Do see this movie, you'll be pleasantly surprized! (-:
Rating: Summary: Excellent two-sided storytelling piece Review: Sometimes in a romantic relationship, signals can get crossed, and one party ends up feeling differently about the other. He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not tells a two-sided love story: one of budding romance turning into neglect and one of mysterious obsession bordering on danger.
Audrey Tautou stars as Angelique, an art student in love with the cardiologist Loic, who claims that he will leave his pregnant wife for her. She sends him little notes and leaves surprises at his office for him, and he, in turn, plans to take her on a trip to Florence.
However, strange things start happening: Angelique gets in a moped accident; Loic's wife gets in a fight with him and leaves, after having a miscarriage; a woman accuses Loic of assault and battery, then mysteriously dies of a heart attack the very same night. And we begin to think that maybe Angelique isn't seeing this relationship the same way that Loic is.
The film does a magnificent job of showing the two sides to this story, and it becomes more involving as each scene plays out. About halfway through, the entire story gets rewound and told from a different perspective, and subverts everything that has gone before. For those afraid of foreign films, this would be an excellent entry-level one to get you going. It proceeds at a brisk pace and the storytelling never skips a beat. High recommendation.
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