Though he does have three daughters it may be stretching things to compare Yves Montand to King Lear, for one thing the Cordelia counterpart would be the eldest, Isabelle Adjani, and not the youngest and though they come close neither father nor daughter actually dies so that Lear's great speech "thou art a soul in bliss, but I am bound upon a wheel of fire, which mine own tears do scald like molten lead" doesn't really apply. On the other hand the itinerant charmer/loser Montand does entertain plans to turn the old homestead into a casino so 'wheel' gets under the wire as does 'fire' which is in the title. Sue me, already. Jean-Paul Rappeneau's CV is sparse but choice. His seven full length features have garnered no less than nine Cesar Best Acting nominations and one third of those have gone home with the gong. Prior to becoming a hyphenate (Writer-Director) he wrote the screenplays for Zazie Dans le metro and L'Homme du Rio and his writer-director credits include Cyrano de Bergerac, Le Hussard sur le toit and Bon Voyage. He worked twice with the two leads here - Le Sauvage with Montand and Bon Voyage with Adjani - but this was the only time they starred together. If you have even a slight aversion to Montand you may find his charm a little too hard to take but then again no one DOES charm as well as Montand and if you like it you'll love it. This time around he needs all the charm he can get as the eternal dreamer whose constant pursuit of the big score leaves his family relying on eldest daughter Adjani to stay ahead of the game. Luckily she has a good job as an interpreter and just when we have established her twin roles Montand turns up like the proverbial bad penny, effortlessly charming the rest of the family via song and presents (did I say that no one SINGS like Montand, either), leaving Adjani to provide the conflict. This time he has a new scheme, to convert the family's second home, beside Lake Geneva, into a casino. This involves getting into bed with some dodgy characters, chases, gun-play and father-daughter bonding. The result is a feel-good, professional package that every Montand fan will want to see and/or own.
Review of Tout feu tout flamme
