La bonne année (1973)

User Rating:

7.5/10   

Director:

Claude Lelouch

Writers:

Claude Lelouch (original scenario)
Pierre Uytterhoeven (adaptation) ...

Release Date:

13 April 1973 (France)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

Released from prison apparently under a New Year amnesty, a criminal tries to pick up the threads of...

Plot Keywords:

Prison | Jewelry Store | Face Mask | Parole | Antique Shop

Awards:

4 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Lino Ventura	...	Simon
Françoise Fabian	...	Françoise
Charles Gérard	...	Charlot
André Falcon	...	Le bijoutier
Mireille Mathieu	...	Herself / Elle-même
Lilo	...	Madame Félix
Claude Mann	...	L'intellectuel
Frédéric de Pasquale	...	L'amant parisien
Gérard Sire	...	Le directeur de la prison
Silvano Tranquilli	...	L'amant italien
André Barello
Michel Bertay
Norman de la Chesnaye
Pierre Edeline
Pierre Pontiche

Also Known As:

Happy New Year (USA)
The Happy New Year Caper (USA) (promotional title)
Una donna e una canaglia (Italy)

Runtime:

France:90 min | Spain:115 min | Argentina:115 min

Country:

France | Italy

Language:

French

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Sweden:Btl | USA:PG | Argentina:13

Company:

Les Films 13

Movie Connections:

Referenced in And Now... Ladies and Gentlemen... (2002)

Lelouche Scores Big with "Happy New Year"

I give this film a nine, for two reasons: 1. Sharp movie script, well delivered by the protagonists; and 2. Lino in his grave won't like this, but Francoise Fabian steals this movie from him with a truly compelling performance - as a socially and professionally sophisticated and sumptuously attractive woman who is a foil for all men, save Lino Ventura, who conveys at least as much personal chemistry in this film as a block of cement. I mean, when they are reunited following his six-year stint behind bars - he has nothing to say to her, when she is all choked-up with emotion! Ventura gives the expression "man of few words" a renaissance interpretation.

Ventura, frankly, was much better cast as the detective out to corral the jewel thieves, in "The Sicilian Clan," than he is here, as the reticent-personality jewel thief, and developing "love interest" of Francoise Fabian. She is so beguiling in this film, looking an ageless 30 instead of her 40 years of age at the time, one wonders if Lelouche might have considered her opposite Trintignant in "A Man And A Woman," some six years earlier? She deserved as least as much international recognition as many of her contemporaries of this time who outshined her, beginning with Claudia Cardinale, Elke Sommer, and Elsa Martinelli, none of whom could have carried this film to stellar heights, as did FF.