Saturday, October 04, 2014

Movie review - "Liza" (1972) **

Really stupid movie despite considerable star power: Marcello Mastroianni is a painter living on an island with his dog who is visited by Catherine Deneuve, a bored sort of model/rich girl (I wasn't sure). She decides to stay, they have an affair and it's all kind of tormented and weird. Basically Deneuve ends up replacing his dog, licking his hand and chasing sticks.

Movies about messed up relationships can work well, even if they go into super weird territory - The Servant, Secretary - but everything's got to come together for the filmmakers to pull it off, and it didn't here, least not to me. Maybe the demands of the role were beyond Deneuve's capabilities, although she does look very hot here, even by her own ridiculously high standards - running around on beaches, hair flowing, going topless every now and then - and she has decent chemistry with real-life love Mastroianni.

Maybe more work needed to be done on the two lead characters to flesh them out more - the scenes involving Mastroianni's family weren't that compelling. Fans of the lead two actors will get something out of it.


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