Sarentrol Masterful Cinema

Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

BroadcastChic Excellent, a Must See

Contentar Best movie of this year hands down!

moonspinner55 A tax accountant in London, under the false assumption his flighty American wife is being unfaithful, has her trailed by a private detective; turns out, she enjoys being followed. Failed romantic comedy from director Carol Reed opens with uninteresting chatter and stagy action--and then goes into flashback mode, detailing the couple's initial meet-cute (excruciating) and courtship. In these roles, Michael Jayston and Mia Farrow are a reasonable screen-match (and when things go sour between them, Farrow has some sound dialogue about why and how their union has wilted). But all of this is irrelevant once Mia locks eyes with "public eye" Topol (only one year after his triumph as Tevye in the film-version of "Fiddler on the Roof", and nearly unrecognizable out of the costume). Topol has the exaggerated expressions and rubbery body language of the greatest comedians of the 1930s and '40s; once he is allowed to cut loose, the actor gives a star's performance. Unfortunately, screenwriter Peter Shaffer, adapting his own one-act play, is too enamored of the prim husband to give the lovably goofy Greek detective his due. The picture has noble intentions, but here that is practically a defect. ** from ****

WinterMaiden Small spoiler: a quotation from near the end of the film.I first saw this film when I was about 12, on a late-night movie series, a year or two after it came out. Years later I got a chance to record it, and I cling to the fading video tape and will do so until someone brings it out on DVD. I loved it then; I love it when I watched it again tonight. It is one of my half-dozen favorite films ever.Note that I don't say one of the best films ever. It's not in that class, despite the talent in front of the camera (Michael Jayston, Mia Farrow, Topol) and behind it (Peter Shaffer, Carol Reed, John Barry). To boost it too high is to risk disappointing the viewers who eventually find their way to this film, because it isn't a masterpiece. And, as a few naysayers have said, it IS predictable. (Or, at least, it can only go in one of a very limited number of directions.) But it is sensitive, charming, literate, well-acted, and beautiful to look at. It is a celebration of taking joy in life's small moments. And, I might add, a celebration of free-spirits that doesn't try to make us admire labored wackiness. For what it is--slight, conventional in structure, a typical one-act play--it is a beautiful little character piece.The joys of this film are threefold: It is a valentine to pre-punk London, with gorgeous photography helped along by John Barry's lovely (if repetitive) music. The dialog, from Peter Shaffer's one-act play, is both witty and poignant. Why not have a movie that is mostly talk, if the talk is this good? And the actors doing that talking are up to the challenge. Even Michael Jayston is good, although something of a weak link because he is the sole element of the movie somewhat lacking in charm. (He has a mouth like the slit in a letter-box.) Mia Farrow is luminous: skinny and odd, sure, but definitely a "glorious girl," bright, dreamy, and sensitive. But the movie is really Topol's. Looking a bit like Ringo Starr, his Anglo-Greek Julian Christopherou is at first glance, as Farrow's character describes him, "a goofy little man in a white raincoat." By the end of the movie he has revealed so many facets to himself that many women will think him a model of romance. I would run away with him in an instant.I'm 50 years old, and since I was 12 I have been influenced in my view of life by a passage of dialog near the end of this movie: "Beware: there is no sin in the world more unpardonable than denying you were pleased when pleasure touched you. . . I gave you joy. Not eternal joy or even joy for a month. But immediate particular bright little minutes of joy--which is all we ever get or should expect." And that's exactly what this movie gives: immediate particular bright little minutes of joy.

yennta but fast-forwarded quite a lot. Somewhere there's a Roger Ebert review that is right on the money and hilarious. It was called "The Public Eye" when I saw it on Sundance channel. It was endlessly talky, and I think it might have been a stage play. It was a kind of paint by numbers fey love story. Mia Farrow who's often beautiful and wistful was skeletal and actually scarier than she was in Rosmary's baby. Especially when she danced! These were the deadliest of stock characters, the stuffed shirt husband, the waifish sincere sensitive free spirit, and Topol as the earthy Real Person who helps everybody find him and herself. Ebert described him as Zorba in a lab coat. Dumb dumb dumb. Why did I watch all the way thru? "Cause I'm old and got to look again at the tail end of the 60's?

sunabeee I have seen this movie twice, have been searching for it ever since. The music is so incredible, I still sing it in my head and play it on the piano from memory, but its fading fast, it has been twenty years since I saw it. I am so looking forward to getting the video if only someone could help find it.