Alan Shuback

Contemporary psychobabble wrapped around the classical music world's continued obsession with 19th Century warhorserie. Anyone who thinks that there would be street demonstrations in New York City over the suicide of a student conductor- or that such an incident would be reported in the New York Post- will revel in this 150-minute pretention.

A film with so many errors thoroughbred-, racing- and equestrian-wise, it would take a book to describe them all. Suffice it to say that writer/producer/director Bryan Forbes didn't have a clue about what he was doing.

This picture is as phony as 3-dollar bill. It purports to be about a briad range of Parisians from all walks of life. It is nothing of the sort. Every single one of the "interviewees" is one of Jean Rouch's card-carrying leftist friends spouting the usual ideological claptrap about disaffection with the system. There's the phony who supposedly works in a Renault factory. We see him walking into the factory, we see him walking out of the factory, but we never see him working in the factory. Those scenes show actual Renault workers on the shop floor working but the phony- really an actor- is not among them because he never worked in a Renaul factory The biggest phony of all is the supposed Italian immigrant woman who puts on a bravura display of ham acting about how insecure and unsure of herself she is. And does it all in a perfect French accent despite having iived the first 24 years of her 27-year life in Italy. Landry- the black kid- also speaks perfect French without an accent, something that would be impossible for someone recently arrived from sub-Saharan Africa. This is all leftist pseudo-intellectual rubbish designed to promote Rouch as an intellectual of the first order.....BLAAAAAGH!

A film with so many faults it is difficult to know where to start. To begin with, it views the past through the eyes of the present, and so must get it wrong. This load of sixties psychobabble has the characters speaking like an upper middle class family from Surrey. Christmas in those days was a strictly religious festival: there were no Christmas trees or presents. And the hairdos! The men look like they were all trying out to become members of the Dave Clark Five with their coifs already three years out of date by 1968. Moreover, we are expected to believe that Alais is a beautiful young woman: Hepburn tells us so, but in fact Alais is played by a very plain Jane. She had to be plain because Hepburn would not have allowed a more beautiful, younger woman than herself onto the set. And Hepburn walks around with her jaw propped up as if she were afraid it might drop onto her chest. In reality she was covering up he neck, which had gone to pot ten years earlier. Finally, no one ever wished anyone a "Merry Christmas" in the 12th Century. That did not become current until just before 1800.

Nice movie completely stolen by Seana Restom, the little girl who plays Rim, the family's younger daughter. At the age of eight she is a fully developed actress, in a league with Virginia Weidler.

The show business world would have been better off if Milton Berle had never been born.

Terrific and very sad film about the fate of New York culture and the death of the City. It is to be noted that this very New York City story is a Belgian, Dutch, French, Swedish co-production, a perfect illustration of the utter vapidity and political correctness to which New York is enslaved.

This film is a tissue of lies designed to make blacks feel good about themselves. In that regard it is a 1928 version of Shaft. There were no black WWI fighter pilots, no black presidents of any railroad lines as the film attempts to portray. The Flying Ace is a load of jive--- rubbish.

The contemporary leftist lie is clearly stated in the order of the photos showing the stars of this picture. Female Sandrine Bonnaire (a fine actress) is given first billing even though the obvious star of the film is Michel Blanc, who plays the title character. That Marie Gaydu gets third billing is simply politically correct and racist. She deserves nothing more than sixth or seventh billing but gets third solely because she is black. It is this kind of contemporary racism that needs to be eliminated. PS- Monsieur Hire is a truly great film.

Leftist twaddle as dated as the Emancipation Proclamation.