Une Ravissante Idiote (A Ravishing Idiot)

Rating:
Summary: A Somewhat Strange Film
Review: This is one of the more peculiar films I've seen recently. I got it mainly because it was in French, and had both Perkins and Bardot in starring roles. Unfortunately the plot never seemed able to settle on being a mystery or a comedy. Where it was all one or all the other the story "worked", but when it oscillated from one to the other I had a feeling of schizophrenia.

Perkin's presence in the film was a complete surprise. I had expected that his lines would be dubbed but instead he delivered them in excellent French with only a slight accent. However I'm still not quite sure why he was chosen for the part since he was the only non-native speaker and there were surely a lot of other French actors of the period who could have pulled off the role just as easily.

Bardot was for me (warning, male genes at work) by far the best thing about the film. She had just the right comedic light touch as the apparently air-headed seamstress who turns out to be not at all what she seems. Like Halle Berry and Katherine Hepburn, she would be beautiful even if she were wrapped in burlap!

Two other aspects of the film / DVD were jarring. First, whenever there was an action scene, the film was apparently speeded up to about 1.5x normal, giving it a cartoonish look rather than any sense of intensity. Second, the subtitles were written carelessly, with oddball spellings and grammatical goofs: "ofcourse", "incase", "thankyou" and other such non-words abounded. There were even a number of places where the English text, while still in keeping with the plot line, had nothing to do with the French spoken by the actors! If you're reasonably fluent, just turn off the subtitles and écoutez en français.

Rating:
Summary: A Somewhat Strange Film
Review: This is one of the more peculiar films I've seen recently. I got it mainly because it was in French, and had both Perkins and Bardot in starring roles. Unfortunately the plot never seemed able to settle on being a mystery or a comedy. Where it was all one or all the other the story "worked", but when it oscillated from one to the other I had a feeling of schizophrenia.

Perkin's presence in the film was a complete surprise. I had expected that his lines would be dubbed but instead he delivered them in excellent French with only a slight accent. However I'm still not quite sure why he was chosen for the part since he was the only non-native speaker and there were surely a lot of other French actors of the period who could have pulled off the role just as easily.

Bardot was for me (warning, male genes at work) by far the best thing about the film. She had just the right comedic light touch as the apparently air-headed seamstress who turns out to be not at all what she seems. Like Halle Berry and Katherine Hepburn, she would be beautiful even if she were wrapped in burlap!

Two other aspects of the film / DVD were jarring. First, whenever there was an action scene, the film was apparently speeded up to about 1.5x normal, giving it a cartoonish look rather than any sense of intensity. Second, the subtitles were written carelessly, with oddball spellings and grammatical goofs: "ofcourse", "incase", "thankyou" and other such non-words abounded. There were even a number of places where the English text, while still in keeping with the plot line, had nothing to do with the French spoken by the actors! If you're reasonably fluent, just turn off the subtitles and écoutez en français.

Rating:
Summary: Enter Bardot the comedian and Perkins speaking French!!
Review: This rather bizarre spy spoof showed the talents of the famed sex kitten Bardot as a comedian....with that rather odd guffaw that she kept hissing in this film one can only be pleasantly irritated. The plot was really hillarious despite having a rather "in your face" type of humour. Bardot teams up with Anthony Perkins(who incidentally spoke perfect French with an authentic accent) to create an unforgettable brand of comedy.I thoroughly enjoyed this DVD...and would like to thank my friend John for getting me this as a Christmas present.Only one thing was disappointing....I would have preferred it in colour!