Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Rosie Searle It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

DrStrangelife I believe that people do not do justice to Etaix's "Yoyo". The endless comparisons to Tati are only partly justifiable.Etaix embarks on a serious quest with this film. To portray life. Not only a branch of life - filmed with the utmost care for the smallest, microscopic detail; filmed to make us realize and appreciate the little things; filmed to make us laugh when the endless combination of detail assembles a film of comedy; like our dear Tati loved to create; BUT life itself - filmed with the philosophical and saddening need to show it in its macroscopic beauty and horror: Love, Beauty, Wealth, Poverty, War, and Suffering. The joyfulness of this film is just a wrapping for the serious content within:Father who lived a luxurious life in a villa, is sad, and dreams of love; Yoyo who lived a poor life as a circus clown, is also sad, but dreams of wealth. Later in the film they both acquired their dreams there, where the other had thought to have lacked it. However the ending portrays something else. Yoyo rides an elephant into a swimming pool and the pool turns into circus. Maybe one of the oldest lessons, found also in the Bible, that wealth will not make you happy? Or maybe for each viewer his own ending.This film is a drama. And its images affirm this. Many scenes and the melody that is played throughout the film, really underlines the overall beauty of this work. "Yoyo" is truly a piece of art. I loved this film and I must say I did not expect it to be this heart touching while making me laugh at the same time. I believe Etaix should not be solely discussed along others like Tati, Chaplin, Keaton, Marx brothers etc. Because then "Yoyo" will not be appreciated fully; and solely as a comedy "Yoyo" is not that good either. I cannot say whether Etaix should belong alongside with Bresson, Gordad, Truffaut, Renoir, Resnais etc. But I can surely say that he is not far off.

zetes The films of Pierre Etaix are pretty much unknown today, having been tied up in a legal dispute for decades. It was finally resolved in 2007, and they've been restored and reintroduced within the last few years (Criterion's nice box set was released in 2013). Yoyo is perhaps the best regarded of them. It is a fine French comedy. Somewhat reminiscent of Tati, but it has its own charms. Etaix stars. At first he plays a lonely rich man in 1925 (it opens as a silent film), who uses his extravagant wealth to distract himself from missing his true love (Claudine Auger), a circus performer. She returns with his clown son, Yoyo, in tow. After the stock market crash, Etaix joins his girl and their son in the circus act. The film soon skips ahead to WWII, where Yoyo, now an adult clown (also played by Etaix) entertains troops and hopes for better times. The plot on this one is very loose, and the comedy's not always laugh-out-loud funny, but it is very amusing and entertaining throughout. It's also quite lovely at times. It seems that this Etaix person is an actual discovery.

GManfred This movie was on TCM the other evening and I am glad I caught it. Host Robert Osborne explained that it was tied up in litigation for many years and has had little TV or theater exposure. Coincidentally, it was at the Film Forum in NYC in April, along with 3 other films of director/star/writer Pierre Etaix.As mentioned in my title, he borrows heavily from both Tati and Chaplin, and it is a very successful blend of both. He has lots of clever sight gags of the kind Tati sprinkled liberally throughout his films, as well as the prolonged kind of skit favored by Chaplin. But whereas Tati's characters are primarily two-dimensional, Chaplin's are often fleshed out with heart, and the humor contained sometimes comes with a tinge of pathos. Etaix combines the best elements of both masters and the result is a very thoughtful brand of comedy which draws the viewer in like a vortex.I only recorded this one, but I wish I had recorded the others. His is a unique type of humor which comes with an emotional ingredient I had not seen before in film comedy. It is presented as a mini-saga, for lack of a better term, of a boy who grows to manhood trying to earn enough to restore his father's château. His mother, a circus acrobat, had become estranged from his father years earlier and retained custody of the boy. More than 40 years elapse during the film and Etaix plays both the father and, later, the boy grown up.A reviewer above mentioned that Etaix displayed genius. I would like to see more proof but the reviewer is on the right track. "Yoyo" is a special film from a gifted filmmaker which will touch your heart as comedy rarely does.

alan-51-111974 I'm 47. It's genius. I have no other words, to say them would be a disservice.OK my review didn't pass the quantity test: I have to write more lines otherwise I can't submit this.Tarkovsky's "Ivan's Childhood" has burnt indelible images into my mind, so did this film.This film also bought me joy. It's very beautiful, very very funny and at times very sad.It's highly stylised throughout, each period of the story is depicted through the cinema conventions of that period (somewhat). The stylisation continues through highly over-exaggerated but incredibly musical sound design and almost no dialogue.The cinematography is stunning, the direction and editing are stunning, the performances are excellent throughout.I may be alone in thinking that this is one of the greatest films but please make your own judgement, I'm happy.