I must confess to a certain prejudice. I've never been to France, and my only experience of the French people is through movies. Consequently, I have been conditioned to love French women and hate French men. This film is a rich tapestry of weak and repulsive characters--particularly the "men." The arrogant egomaniac "Quentin," played by Lambert Wilson, is so sociopathic, annoying, and chauvinistic that when he is flattened by an auto early in the film, I felt like cheering. But alas! He comes back as a ghost, to haunt poor helpless cute little Nina (Binoche), who has been charmed out of her knickers by this abominable and sadistic Romeo. The other "man" that attracts Nina's interest is a wimpy and whiny lovelorn real-estate agent, played by Wadeck Stanczak, whose masculinity is pre-pubescent. Another inexplicable male character is an older "man," a director in the theater, who worships Quentin, even though Quentin-Romeo irresponsibly killed off his own daughter (who was playing Juliet) in a car wreck. This director also sees something very promising in Juliette's abysmal audition to play Juliet in his new production of the play, presumably because she reminds him of his own daughter and is also infatuated somehow with God's gift to the stage, talented Romeo-Quentin.
On the plus side, the film does afford us a fleeting glimpse of "Binoche's binush," (as a previous commenter perceptively observed), and therefore earned the two stars of my rating. To be sure, the "binush" in question looks very much like other binushes the world over, but the fact that it is revealed by one destined for future stardom seems to give it special significance.
On the plus side, the film does afford us a fleeting glimpse of "Binoche's binush," (as a previous commenter perceptively observed), and therefore earned the two stars of my rating. To be sure, the "binush" in question looks very much like other binushes the world over, but the fact that it is revealed by one destined for future stardom seems to give it special significance.