I hate French movies. Hate them, hate them, hate them. All things being equal, you couldn't pay me to see a French movie. French dramas are dull, depressing films about people smoking cigarettes and talking about nothing in particular. And French comedies are like bad Jerry Lewis movies with subtitles. Nonetheless, I was dragged to see "Place Vendome" and was pleasantly surprised.
This is a thriller about Marianne (Catherine Deneuve), the widow of a prominent Parisian jeweler who is involved in some shady deals before he commits suicide. Marianne is an alcoholic who spends 348 days a year voluntarily confined in a mental hospital. When she is out, she needs a nurse to look after her. When she is sober, her hands shake and she is frightened of everything.
Before her husband dies, he tells her about some hot rocks stashed in the house. After he dies, she tries to sell them so she doesn't have to sell her husband's business or go bankrupt. Everyone is too frightened to buy them, but plenty of people want to take them.
She also finds out her husband had a mistress named Nathalie (Emmanuelle Seigner)who looks exactly like she did twenty years ago. It turns out they have more than that in common. They are both intimately acquainted with the jewelry business, legal and otherwise. There is not a man that one has slept with that the other has not. And they are both in over their heads on both the business and romantic fronts.
What I really liked about this film was that it reminded me so much of Hitchcock's romantic thrillers, particularly "Vertigo". There is a scene at the beginning where Marianne has a breakdown in the middle of a stairwell while Richard Robbins' (or is it Bernard Herrmann's) swirling clarinet fugue score plays. This, I thought, was a wonderful homage to the bell-tower scenes in "Vertigo".
There are faults of course. There is just too much coincidence to keep my disbelief suspended for long. And I really would have liked to see more of Nathalie. But overall, this is a stylish thriller from a country where I least expected it. 8 out of 10.
This is a thriller about Marianne (Catherine Deneuve), the widow of a prominent Parisian jeweler who is involved in some shady deals before he commits suicide. Marianne is an alcoholic who spends 348 days a year voluntarily confined in a mental hospital. When she is out, she needs a nurse to look after her. When she is sober, her hands shake and she is frightened of everything.
Before her husband dies, he tells her about some hot rocks stashed in the house. After he dies, she tries to sell them so she doesn't have to sell her husband's business or go bankrupt. Everyone is too frightened to buy them, but plenty of people want to take them.
She also finds out her husband had a mistress named Nathalie (Emmanuelle Seigner)who looks exactly like she did twenty years ago. It turns out they have more than that in common. They are both intimately acquainted with the jewelry business, legal and otherwise. There is not a man that one has slept with that the other has not. And they are both in over their heads on both the business and romantic fronts.
What I really liked about this film was that it reminded me so much of Hitchcock's romantic thrillers, particularly "Vertigo". There is a scene at the beginning where Marianne has a breakdown in the middle of a stairwell while Richard Robbins' (or is it Bernard Herrmann's) swirling clarinet fugue score plays. This, I thought, was a wonderful homage to the bell-tower scenes in "Vertigo".
There are faults of course. There is just too much coincidence to keep my disbelief suspended for long. And I really would have liked to see more of Nathalie. But overall, this is a stylish thriller from a country where I least expected it. 8 out of 10.