Wednesday 10 June 2015

Le feu follet (The Fire Within)
Dir: Louis Malle
1963
***
Celebrated as one of Malle's best, particularly of his earlier films, I don't believe Le Feu follet really deserves all the praise it's received. It is a great film, with brilliant performances and a subtlety in script and story that never once wanders into the cliched romantic view of alcoholism, miserable-ism, depression etc that many Hollywood films have and do. It's treated with respect and it's conclusion is a powerful and realistic one which you have to give it credit for. All that and the visual beauty of the film aside, I just can't get over excited about a film in which the boom stick and camera man are so often visible, call me fickle but those kinds of things take away some enjoyment and realism for me.

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