Fanfan Reviews

An engaged man who believes that long-term relationships, particularly marriage, inevitably destroy the romance that he craves decides to win the affection of a pretty acrobat and never share physical intimacy. This French romantic fantasy blossoms with lots of charm, it's impossible not to love Sophie Marceau as the whimsical Fanfan. Alexandre on the other hand gives new meaning to the word douche, which is impressive because the French invented it. Not only is he screwing over his gorgeous fiancée, but he strings Fanfan along without regard for her emotions - or her sanity. If you wanted to be near someone, but stay at a distance, what is the perviest thing you could think of to do? That's right, secretly rent the apartment next to her and replace her wall-length mirror with a one-way mirror when she next goes out of town. But if you're willing to suspend reality, this leads to a couple wonderful scenes back to back with Fanfan first posing in her bubble bath and then her and Alexandre dancing to swing music on opposite sides of the mirror. The scene where they travel back in time to 1813 Vienna on a movie set is equally magical. If it was not for Alexandre and his hang-ups I would give an even higher rating as they demonstrate a real onscreen chemistry together.

It is once again one of those really obscure French movies. I don't know why exactly but I have always been attracted by this flick and I was really eager to check it out. On the other hand, when this movie was released (already 20 years ago! Oh my God.... I feel old...), Vincent Perez and Sophie Marceau were some very popular actors in France and even though they might not have been the best, they were among the most charismatic thespians so to make a romantic feature starring the both of them sounded great on paper. Unfortunately, I thought that the end-result was terribly underwhelming. I mean, Perez and Marceau were indeed really charismatic and did have a pretty good chemistry but the story was just terribly tedious. It is basically one of those romances when a man and a woman are obviously made for each other but one of them find a lame excuse so they can't be together, of course, until the end. I find this gimmick so damned frustrating and, in this movie, it is one of the worse examples I have ever seen. I mean, they keep throwing some pompous dialogs, some pseudo-psychological babble throughout the whole thing trying to convince you that this is what romance is actually about. Well, I didn't buy it and I thought it was quite unbearable to behold. To conclude, even though the leads were terribly cute, it remains one really tedious romantic feature and it is not really worth a look, even if you are interested in French movies.