I haven't seen too many Lelouch films; A Man and A Woman but that doesn't really count because everybody saw it, and a couple of years ago And Now Ladies And Gentlemen ... which didn't do a lot for me. Somehow, though, I had high hopes for this one, a friend saw it at the Deauville festival and recommended it but it's been a disaster in Paris and disappeared after 4 weeks. It's the first part of a trilogy and though the second part is in the can Lelouch is making noises like that's where it'll stay and the third part is definitely on hold. Actually it's not as bad as all that. A tad discursive in the first hour where characters come and go, possibly to be developed in later segments but eventually we do focus on one story and perhaps unfortunately Lelouch has reached back to all those Hollywood musicals that crop up on TV fifty years after they were made. You know the type, two guys - or one guy and one gal - playing the sticks in vaudeville, then one night a Broadway producer comes backstage and says, 'you were great, kid; howja like to play the Paramount?', 'Sure, we'd love to'. 'Hold it right there, kid, I can't use the ACT, it's YOU I want'. Wherupon the loser half of the duo says, 'Go on, take it, don't be a sap; this is your big chance, don't worry about ME, I'll just start dating a fifth of bourbon and keep on til they find me dead in the gutter without a dime in my jeans, but YOU, you got it all ahead of you'. So help me that's what happens here, Italian street singer takes a young girl thief under his wing; they work the streets, progress to a club and then someone sees potential in the girl and it's bye, bye, mentor. But there's a twist, eventually, against the odds the guy becomes an even bigger star, the girl regrets what she did, they make a movie together, it's directed by, wait for it, Claude Lelouch. Hokey? Okay, Corny? Okay. Nevertheless ... I liked it. Sue me already.
