La Bonne Année

Un Homme et une Femme revisited seven years on (with different leads). Ventura plays an ageing thief, pulling a diamond job in Cannes and falling for Fabian's elegant antique-dealer. The robbery is slickly done, but treatment of the affair is less certain. Opening with a clip from Un Homme et une Femme, the film by implication yearns nostalgically for the relative simplicity and certainty of that relationship. The present couple have become less sure but more knowing. Twice divorced, she feels obliged to take lovers while he's in prison; he looks far from convinced by their final reconcilation. But any exploration of such cynicism is largely dissipated by the surfeit of Gallic charm, with Lelouch's camera fidgeting away as he bolsters up his story with a layer of chic, some pat phrase-making, and a lot of modish references. Ventura's presence nevertheless lends weight.