Tuesday, January 06, 2015

Movie review - "The Bear and the Doll" (1970) *

For a country with such a strong cultural tradition, France spent a lot of time aping Hollywood movies. Here is there attempt to do a wacky 30s screwball rom-coms in the vein of Carole Lombard, but it was beyond the capability of the filmmakers. The plot is particularly dim: a socialite crashes into a bespectacled musician (nod to Cary Grant in What's Up Doc? no doubt) who doesn't find her hot unlike most men apparently so she sets about trying to seduce him.

Brigitte Bardot is ideally cast in the lead because her persona is such that you could believe she would find a man who found her  resistible irresistible. She is a little old for the part - I don't mean to be ageist here, it's just that these sort of movies are more fun when the girl is younger because you cal tell yourself "well she just has to grow up a little and she will once she finds the right person" and so when she meets her antagonist in the film you can convince yourself they will be together forever. But Bardot's character here is clearly late 30s and you feel her character is well and truly formed so when she hooks up with the guy at the end, you feel it'll last for five minutes.

It doesn't help that she has minimal chemistry with Jean-Pierre Cassel, who isn't particularly charismatic. The scenes of her chasing and basically sexually harassing him are uncomfortable rather than fun. In What's Up Doc? and Bringing Up Baby the attraction between the characters was clear - the wacky girl would help loosen up the stuff guy and he would give her stability. There's no reason for them to be together. I can't even remember the moment where he started to fall for her.

Even more unforgivably the movie has no support characters to speak of. They set up Cassel's family but don't do anything interesting with them. Where is Bardot's lover, wacky friends, etc? Where is Cassel's rich bitch fiancee? This is what happens when you try to rip off old movies but don't pay close enough attention.

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