Too Beautiful for You (Ws Sub Dol)

Starring:GÃ©rard Depardieu, Josiane Balasko, Carole Bouquet, Roland Blanche, FranÃ§ois Cluzet, Didier BÃ©nureau, Philippe Loffredo, Sylvie Orcier, Myriam Boyer, Flavien Lebarbe, Juana Marques, Denise Chalem, Jean-Louis Cordina, StÃ©phane Auberghen, Philippe Faure, Jean-Paul FarrÃ©, Richard Martin (III), Sylvie Simon
Director: Bertrand Blier
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

In the films of Bertrand Blier, love is a virus that sends its victims on a feverish fling of impulsive passion before leaving them abandoned and alone. The difference in Too Beautiful for You is an empathy and warmth rarely seen in Blier's often cynical work. Gérard Depardieu is the successful car dealer ambushed by Cupid when plain-looking secretary Josiane Balasko clumps into the office. It seems to defy all reason, how this frumpy, dumpy woman with eyes that caress lures Depardieu from elegant wife Carole Bouquet, a woman so poised and perfect she's more trophy than trophy wife, but love follows no reason. Neither does Blier's film, which dances through fantasies and flashbacks with the abandon of a daydream. It makes for a confusing story but a vivid experience, all passion and music and joy and pain: love, in all its obsessive, destructive ecstasy. --Sean Axmaker

Description

Gerard Depardieu delivers a riveting (The New York Times) performance as a man torn between ethereal beauty and earthy passion in this hypnotic (Los Angeles Times) portrait of a most unusual love triangle. Winner* of five César Awards, including Best Picture, this witty, provocative tale offers fresh insight into the old, old story of marital infidelity (Variety). Bernard (Depardieu) has a stunningly gorgeous wife (Carole Bouquet), a thriving career and two beautiful children. But his enviable life spirals out of control when he falls madly in love with hisdecidedly plain secretary (Josiane Balasko). Could it be possible that physical beauty is finally no match for a woman who can touch a man's heart? *1990: Director, Actress (Bouquet), Screenplay, Editing

Customer Reviews:

A film as surreal and complex as they come: Love and beauty never seemed more interesting than in Blier's mindwarper!.......2007-05-01

If you want to settle in for a light and entertaining breezy film about the complex intricasies of why and whom we love,then Bertrand Blier's TOO BEAUTIFUL FOR YOU is not your fare!!! Blier's mindblower is about as difficult and surreal a treatise on attractions and why they occur and with what pain they can cause as this reviewer has ever seen! You will be richly rewarded as Blier's trip into the serendipitous world of unexplained attractions is explored and actualized through a totally brilliant and unconventional narrative (that must have been a real toughy for an actor to read on first glance!),clever scene changes that shift back and forth in time and place, characters who speak aloud their most secret inner thoughts (though not actually doing so!),unbelievably sensitive acting from the three principle actors,Josiane Balasko,Gerard Depardieu and Carole Bouquet,with all of this glued together by a geniously woven tapestry of the tragic/melancholic composer Franz Schubert's romantically charged quartets,symphonies and choral works. (This is highly significant to the film's theme as Schubert was a man thwarted in love,sickly, whose music always bordered on the romantic of the unfulfilled and unfinished,who died in his mid-thirties.One of the most clever uses of his music is when his HOLY,HOLY,HOLY, a hymn to the Trinity somberly intones when all three principle players are meshed into this love/betrayal triangle showing that only God could get them out of this mess!)

On the surface,the film is simply about the seeming attraction of a highly successful car salesman (Depardieu),who is married to his most beautiful and desired- by- all wife (Bouquet)with lovely children and mansion-like house,to his rather dowdy and "slob-like" temp secretary (Balasko)who returns the like attraction to her employer.The narrative at this point becomes totally unconventional and the film becomes progressively intertwined between what is real, what is emotion spoken and unspoken, and what is real time vs.what is something that may or may not actually have happened.Actually, what Blier shows us is the true craziness and paranoia/grandeur-like pomposity that overtakes people when they allow themselves to act upon their impulses! If this sounds confusing,you are correct to a point! If you are not totally alert at every turn in this marvelous French wonder you may be tempted to throw up your hands and scream "What!!??".But Bertrand Blier is smart enough to keep the viewer from falling from their own sane seat! Blier's film is so clever that it actually defies convention.It does help to know a little about the music and life of Franz Schubert and his music to understand why Blier particularly chose this composer. If this had been a straightforward narrative such as the American films UNFAITHFUL or even FATAL ATTRACTION, you would simply have had another taught thriller with a tidy ending. Blier doesnot give you that at all.He forces you to think in great detail about how affairs/attractions occur, the unrealistic sense of ultimate bliss they will bring, and the tragic results to everyone's psyche that they leave behind when they don't work out. Some will dismiss this as French arthouse intellectualism .I prefer to consider the alternative; a filmmaker's brilliant artistry that challenges the viewer beyond what normally is done by 99% of his contemporaries.

A Charming Little Film.......2005-10-05

This film is definately charming, and is different from most of the main sream films.

A man, who has a beautiful wife and children, falls in love with his frumpy-dressing average-looking secretary. He makes love to her, cheating on his wife.

His wife becomes aware of this, but instead of leaving him, she tries to be the woman of his dreams, but cannot suceed. He discovers that a woman with no imperfections is not desirable, there is nothing more to want from her.

What happens in the end is for you to discover.

A beutiful woman, sometimes doesn't allow to reach the bliss.......2005-04-08

Pascal wrote once: "The heart has its reasons that the reason unknows".

Only through the whole meaning of this deep thought you will be capable to understand why this apparently absurd and raising hair decision when you compare to Carole Bouquet one of the Goddess of the French Cinema and the humble secretary of this husband who would seem to find at last his authentic reason to live.

Perhaps Afrodite couldn't win the fight against the Mother Goddesss Earth: Gea. And this fact allows understand him since many of you may be disagree.

Penetrating and fascinating behavior study of the human mind and its apparent capricious twists.

Not that good.......2004-09-26

I like Gerard Depardieu, but this movie was not good. It seemed almost unrealistic. Gerard is not convincing in this role. It was clear there was no chemistry between he and Josiane Balasko (his secretary). Just not believable. Sorry.

"Gorgeous women create chaos.".......2004-04-04

"Too Beautiful For You"--a Bertrand Blier film--is the story of an affair between a middle-aged businessman, Bernard (Gerard Depardieu) and his employee. All of Bernard's male friends envy the fact that he has a beautiful society wife, Florence (Carole Bouquet). One look at his wife, and they say "Bernard's a lucky stiff." One day, Colette (Josiane Balasko), the new office temp, arrives in Bernard's office. She's plump and "a bit of a slob," however, there's instant chemistry between her and Bernard. Within a matter of days, Bernard is embroiled in a passionate affair with Colette.

The film explores some interesting ideas about adultery and love triangles. For example, why is Bernard attracted to Colette? Florence appears, on the surface at least, to be the sort of woman every man would select--while Colette is rather average. When Florence suspects her husband is having an affair, she stomps down to the office to take a look at the new temp, and when she sets eyes on dumpy Colette, she is relieved. Of course, every woman thinks her adulterous husband is having an affair with a woman who is more attractive, but what happens when the "other woman" is much less attractive?

There's some clever photography--for example, one scene is shot of Bernard and his wife with the camera placed in Colette's office looking through the glass divider. Not only do we see the husband and wife interact as Colette is seeing them, but we also see Colette's reflection in the glass as she stares at the couple and tries to analyze the competition.

Product Description

A car dealer, well-to-do and with a beautiful wife, finds himself attracted to his rather plain new temporary secretary. Despite her own commitments she feels the same and the two soon embark on an affair. Though it would seem it has happened before his wife finds this particular entanglement of her husband's very difficult to accept

Average customer rating:

A film as surreal and complex as they come: Love and beauty never seemed more interesting than in Blier's mindwarper!
A Charming Little Film
A beutiful woman, sometimes doesn't allow to reach the bliss
Not that good
"Gorgeous women create chaos."

Too Beautiful for You [Region 2]
Starring: Gérard Depardieu , Josiane Balasko , Carole Bouquet , Roland Blanche , and François Cluzet
Director: Bertrand Blier
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Blues | Styles | Music

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

( T ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
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Dead Tired (Grosse Fatigue)

ASIN: B00005MFJ2

Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

A film as surreal and complex as they come: Love and beauty never seemed more interesting than in Blier's mindwarper!.......2007-05-01

A Charming Little Film.......2005-10-05

A beutiful woman, sometimes doesn't allow to reach the bliss.......2005-04-08

Not that good.......2004-09-26

"Gorgeous women create chaos.".......2004-04-04

Product Description

Australia released, PAL/Region 0 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada. LANGUAGES: French (Dolby Digital 2.0), English (Subtitles), WIDESCREEN (2.35:1), SYNOPSIS: Bertrand Blier's films have explored the sometimes misogynistic sexuality of younger men, but here he offers an absorbing, funny, and moving take on a middle-aged man's adulterous affair. Gerard Depardieu stars as Bernard, an affluent car dealer who finds himself in the grip of a violent passion for his new secretary, a rather plain-looking, middle-aged woman played by Josiane Balasko. Seemingly a happily married man with a beautiful wife (Carole Bouquet) and children, he can't understand what is happening as his life is turned upside down. While it may seem that Blier simply enjoys tweaking convention, he's clearly after far more than laughs given the tenderness he finds in the scenes between the adulterous lovers. Bernard's age has suddenly made him more vulnerable, a state of emotion that he realizes Colette grasps intuitively. Depardieu and French comedienne Balasko make a completely believable couple, and the photography of the great Philippe Rousselot is stunning. SPECIAL FEATURES: Interactive Menu,

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