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Men In Black 3

It’s not a sequel that needed to be made, but thanks to the charm of its leads and a tone that harks back to the wit and humour of the original, it’s a pretty enjoyable trip.

Bel Ami

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The Dictator

A disappointing, often repulsive and mean-spirited mess of a film with seemingly only one real criterion on its agenda: to shock and offend.

The Woman In Black

Packed with atmosphere, this old-fashioned but deftly told ghost story delivers ample chills and thrills.

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Women On The 6th Floor (Film)

by Mark Demetrius | December 12, 2011 14:21 | Edited December 12, 2011 14:24

Watchable albeit fairly lightweight entertainment, and falls prey to cliché and occasional condescension.

This may be a French film - and set in Paris in 1962 - but it sets out to celebrate the Spanish, and especially their joie-de-vivre. The male protagonist is Jean-Louis Joubert (Fabrice Luchini), a rather pompous and uptight stockbroker obsessed with having his breakfast egg boiled correctly. He lives with his comparably staid wife, Suzanne (Sandrine Kiberlain), and two repulsively reactionary sons. Their maid quits and is replaced by the beautiful Maria (Natalia Verbeke), whose quarters are with a group of her fellow Hispanic chums on the sixth floor. Jean-Louis - who's dumpy, patronising and a bit of a dork at best - fancies Maria and, for reasons apparent only to the writer-director, the feeling just might be mutual.

 

In no time at all, the charmless Jean-Louis supposedly becomes socially progressive and liberated, doing what are perceived as favours for the exploited Spanish women. We're asked to believe that they would be both pathetically grateful and childishly excited about a ride in his car, and their depiction is stereotypical and condescending - the only one with any real guts being the Communist, Carmen (Lola Duenas). What's worse, we're clearly expected to admire Jean-Louis for his newfound enlightenment, when his only motivation is the pursuit of Maria. If wearing a swastika armband would have helped his sexual prospects, you suspect that he'd have happily done that instead.

 

The Women On The 6th Floor is no great shakes; its soundtrack music is intrusive, and it's no more than watchable, but it does get you in and has a few mild redeeming features and the odd (mildly) funny scene. Occasional abrupt changes of mood and tone help, and so does the setting and the surprising visual grunginess. Given a bland Hollywood treatment, the implausibility would have been intolerable.