Place Vendôme (1998)

Perfect cast and a good story

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

The movie was fine. Only in French films do beautiful women have sex with ordinary looking guys. Having said that, in the 50 years I have been watching movies there has never been a more beautiful actress than Catherine Deneuve. And, in addition to her incredible beauty, she is a wonderful actress. So, even if the movie doesn't appeal to you, you can always appreciate a true beauty. Oh yes, by the way, I did enjoy the movie, too.

This film would get absolutely no attention otherwise. Story/plot are a convoluted mess; direction and editing are mediocre or worse. Production values are high, but that's pretty typical these days. Lurches from one jarring and opaque scene to another. Especially bizarre is a scene where Deneuve is quite abruptly shown on a train, drunkenly involved in a tough game of cards. Also a very annoying thread runs throughout the film, where various women are showing yelling at men who are bothering them "no leave me alone", then there's a jump to the next scene where they are in bed together.

"Place Vendome" tells of the rise of a widow from an abyss of alcoholism to rescue her late husband's prestigious and bankrupt jewelry store on the renown Parisian mall Place Vendome. Her daunting task is to make her way though the shadowy word of diamond trade from whence she came some 18 years before while hawking several rare cut diamonds. With sinister undercurrents and a polished veneer, the film swirls around an emotionally void Deneuve, her encounters and long over due reconciliations. Those used to Hollywoodish hardball drama with exaggerated characters will likely find "Place Vendome" refreshing or underdone or both. Good stuff for Europic buffs in which Deneuve proves again she's more than just another pretty face.

The plot of this film may centre around scams in the the diamond trade but don't expect slick plotlines and witty, glamorous characters. The film offers instead a look behind the glamour at individuals worn down by their lives, by wrong decisions and damaging relationships. These relationships have developed between characters involved at some time in questionable aspects of the trade and appear to suffer as if mirroring the dishonesty and deceitfulness of the scams. It is a story told at a slow pace allowing the details to unfold and to enable us to get to know the characters and understand their motivation. The acting is superb, particularly Catherine Deneuve, and the film ends on a note which suggests some kind of atonement and reconciliation.