Edourd Molinaro was a journeyman director who churned out bread-and-butter entries by the yard but team him with a class act like Francis Veber and he could raise his game (together they did L'Emmerdeur and La Cage aux folles). Here, alas, there was no Veber on hand so a great actress like Caroline Cellier is wasted and given nothing other than cardboard to work with whilst Philippe Noiret fares only marginally better. For about half the footage the leading quartet - Cellier and Noiret are supplemented by Roger Hanin and Mark Porel - are closeted in a room downtown as the two flics try to prise a confession out of small-time hood Porel as wife Cellier (they married in custody) makes up the numbers. Porel was a seventies prototype of todays Benoit Magimal, Roman Duris, Vincent Cassell, etc, surly, arrogant, rebellious with little or no real acting chops to fall back on and not surprisingly his career petered out prior to his early death. Adapted from a novel this is, especially in the second half, closer to a stage production and apart from Cellier and Poirot there is little to recommend it.
2 Reviews
Marc Porel: opportunity did not knock.
dbdumonteil28 November 2007
In the early seventies ,a lot of people thought that Marc Porel was one of the promising young French actors and it was only a question of time before he became a star.It never happened.With hindsight,it is easy to see why:his swagger,his acting and his look ,all was too Alain Delon-like .But the times were changing and the audience was ready for a new actors generation who was about to happen :Gerard Depardieu,Patrick Deware and their followers buried Marc Porel who had to continue his career in Italy and died prematurely ,at an early age (33 )."Les Aveux Les Plus Doux" is all the more moving since Porel shares two scenes with his father,Gerard Landry ,cast as Lopez ,a Circus owner.
Based on a play Roger Hanin performed on stage ,Molinaro's directing shows little flair to turn this drama into a film.Although excellent ,Noiret and Hanin seem sometimes to be on a stage .Mankiewicz,Molinaro is not.His "in camera" drama ,which essentially takes place in a police station ,a la "Detective story" ,bears the appropriate scars of the era: cops roughness had become a cliché (see also Marcel Carné's "les Assassins de l'Ordre " the same year) in the wake of the events of May 68.Also handicapped by a syrupy score.
Watchable because of the excellent cast:playing opposite opposite Hanin and Noiret was no easy task and Marc Porel managed quite well.On the other hand,Caroline Cellier's role is too underwritten to give this excellent actress a scene to shine.
Based on a play Roger Hanin performed on stage ,Molinaro's directing shows little flair to turn this drama into a film.Although excellent ,Noiret and Hanin seem sometimes to be on a stage .Mankiewicz,Molinaro is not.His "in camera" drama ,which essentially takes place in a police station ,a la "Detective story" ,bears the appropriate scars of the era: cops roughness had become a cliché (see also Marcel Carné's "les Assassins de l'Ordre " the same year) in the wake of the events of May 68.Also handicapped by a syrupy score.
Watchable because of the excellent cast:playing opposite opposite Hanin and Noiret was no easy task and Marc Porel managed quite well.On the other hand,Caroline Cellier's role is too underwritten to give this excellent actress a scene to shine.
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