The Last Adventure (1967)

Touches You

Sorry, this movie sucks

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

"The Last Adventure" from 1967 is about three friends enjoying freedom, youth, and artistic expression.Manu (Alain Delon), Roland (Lino Ventura), and (Laetitia) Joanna Simkus are the three. In their own way, each is a daredevil. Manu is a pilot who attempts to fly through the Arch of Triumphe and as a result loses his pilot's license. Joanna is a artist who makes pieces out of scrap metal that she finds in Roland's scrapyard - she gives a big art exhibition and gets terrible reviews. Roland is a mechanic and inventor with a workshop where Manu often joins him; the two love to invent.A solid, platonic friendship is formed between Laetitia and the two men. Learning of a treasure in a plane at the bottom of the sea, the three go on a treasure hunt. It's more a way to have fun than to really find anything. During the trip, Manu reveals that he has romantic feelings for Laetitia, but she privately is more drawn to Roland - I think he seems less threatening to her. I mean, to be honest, I can't think of any other reason why she would resist Alain Delon. He's more beautiful than the scenery, which was lovely. And when he takes his shirt off and his hair grows longer...I digress.Alas, the real world is out there and wants to shatter this make- believe, childlike existence: the people who caused Manu to lose his license, Laetitia's art critics, and the men after the treasure at any price.This is a beautiful and bittersweet story of dreams and what it's like to be young, experimenting with life and spreading one's wings."The Last Adventure" has a cult following, particularly among baby boomers. It's filmed in beautiful settings and filled with lovely, poetic moments. The luminous Joanna Simkus became Mrs. Sidney Poitier in 1976 but seemingly retired before that, for those who may not be familiar with her. As has been pointed out, the director, Robert Enrico, is not considered an important director - he came along, I think, at the wrong time when people like Godard were "in" - but he does a marvelous job here.

Watched this when I was a teenager. One of those movies included in my bucket list. I daresay there has never been a more handsome face than Alain Delon, and his brand of aloofness and detachment was enthralling. Joanna Shimkus was simply enchanting. It was unfortunate that she retired too soon. I also remember the lyrical score, only vaguely because at the time I didn't know anything about movies other than the actors.Most of the details have long faded from my memory, but two particular sequences have stayed with me: the burial at sea was magical and moving, and the final aerial zoom out shot gave me something akin to an out-of-body experience. These might have been beautified by the mind like aging memories, but I would very much like to have a second viewing to see if my memory has been playing tricks with me.

The winning two-men-one-woman formula has been around a long time. Three quarters of a century ago Noel Coward wrote Design For Living as a stage vehicle for himself and the Lunts and it reached the screen soon afterwards albeit greatly rewritten by Ben Hecht and directed by Ernst Lubitsch. MGM got lots of mileage out of the format in such titles as San Francisco, Boom Town and Test Pilot, all pairing Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy with respectively Jeanette MacDonald, Claudette Colbert and Myrna Loy. One of the tricks, of course, is to put spin on it so that in San Francisco Tracey played a priest therefore not a serious sexual rival for MacDonald; about five years ago Patrice Lecomte gave the formula an airing in Une Chance sur deux and his twist was to have the female - in this case the dreaded Vanessa Paradis - trying to decide which of two middle aged men, Alain Delon and Jean-Paul Belmondo, was her biological father and involving both in some heavy duty mayhem with the Russian mafia. Les Aventuriers features a younger Delon this time around teamed with Lino Ventura with Joanna Shimkus forming the third link. I have to confess that this one passed me by until I was alerted to it by a French friend who went one better by supplying a DVD. I've now watched it and read most of the comments here, including a perceptive one as lyrical as the movie itself from another friend, Galina. I can only endorse everything that's been said here. This is simply a Stunning and Beautiful film celebrating friendship and children playing at being grown-ups. All three principals are outstanding as is Serge Reggiani who has a supporting role. One of the film's strengths is its refusal to take what is essentially a fairy story to its happy-ever-after logical conclusion and illustrate the heavy price tag that comes with being eternally young at heart and refusing to grow up. A wonderful antidote to the New Wavelet and a reminder that movies were conceived to bring joy and pleasure to the masses rather than ego trips for wanna-be academics.

In my view, one of the taglines of this movie is aspiration of human nature for 'exploring new horizons' - it doesn't matter where - in performing a stunt with the small plane, in building a novel racing car engine, in establishing a new art direction, in finding something on the bottom of the sea - that may not exist... You may recall how Laetitia looses interest in her dancing partner when he indicates that he doesn't know why all these things are needed.