The winning two-men-one-woman formula has been around a long time. Three quarters of a century ago Noel Coward wrote Design For Living as a stage vehicle for himself and the Lunts and it reached the screen soon afterwards albeit greatly rewritten by Ben Hecht and directed by Ernst Lubitsch. MGM got lots of mileage out of the format in such titles as San Francisco, Boom Town and Test Pilot, all pairing Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy with respectively Jeanette MacDonald, Claudette Colbert and Myrna Loy. One of the tricks, of course, is to put spin on it so that in San Francisco Tracey played a priest therefore not a serious sexual rival for MacDonald; about five years ago Patrice Lecomte gave the formula an airing in Une Chance sur deux and his twist was to have the female - in this case the dreaded Vanessa Paradis - trying to decide which of two middle aged men, Alain Delon and Jean-Paul Belmondo, was her biological father and involving both in some heavy duty mayhem with the Russian mafia. Les Aventuriers features a younger Delon this time around teamed with Lino Ventura with Joanna Shimkus forming the third link. I have to confess that this one passed me by until I was alerted to it by a French friend who went one better by supplying a DVD. I've now watched it and read most of the comments here, including a perceptive one as lyrical as the movie itself from another friend, Galina. I can only endorse everything that's been said here. This is simply a Stunning and Beautiful film celebrating friendship and children playing at being grown-ups. All three principals are outstanding as is Serge Reggiani who has a supporting role. One of the film's strengths is its refusal to take what is essentially a fairy story to its happy-ever-after logical conclusion and illustrate the heavy price tag that comes with being eternally young at heart and refusing to grow up. A wonderful antidote to the New Wavelet and a reminder that movies were conceived to bring joy and pleasure to the masses rather than ego trips for wanna-be academics.
Review of The Last Adventure
