jotix100
David Bailey, a well known photographer, tried his hand at directing by turning Brooke Leimas' novel, which we read some time ago, into a mystery film. The screen play is by Jamie Brown, and it appears his adaptation is the basic flaw with the finished product.We are given a premise that has been used before with better results. The second wife who comes to live in an unhappy place where the ghost of a dead woman comes back to haunt the new wife and make her life impossible. After all, even from a grave, don't play with a woman's sense of possession, she will come back to haunt whoever dares.Stella, who is only seen by Catherine, a French young woman who has married Nick, a composer of music for the movies. Everything seems to go bad when strange things are happening in the couple's apartment. It doesn't help that most of Catherine's new friends seem to be in some sort of conspiracy of silence and will not tell her anything about the past and what kind of marriage Stella and Nick had together.Charlotte Gainsbourg is an actress that deserves better. Her Catherine shows some good moments, but like everyone else, she is bogged down by a scenario that doesn't make much sense. Natassja Kinski, plays the enigmatic neighbor that seems to know what is behind the things Catherine seems to be experiencing, but doesn't tell her. The rest of the cast don't have much to do.
Quidsane
I cannot comprehend how films this bad get made, what with all the time, money and effort that goes into film-making. Didn't anyone (the director, the producer, the editors) WATCH the film??? Couldn't they SEE how bad it was??? It contains some of the WORST acting I have ever seen. Reminded me of one of those "adult" films that Showtime broadcasts late at night. Just simply awful. I still can't believe that Nastassja Kinski agreed to be a part of this. Fortunately for us, David Bailey hasn't directed another feature-length film since! Avoid this piece of crap at ALL COSTS. Better yet, BUY every copy you can find, both the VHS and the DVD (I guarantee you this will be in the El Cheapo Clearance Dump Bins all over the world), and destroy them to spare the rest of humanity from this atrocity...
dbdumonteil
Girl(Gainsbourg) marries boy whose first wife has passed away in mysterious circumstances.But did she really die?Her spirit ,her soul,seems to linger here in the luxury flat which the newly -weds share.And everybody's talking about the dear departed,besides the cleaning operative is sinister-looking.Doesn't it sound familiar?"Gaslight" (Dickinson,1940;Cukor,1944)is plundered as well,as Gainsbourg begins to feel she's losing her mind.But the screen play has also metaphysical pretensions and even involves quantum physics. David Bailey's direction is self-conscious,and the cinematography "chic magazine" style,with a lot of snow all over the place.Charlotte Gainsbourg surely deserved better than this two-bit thriller and Nastassia Kinski is wasted.The ending ,far-fetched to a fault ,includes the de rigueur "and if...", maybe in anticipation of "The intruder 2"A busker,playing the saxophone comes back from time to time;the connection with the plot escapes me,I fear..
pawprivate
This film is yet another example of the less than adequate sound quality in many imports. This film has dialogue that counts, it deserves theatrical level sound - not the shoddy system that is all too common in Two Left Feet Corp. imports. There is a nice streak of relativistic sci-fi, and as in Event Horizon et al - it's amazing how all arguments about relativistic time can be solved by folding a piece of paper! If Only! The acting is reasonable - except for the worst impression of a lawyer I have ever seen! I think that this guy had the script in his lap! Oh Well - if nothing else on the shelf grabs you - this is worth the rent - but rental ONLY!
AD
