The Madwoman of Chaillot (1969)

To me, this movie is perfection.

The Worst Film Ever

Pretty Good

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

I'm in a play reading group and we often watch a movie based on a play we've read when one's available. Similarities are that a group of wealthy Parisian men find that there's oil underground in Paris and want top scatter derricks all over the city to get it. The countess is opposed to the plan. Among the differences are that she does away with all the ____. Still, it's a worthwhile movie with a fabulous cast of characters.

previous reviewers have hinted at the charm that the play must have offered in its limited setting. the director fails to avoid tacky music: brass, harpsichord, and vocals going "oooh oooh oooh", choppy cutting, overacting, bad looping, faded color, freeze-frames/guitar strums to highlight irony, strings and flute for tenderness, awkward movement, and a lot of flesh tone lipstick. it makes you appreciate Hollywood black and white films and quality camera lenses, and also true naturalism rather than this fake naturalism. doesn't age well at all. fascinating only as an example of what stars in a lame vehicle can look like -- sort of like having a hideous room in the house that you keep to look at once in a while to remind you what well-done looks like. these stars aren't that old but are getting past their prime which is perhaps the most interesting aspect of this whole thing. worth a second viewing drunk so it can be laughed at to enrich my own life.

Katherine Hepburn is a free-spirited Parisian countess out to save the world (literally) in this absurdist farce that doesn't really work. She plays a dreamer snapped into reality by the have-nots in her neighborhood and declares war on the "establishment" (embodied by a group of wealthy creeps looking to dig for oil beneath Paris). Although it's not very successfully sewn together by director Bryan Forbes, there are vignettes that are wonderful and Edward Anhalt's script contains many witty lines. Unfortunately, the film is too often draggy (if not outright boring). It's really too bad that there's not more substance here. The cast is enormous but the fact that Donald Pleasence, Yul Brynner, Charles Boyer, Danny Kaye and many others are involved merely make for a far too densely populated film. That doesn't mean that the performances are bad. In fact, Hepburn is quite touching realizing that in order to stop dreaming, she has to wake up! It's also fun watching her share the screen with the likes of Boyer, Margaret Leighton and others. Pleasence, Brynner and Kaye are exceptional as is Giulietta Masina (as Hepburn's flighty, lovelorn friend). Ultimately, Forbes is simply not a particularly imaginative director. The pacing of the film is very slow, especially in its last quarter. The interiors are drably put together, but, thanks to some great cinematography by Claude Renoir and Burnett Guffey, the exterior scenes are mostly stunning.

You have to see this movie twice. The first time I saw it, I was disappointed. With such a fabulous cast you would expect something more than talk-politics-symbolism, but the second time I watched it I discovered I really loved it. Its theme is timeless and the film is of course, full of great performances. The wonderful Katharine Hepburn carries the burden of this entire fiasco, and under any other actress's supervision, this would simply not have survived. It is not at all an easy thing to make this whole wacky plot stick together, and somehow she does it. If she has trouble at sometimes, it is certainly not her fault. The part is incredibly challenging, even for one of Hollywood's most brilliant actresses. (I'd like to see Meryl Streep try to tackle this one!) Brynnor, Gavin, Kaye and the rest all do good jobs, but the spectator can't help but ask, what are they doing in this movie? Richard Chamberlain is delightful and he and Katharine Hepburn really are the driving forces. Yes, the themes are overdone, the film is talky, a little confusing, and even boring at times - but it still works and is well worth watching.