Tedfoldol everything you have heard about this movie is true.

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

Nayan Gough 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.

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

MartinHafer Brigitte Bardot plays a very competent and rich woman in this film. Yet, despite this, she manages to become putty in the hands of a rather self-absorbed and annoying man. While this seemed really unlikely, so is real life and there no doubt many people who fall for the absolute worst partner. It's annoying...but can happen. And, while the actors play annoying people, they do a good job with what they were given. The only problem is, does the average viewer want to see this sort of film?The film begins with Bardot having a very, very controlled and predictable life. She has a fiancé but there isn't a lot of passion between them. She is content with her lot...but not all that happy.When she travels to meet with lawyers concerning an inheritance that will make her quite rich, she stumbles accidentally into the life of a man who tried to kill himself with sleeping pills. How they met and how the hospital just gave him to her is all very, very difficult to believe--so you'd best suspend belief if you are to continue watching.Once the man is released from the hospital, he follows Bardot--almost like a stalker. But, oddly, instead of running away or telling him to get lost, she falls for this odd and completely amoral and self-absorbed man. Other than the attraction of having some unpredictability and passion in her hum-drum life, it's very, very hard to see why she becomes infatuated with her--especially when he runs hot and cold with her. Many times he does horrible things to try to drive her away...and yet, by the end of the film, you are expected to believe they'll somehow live happily ever after....which is about as likely as politicians balancing a budget!The plot has a lot of problems as you can see above, yet the film still manages to be interesting and quite sexy (despite not really showing anything). As usual, Bardot's character finds 1001 situations where she gets naked (but you see nothing, really) and the acting is good. It's just that the whole thing seems contrived and it's hard to actually like either character. An odd little time-passer.By the way, although Ms. Bardot has a famous reputation as an animal rights advocate, I did enjoy seeing her eating a big hunk of meat (this is not a reference to her male co-star but a real piece of cooked flesh) meat and being rather nasty to her pet goldfish.

christopher-underwood This is not a great film and not even as good as Vadim clearly thought it would be but it is still likable. Indeed there is much to like, even if Bardot is already past her absolute best look she carries herself well enough and there are glimpses of her beauty. Unfortunately she does not play little miss suburban boring, convincingly and her co-star, Robert Hossein doesn't really begin to cut it as the anarchist/existentialist, and yet… There are very good moments and when Hossein insists on leaving and she chase him to argue her 'love' there is real frisson. Similarly in the terrible moment when he insists on walking from her to take a prostitute, we are drawn immediately into their mutual dilemma. Unfortunately the film does not have the courage of it's convictions or possibly Vadim did not even have enough awareness of his subject, either way this is a great idea for a film yet to be made.

Dennis Littrell A young woman named Genevieve Le Theil (Brigitte Bardot) while on a trip to Dijon to claim an inheritance accidentally opens the wrong hotel door and finds a man named Renaud Sarti (Robert Hossein) lying unconscious on a bed. He has attempted suicide by taking an overdose of sleeping pills. Her intervention saves his life.One would think he would be grateful and perhaps fall in love with his beautiful benefactress. What happens is just the opposite. She falls into a kind of obsessive, almost masochistic, love with him, but all he feels for her is indifference. He spends her money, drinks to excess, abuses her verbally and emotionally. But she can't let him go regardless of what he does. Yes, this is a familiar premise, and frankly I would not have stuck around long enough to see how it plays out except for Brigitte Bardot.If you haven't seen her, you might want to watch this just to take a look at her. She is strikingly beautiful and amazingly sexy. She has pretty, almost perfect features and a soft and sweet way about her; but perhaps the most arresting thing about her is her figure. It is absolutely exquisite. She was a sensation in the fifties not only in France but in the US as the quintessence of the "sex kitten," in some ways even more so than, say, Marilyn Monroe or Tuesday Weld.Roger Vadim, who would later direct Jane Fonda in Barbarella (1968) was married to Bardot at the time this movie was made. (He would later marry Jane Fonda.) Like some other French directors, Vadim liked to make movies which amounted to adorations of the beautiful young star. See Roman Polanski with, e.g., Nastassja Kinski in Tess (1979); Krzysztof Kieslowski with Irene Jacob in La Double vie de Véronique (1991) and Trois couleurs: Rouge (1994); and Andre Techine, with Juliette Binoche in Rendez-vous (1985) for some comparisons. Naturally if you make movies in which the camera adores the young actress and shows her in her best light, you are going to attract young actresses! Here Vadim directs in a studied manner designed to not only show off Bardot's exquisite beauty but to highlight her ability as an actress. Although not among the first rank as actresses go, Bardot performs well here. Perhaps this is her best film. She is elegantly dressed and coiffured, and Vadim treats us to many close ups of her lovely face. (If there is a more beautiful woman in filmdom, I haven't seen her.) But don't expect to see much of her equally lovely body or any kinky sex. This film could easily pass for PG-13. Vadim creates an early sixties French atmosphere as he recalls the jazz/beat scene from that era, but he does so in a superficial, almost euphemistic way. In the elaborate scenes at Katov's apartment and then at his estate, we are given a hint of the decadent indulgence of a certain class of French society in which privilege, jazz, heroin, pot and easy sex are the rule, but Vadim keeps it all off camera except for one scene in which a joint is passed around.Vadim's most famous film starring Brigitte Bardot is Et Dieu... créa la femme (And God Created Woman) (1956). This is not to be confused with Vadim's American version of the film from 1988 starring Rebecca De Mornay, which was not very good.Bardot retired fairly young and devoted her life to helping animals.(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon!)

rooprect The title of my review ought to be enough to scare off the folks who are expecting a plot-driven, digestible story. You'll get none of that here.Although there is indeed a plot (a rather interesting one, if you ask me), the power of this film lies not in the story but in the script and in the subtle, almost indecipherable fragments of philosophy we experience through these two highly complex characters.Geneviève (Bardot) is the the romantic. Her counterpart Renaud (Hossein) is the cynic. The collision of their worlds causes a catastrophic upheaval in both of their lives. But it is undeniable that they need each other, just as the two opposing philosophies rely on each other. Sort of a yin-yang thing. At times they are at war with each other; at times they cling to each other for life; at times they threaten to annihilate the other absolutely. This is some really heavy stuff that cannot possibly be summarized in a few paragraphs, so I won't even try.There are several monologues which are so stirring I want to learn them by heart. Particularly the last two speeches in the final 10 mins of the film. Pay close attention to those words, because they sum up the entire theme of the film. Powerful. Powerful.