Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Pretentious? Moi?, 13 April 2009
Loosely based on a work by Proust, this is a film which rapidly dissolves into obscurity and enigmatic pretensions. A rich, effete, dilettante young man is obsessed by his skinny (almost anorexic) girlfriend. He doesn't work, he doesn't have to. Occasionally, he does some translation of literary texts ... when he can be bothered. The sole purpose for his pampered, purposeless, passionless life seems to be his obsession. He's loathe to let her out of his sight unless accompanied by another, equally slim, young woman and without, apparently, the further chaperone of a camera.
He keeps his captive in his house, she is invited to visit his bed from time to time, but his sexual contact is adolescent, premature, and entirely self-centred. He is obsessed. But what does she appear to gain from the relationship? She lives a life of idleness and ennui. Deciding which dress to wear is the most exciting and most challenging thing she will do in the day. She certainly does not appear to be captive. Somehow, she has captivated him, and he is the one trapped by the nature of his obsession.
Quite frankly, it's a film in which I could not identify with any of the characters, could not sympathise with any of them, and in no way wished to sympathise with any of them. Obsession is a fascinating subject for literary or cinematic enquiry. Obsession, here, takes place in such an extraordinary and unreal a setting as to make it trivial and unbelievable. Obsession becomes transparently the vehicle for a story which otherwise has no substance, and the absurdity of the setting robs the vehicle of any drive or direction.
In the end, you want to be charitable and decide that this is not pretentious drivel, and then wonder if you are trapped in your own intellectual pretensions and are extending too much weight and significance to this film because it's French? If it had been an American or a British movie, I would have been instantly more scathing. Because it's French, I looked for greater depth, sophistication and significance. Ultimately, therefore, I won't be charitable - this is pretentious drivel!
|
|
|
24 of 52 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Proust stripped bare by his suitors, 13 Oct 2002
By A Customer
While loosely based on the Proust volume from "Rembrance of Things Past", this film should be seen as very much as a highly stripped down version; not surprisingly given the length and linguistic complexity of the text. I liked it though, since it largely adheres to the spirit of the book, whilst missing most of its beauty and the obsessive nature of the narrator. Almost in the classic French new wave style, it could perhaps have been made by Truffaut, although perhaps not Godard.
|
|
|
|
![The Captive/La Captive [DVD] [2001] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51NEKHVZHAL._SL75_SS50_.jpg)
![The Last Mistress [2007] [DVD]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/519eE8%2BCPmL._SL75_SS50_.jpg)
![The Consequences Of Love [2004] [DVD]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/415%2BIuBkOWL._SL75_SS50_.jpg)
![Noce Blanche [DVD] [1991]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41AQ2J0SC9L._SL75_SS50_.jpg)
![Le Chignon D'Olga [2003] [DVD]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51AWRKJ0DGL._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
![The Last Mistress [2007] [DVD]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/519eE8%2BCPmL._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
![Noce Blanche [DVD] [1991]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41AQ2J0SC9L._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
![La Belle Noiseuse [DVD] [1992]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/512XA9YN08L._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
![The Jean Vigo Collection (2 disc Collector's Edition) [DVD]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41KNS6ZATHL._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
With an Amazon.co.uk 
