Twice Upon a Time

This movie has a wonderful cast and a good story but it never gets of the ground. Much of the humour is forced and often doesn't work and some gags (like the dog) just don't work at all.

Part of the problem lies with the script which lacks any surprises at all and part with the director, Antoine de Caunes, who never seems to get the best from his actors, and also with the lack of any real chemistry between Charlotte Rampling and Jean Rochefort. The movie feels like one of those churned out to fulfill contractual obligations. It's a great pity because all the ingredients are there for a great comedy.

I really liked this film - I found it laugh-out-loud funny in parts, as it has a very quick wit to it. The casting cannot be faulted, the sets are perfect and of course the storyline is an elegant piece of entertaining fluff. I don't want to go into immense detail about the plot, as others have done (that's the ten line minimum rule I suspect)but there were some surprises. I didn't recall that the couple had been married as suggested in previous reviews, I had thought that they were lovers, but obviously I could be wrong. It was a rented DVD and absolutely worth it. If I get the chance, I might add it to my collection.

I really want to see this film because of Jean Rochefort, I think he's a fantastic actor, and in this play he can play as a very angry man or as a man really in love. Charlotte Rampling plays in the same way from very angry and violent to very passionate. I think that the fact that the film shows the two faces of the characters makes it very interesting and amusing.

The gags in the film come from the British and the french humor, actually I love both, so a film which has them, couldn't be boring.

The rest of the cast is fine, with a lovely English accent, and from the french part: Isabelle Nanty, who is well-known in France, she usually plays in comedies but characters who have different qualities.

sorry for my English, but I really recommend the film to people who like British and french gags.

Wow, a low user rating and no comments on this film so far. I recently saw this at the 2007 Palm Springs International Film Festival and of the 31 films I saw there this makes my top 5. This is a fun light comedy with a great cast. Alice d'Abanville (Charlotte Rampling) is a popular veteran British film and stage star who's talents are still very much in demand. Her former husband is Louis Ruinard (Jean Rochefort) a fading French cult film director who is being honored with a lifetime achievement award. In the 1970's this was the international hot jet set couple whose romance, marriage and breakup dominated the tabloids. Alice is trying to be coaxed into presenting Lous with the award but she wants nothing to do with him and they haven't seen each other in 30 years. A chain of events gives this couple an unlikely possibility of rekindling their rocky romance. Rampling has had a long career as an actress starring in such films as Georgy Girl, Stardust Memories, The Verdict and Farewell My Lovely. Rochefort has had a long career as a character actor in mainly French comedies but has had leading roles of note also such as in the Academy Award nominated Best Foreign Film Ridicule. Rampling and Rochefort really have a nice on-screen chemistry in this film and are really believable in being each other's love of their life in this story. Veteran stage and film actor Ian Richardson is Lord Evelyn Gaylord, the long-time husband of the remarried Alice d'Abanville. Simon Kunz is Randall the butler. Isabelle Nanty is Rageaud, the assistant to Ruinard and James Thiérrée is Alcie and Lord Gaylord's son. This is the third feature film from director Antoine de Caunes who has made a successful leap from comedy actor to director. He also wrote this fun and witty story. Some brief scenes of nudity. This is an entertaining comedy for adults that will appeal to an over 50 in age audience. I would give this a 9.0 and recommend it.

There are films you just wonder how anybody ever thought this would make a good movie. But this is not such a film. Here you can clearly see that a good idea is behind it and backed with these great actors it hat a fair chance to be very good indeed. Alas, it would have needed a better screenplay, the story sometimes drifts away and some side characters who might have been good to develop, never really got a chance to unfold their skills. They are used for cheap cracks but are abandoned the next moment, instead of being woven into the story. And a better director would be needed as well. If a film of just 92 minutes length appears to have dull moments you know the timing is wrong.

There are entertaining and even touching moments, but the way the story is told it feels as if it cannot decide to play it for laughs or for tears. Not that you can't do both. All you have to do is make your heros likable enough and the audience will get along. But we don't know enough of them to understand their, sometimes strange, behavior. Charlotte Rampling and Jean Rochefort give their best and have deserved a better treatment.