Laure Thomas
An inevitable deja vu
You come to expect that whether in the frozen streets of Moscow or the blistering heat of Africa, whether in a crowd of London commuters or souk shoppers, Bourne will find a way out of any situation, but he does so with enough ingenuity (and yes punch) to sustain your interest.
Piaf in a bottle
Marion Cotillard’s transformation is astounding. Her interpretation of Piaf makes you feel you’ve met the singer personally by the time you leave the cinema. It isn’t simply the admirable make-up job of Didier Lavergne, or Cotillard’s mimetism of Piaf’s every tic and attitude, but her voice.
Apartments and minds
First and foremost, this is a 105 minute close-up of Catherine Deneuve. In one of her earliest big roles, her first in English, Deneuve makes a fascinating subject. The pace of the film is slow, sometimes desperately so, aptly impressing on the viewer the sense of what her lonely world must be like.
