Sometimes it's a director's least ambitious films that are their most satisfying. And Now... Ladies and Gentlemen... may just be a piece of romantic fluff from Claude Lelouch, but it's entertaining romantic fluff that doesn't outstay its welcome even at the 128-minute mark. Lelouch is a director whose ambition is only rarely matched by his material, usually overcompensating with impressive technique that fails to hide the thinness of the story and characters. While no-one could ever mistake And Now... for having any depth, it's an pure audience pleaser (albeit possibly for a middle-aged audience that no longer exists) that genuinely pleases. It's rarely laugh out loud funny and it's not one of the great screen romances, but it is a charming and engaging number skilfully crafted.
It's styled after those glossy widescreen 60s romantic comedies about glamorous people in faraway places, usually involving light comic banter and (possibly) wrongly accused gentlemen jewel thieves. Jeremy Irons, so often a hard actor to warm to, is surprisingly likeable here and shows a real gift for comedy in the jewel robbery scenes (the first of which nods amiably to Lelouch's earlier La Bonne Annee). As is his wont, Lelouch casts yet another popular French singer in the other lead, this time Patricia Kass, who turns out better than initially expected. The two are eventually drawn together by the same neurological symptoms, which cause him to dream of returning his ill-gotten gains and her to forget her lyrics while coming over all monochrome, finding themselves in Morocco and en route to a healing shrine and possible romance. With the exception of Thierry L'Hermitte, Amidou and Claudia Cardinale, most of the cast of familiar faces from French cinema have little to do but make an appearance, but they never overbalance the film in the way that the top-heavy casting so often does in the director's other films. Extremely likeable.
Paramount's DVD (unlike the French DVD) is devoid of any extras, but at least offers a good 2.35:1 transfer.