Charles Berling

Obsession
$6.99
Watch it if you love one of the actors, otherwise this story makes little sense. The actors do a great job, but the disjointed editing leaves the viewer wondering what is going on most of the time and, ultimately, there is little or no resolution to the movie.

Love Etc.
$14.95
Marie meets Benoit through a personal ad. Touched by his shyness and the photo of his best friend Pierre that he sends with his response - Marie meets, courts and marries Benoit. During the wedding Pierre realizes that he too is in love with Marie. What follows is a tragic, sometime outlandish tale of two people trying to behave properly as they wreck the happiness of the other person most dear to them.

CAC's Comments: This tale is extremely comical while captivating its audience.

Obsession

Watch it if you love one of the actors, otherwise this story makes little sense. The actors do a great job, but the disjointed editing leaves the viewer wondering what is going on most of the time and, ultimately, there is little or no resolution to the movie.

The Bridge
$14.98
This movie is a subtle reminder that life occasionally gives warning we're going in the wrong direction, but, as Arthur Miller famously noted, "attention must be paid" or else a penalty will be exacted.

George, married to beautiful, passionate, sensitive Mina, has been taking her for granted, another clueless bore who has no idea he's in paradise. Her wake-up call arrives when she meets Mathieu quite by accident at the movies, and she does pay attention, realizing that she has needs the man she's been married to for some 15 years has been unwilling or unable to satisfy. She has a decision to make, and it's not easy to make it. When she does, she goes forward to her new life and does not look back. Hurray for Mina! One can only hope that she will fare better with Mathieu in her new life. Probably will.

If you're used to Hollywood productions on this theme, and there are quite a few, you'll come away as I did: pleasantly surprised that a difficult and touchy subject can be handled maturely, with understanding, and, most of all, with understatement. Yes, George is hurt when he finds out his wife has been seeing another man, but this script does not call for a hysterical scene with guns, beatings, and other such obvious and boring nonsense. He opens up and tells Mina how he feels, tells her he still loves her and does not want her to leave -- but, alas, that is the sort of conversation he should have had with her years and years ago; now it's "trop tard," she tells him.

The acting is uniformly excellent. Viewers familiar with the gorgeous Carole Bouquet from Bond and Chanel #5 will find her totally believable as a mere housewife, though there are scenes when her eyes light up and sparkle and we are reminded who she really is, an icon of French cinema, right up there with Deneuve and Moreau. Depardieu, who is behind and in front of the camera in this movie, is excellent as George and Berling as Mathieu, much closer in physical type to Mina, is also excellent.

I read somewhere that Red Skelton sent his wife a love letter and flowers every day of their life together. That's all the advice anyone should ever need.

P.S. Coincidental or intentional? I plan to find out.

(1) The name Mathieu occurs also in "Obscure Object," made when Bouquet was about 20 years younger. In "The Bridge," Mathieu (as directed) treats Mina in their love scenes with extraordinary tenderness, unlike anything I've ever seen in a film, which is how beauty should be treated. In "Obscure Object," Bunuel satirizes a culture that treats beauty as mere merchandise to be bought and sold, having "dirty old man" Mathieu (Rey) arrange to have sex with a beautiful woman young enough to be his daughter (Bouquet) by paying off her mother. Coincidental or intentional? (2) In "Obscure Object," Bouquet's character is shown wearing a bib as a servant girl, which she obviously detests having to do. "The Bridge" also has a scene where Bouquet's character must serve food to party guests and is clearly uncomfortable by having to wear the obligatory bib that denotes her lower status, which is also an affront to her beauty. Coincidental or intentional?