I Married a Shadow (1983)

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Great Film overall

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

A middling movie---either good or not good, depending on the viewer, but not more and not less. 5.5-6.6 range (if you're not taken in by the music). One thing is certain: it doesn't live up to its title. In fact, it seems the opposite of it--as about as far from noir as you can get. That is, very conventional in both plot, character, place. This can only be ascribed to the director and his obvious need to make a movie that would ruffle no one's feathers. But there's more to his problem than that--the characters are too flat, over-directed, or subject to stock interactions. They seem to be either too restrained or too placed in some clichéd opposition--the triangle love thing, for example.Part of the problem arises from personalizing a story which must be larger. The only peep at the world we get are the industrial cityscape around Frank's job, and then in his second coming at Bordeaux he seems to let into the château's ordered environment some of the conflicted world. To me, the best scene in the movie is Patricia's wild scream upon yanking open the door--on his mug. Hey, some genuine dramatic energy--and Frank provides a bit more of this before his quick demise. But in general, the nice characters inhabit too nice a world, and are bound to too nice an end in which nature, love, and joy of tradition are confirmed by a few personages on a rural estate.So how is it good? It has its moments, and it has three good actors who make them happen. Baye's performance is obviously the most convincing--and at moments special. But it can be unnerving---Patricia cannot lie, and she cannot tell the truth, so talk is out and when she does speak this can cause dead space and produce much self-castigation in the Meyrands. Mrs. Meyrand (Madeleine Robinson) is also steady and direct, and some of the scenes between this son-loving woman and Patricia express an unusual warmth, and commonality, (more so than Patricia's with Pierre--he seems too directed and stiff). Frank (Richard Bohringer), Helen's slimy cynic of a husband, lucks out on some good lines toward the end and brings them off. Oh yes and the winery worker girlfriend, Fido, does have some snap--and brings a bit of the world to bear on this closely controlled drama.That's about it. Since the movie is pretty bereft of self-questioning or ideas, that tends to limit, methinks, discussion.

This film is based on an American Novel and was made in France. Whilst French Cinema was good on crime thriller films amongst others, they don't know how to make romantic films like the Americans ! If the same subject had been dealt with by an American cinematographer, the result would have been better. That said, I enjoyed this film because of its nice theme music, the beautiful Nathalie Baye, the rolling Medoc countryside and the pure kindness of Guy Tréjean. I also like Véronique Genest and Madeleine Robinson. Bohringer is another kettle of fish so to speak by there again he has a dirty role. Probably unknown outside France, the world won't come to an end if you don't get round to seeing this one !!!

I saw this film during its original theatrical release, and it haunted me for years. I searched it out constantly, but only recently has it appeared on video. The original version, in French, is terrific: moody, sexy, and moving. The dubbed version is tacky; the trite language is reminiscent of a fifties, English-dubbed Japanese monster movie. If you have seen only the dubbed version, get the original. You'll be happily surprised. A real treat, seeing this film so many years after it was made, is the appearance, very prominently, of the Gipsy Kings. I don't know if they were popular in Europe in 1982, but they were unknown here.

Here we have a rare genre mix, Thriller and Romance - and I'm not talking about a Thriller with a love interest, or a Romance with a thrilling element. The film is genuinely both.Nathalie Baye is excellent in the lead as the pregnant woman who survives a train crash and is mistaken for somebody else. She has good reasons to go along with this charade and part of the plot develops delightfully in the While You Were Sleeping mode. Baye's past is coming to haunt her though, giving the film an extra hard edge.In some sense it's the kind of film US television companies would like to make but always fail.