Film
What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases
Bookmark this pageIs Paris Burning? (1966)
Director: René Clément
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Frostily received back in '66, this star-bedecked account of the Allies' liberation of Paris has scarcely improved with age. Despite the high-powered writing credit, the complicated narrative is prosaically organised, the vignettes lack pungency and the dialogue, at least in the semi-dubbed English version, is astonishingly leaden ('Issue a proclamation to the population'). Even as history it's suspect, since the famously bitter power struggle between the Gaullist resistance and its Communist counterpart is barely allowed to register. On the plus side, Grignon's photography is grainy and authentic looking, Jarre effectively counterpoints militaristic drums and cymbals with lilting French melodies; and some of the star turns are quite amusing - Kirk Douglas' wolfish rendering of General Patton, Welles as a concerned neutral, making a four course meal out of every banality he has to utter.Author: BBa
Cast & crew
Director: René Clément
Producer: Paul Graetz
Cast: Gert Froebe, Alain Delon, Leslie Caron, Orson Welles, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Daniel Gélin, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Michel Piccoli, Charles Boyer, Kirk Douglas, Robert Stack, Claude Rich, Glenn Ford, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Yves Montand, Anthony Perkins, Simone Signoret full cast
Genre(s): War
Duration: 165 mins
Most popular on this site
Top Stories
A Farewell To Tartan Films
To mourn the loss of the great Tartan Films, Time Out remembers a few of the best films to emerge from their impressive canon
Jason Bateman: interview
Jason Bateman – star of ‘Hancock’, alongside Will Smith – talks to Time Out about his comic influences and how to pretend to throw a car
Ten Great Head Shots In The Movies
Lots of people get shot in the head in the new film 'Wanted'. Read our guide to some other great head shots on film
Set visit: 'The Damned United'
Dave Calhoun gets his training kit on as he visits the set of a new film about football legend Brian Clough’s torrid spell at Leeds United in the mid-1970s
What do you think?
Post your review now