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Confidentially YoursRating:
Release Date: 23 April, 2002 Retail Price: $19.98 OUR Price: $17.98 You SAVE: $2.00! Cast: |
Confidentially Yours Reviews
A French Twist On Hitchcock
Anyone familar with Francois Truffaut knows about his love for the films of Alfred Hitchcock. Then, it should come as no suprise to find Truffaut paying homage to the "Master of Suspense". Jean-Louis Trintignant is our man in questioning. He has been accused of not only the murder of his wife but also the murder of two other people. Now, he and his secretary must prove his innocence. Fanny Ardant(Truffaut's then wife) is absolutely amazing to watch. I enjoyed her performance a great deal. This movie does seem to play off like a "real" Hitchcock movie only it doesn't have a certain feeling to it. We know we're watching a "forgery" in a sense. Truffaut, for however talented he may be, can't really pull this off completely. Granted, "Confidentially Yours" is fun, and exciting entertainment by one of the greatest French directors of all time. It just can't really hold up to Hitchcock classics like "Rear Window", "North By Northwest", and "The Birds". I hate to sound like I don't like this film, because I do. I think Truffaut is a great filmmaker. A genius! And he remains as one of my favorites. This isn't really a good movie to start watching Truffaut with though. It is a good movie in general though, and is really enjoyable to watch. I do recommend this movie to everybody, especially Hitchcock and Truffaut fans, as well as foreign films fans too. An enjoyable movie by one of the finest directors that ever lived!
HITCHCOCKIAN LOVE AND MURDER
The late Francois Truffaut was one of the inventors and purveyors of French New Wave cinema. He was also an ardent admirer of Alfred Hitchcock. In "CONFIDENTIALLY YOURS," Truffaut's last film, he deftly pays homage to Sir Alfred and displays the signature cinematic style he so loved in a noirish tale of love and murder.
The witty screenplay, adapted by Truffaut and Suzanne Schiffman, is based on American Charles William's novel, "The Long Saturday Night" but relocated to a small town in the South of France.
The premise is simple. Vercel (Jean-Louis Trintignant) is a luckless businessman who is under suspicion for murdering his wife and her lover. His smart and beautiful secretary Barbara (Fanny Ardent), who is hopelessly in love with her boss, tries to solve the murder and prove his innocence while Varcel hides in his office and then is on the lam.
The beauty of this elegant and intelligent film is in the role reversals that make the familiar territory a brand new landscape. The sentimentality that permeates almost every scene is never allowed to soften the unexpected, and sometimes cutting, dark humor.
Enough can't be said about Ardent's charismatic charm. The camera loves her, and so did Truffaut -- she was his real life paramour during the making of this film. In many scenes, she literally seems to glow. For many videophiles, she is the primary reason to watch this delightful gem. It is certainly among Truffaut's very best films.
The crisp, striking black and white cinematography is by Néstor Almendros ("Two English Girls").
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