User reviews

Malle was an accomplished director of varied taste -- witness Pretty Baby (1977), a study in adolescent prostitution, and Au revoir les enfants (1986), a devastating account of youth in a private school in collaborationist France (with autobiographical hints.) But in Vie privee (1962) -- and please, it is Vie privee, not La vie privee (there is a difference) he achieved a dazzling, virtuosic, and at times subtle, at times hypnotic study of a movie starlet's sudden rise and precipitous fall from the limelight; her intense ambition, hiding a neurotic self-love, seems to evaporate as her life enters a new phase, becoming involved with a friend's former lover whom she had looked to for help. Bardot is captivating: she fills the screen, by turns stunning, radiant, and brooding, playing the role as though it were her life's story; add a suave and elegant Marcello Mastroianni as the glitterati who hides the fallen starlet from public view, and you have an electric mix. Watch the film in French with subtitles, please: only the original French conveys the cynical boredom of Jill (Bardot's character) and the paparazzi who swarm around her. And watch it also for Henri Decae's camera -- how it jumps from face to floor, cropping a doorway so that Bardot fills it, for example! -- and for Bernard Evein's glorious saturated colors. And the account of the Verdi Requiem at the Spoleto Festival makes a nice counterpoint to Jill's mundane existence with Fabio (Mastroianni). Oh -- the 'difference' mentioned in the French title is that without the 'La' ('the') vie privee carries a suggestion of 'a deprived life' as well as 'a private life.' Compare to the American version, called 'A Very Private Affair'!

This movie did a great job of showing the French lifestyle and the time during which it was made. Most of the comments here are negative, but I thought this was one of the best movies I've seen in many months.

Jill's daily life, shown in the opening sequence when she travels by boat and bicycle to see her mother and various friends, is a wonderful example of European life where things are much prettier and healthier than in the US. Individuals are free to be with nature without making a conscious effort to do so.

The story of the movie is OK, not great, but certainly ahead of its time in the portrayal of the media culture. Diana Princess of Wales should have watched this movie.

Another reviewer mentioned nouvelle vague and it's true this film stinks of French New Wave. Of course the time was really the style's zenith when even boring pretentious garbage was treated like great art. Hard to take is the acting style that seems to come with the movement -very flat and anti-emotional - a little too Neo-realist for most tastes especially in America where actors tend to chew the scenery. Heck Tom Cruise apparently chews the scenery in ordinary life or at least on talk shows.

However I found there was a kind of chemistry and disturbing reality in Bardot's portrayal of the sex kitten. She was one moment almost catatonic and another bubbly. But how contemporary to see the star as a kind of trapped animal like a fox with dogs and hunters in pursuit. One could see this movie being remade with Brittany or another of the modern celebutantes in the starring role. Was Bardot playing herself? Well isn't that the kind of truth we look for in art? Malle could have been alluding to Marilyn or any modern celebrity caught in the maelstrom of fame. The relationship with Mastroanni seemed especially perceptive. He wants to protect her, but she wants to live and she can't. Certainly think Brittney could relate to this one especially to Jill's own mother selling her out to the press. We've seen that one lately, haven't we.

Not a fun movie but one that stays with you and that's rare these days.

I don't care about her political views, whether or not her hair, lips or eyes are real or fake or if she farts all the time and stinks up the bed; Brigitte Bardot is beautiful, fun to look at, and is most importantly, interesting. A big component of studying Art is to determine if something is good or not. A Very Private Affair is Art. Not only is a beautifully filmed movie. Louis Malle tells a story that is not only visually stimulating, but personal as well.

Malle successfully makes a movie that has become a time capsule of Paris in the early 1960's. That alone makes this movie important and a cinematic achievement. For 1962, the subject matter of the "It Girl" is on full display years before Influencers like Edie Sedgwick, Goldie Hawn, Farrah Fawcett, Molly Ringwald, Jennfier Aniston and even Brittney Spears. Second only to Marilyn Monroe, Brigitte Bardot portrays in many ways portraying herself as well as Greta Garbo who truly wants to be left alone.

The Elevator scene showcases that hate the public has for the hated evil-Madonna vixen that is on the front cover of every tabloid in the world. People hate her just for being the next "sex symbol" that the world is asking for.

During one of the mob scenes, we see multiple women showcasing Bardot's hairstyle. Very similar to everyone in the 90's that wanted the "Rachel" look from the NBC show Friends. 30 years before that frenzy, Bardot owned the market on what Oscar Wilde is famous for saying, "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" Much like La Dolce Vita, the Paparazzi is on full display. The only difference is here, the Paparazzi are ruthless and not at all glamours in a Fellini film. This little girl who went from being a dancer, to model, to actress, to whatever, is still a little girl with not only daddy issues but drug addiction and depression. All this from a 1962 movie that the critics hated then and sadly, critics today hate it just as much.

The movie goes further into a Meta universe with issues both Bardot and Malle had faced. Similarities between Louis Malle's tragic heroine and the tribulations suffered in real life to Miss Bardot are on full display. Even the issue of suicide is made apparent with how far the price of fame will cost you.

So why the hate? Is Bardot's unpopularity the main cause for this movie's low rating? Is it the storyline of a younger woman being romantically involved with an older man? At the time of filming, Bardot was 28 and Mastroianni was 38? Comparing this to the movie Pretty Woman, with Julia Roberts and Richard Gere, Gere was 41 while Roberts was only 23. While comparing the age differences between both films, the fact remains that the genre of the subject matter of the younger woman having an affair with an older man has been present and accepted for centuries in popular culture.

I would argue that the love affair empowered Bardot's character. It is a true love affair and more important the relationship is mutual, from the very beginning, although taboo, it is as beautiful and innocent as Bardot's character, until they both began to blame one another.

However, much like Bardot's character being used in her profession, the idea of what defines love is questioned. This is a strong part of the movie's theme as it is discussed. Everyone is used in this movie as love is contingent in many ways. Wives leave, movies are wrapped, and friends appear to be taken advantage of for financial gain and to boost their own careers.

Everyone is mesmerized by Bardot's beauty. They stalk her, watch her every movie. The press takes endless photos and write endless news stories on her every moment. But nobody is truly looking after her for her own well-being. What "It" girl throughout history hasn't gone through this?

Then again, the question of whether love conquers all is an ongoing theme, especially in the world of fame. The Ego is on full display and is the true main villain in this movie and not the public. In the end, we do respond to our egos and decide between the power of fame and glory or living free as oneself without the need from others. In the end, we create our own prisons.

The ending was not only a shock but beyond meta with how the evil of fame has taken the lives of many famous people. Yet, there is some beauty on this sad fall from grace.

A Private Affair is an important, beautiful film that has sadly been criticized to the point where it has lost an audience.