The Clockmaker

L'Horloger de Saint-Paul; crime drama, France, 1971; D: Bertrand Tavernier, S: Philippe Noiret, Jean Rochefort, Jacques Denis, Yves Afonso, Sylaian Rougerie

Lyon. Clockmaker Michel is visited in the morning by two police detectives who bring him to a place where his van was left on the road. Michel discovers that his missing son Bernard and his girlfriend Liliane are suspected of murder of factory guard Razon, setting also his car on fire. Devastated, Michel talks to Inspector Guilboud and gives interviews to reporters. Gradually, Michel hears from two women who worked in the factory that Razon caught Liliane trying to steal something, forced her to have sex with him, fired her, and that she said that to Bernard. The police catch Bernard, and even though Michel hires a lawyer to present the case as crime of passion, Bernard is sentenced to 20 years in prison. 

Bertrand Tavernier's feature length debut film, "The Clockmaker" shows how this director makes movies about life, not movies about movies. Tavernier follows his characters and their little details and private lives, because he is more interested in them than the cinematic experience, which doesn't always work in some overstretched, "plain" or trivial moments, yet the viewers can almost feel and taste the lives of this milieu. This is already visible in the opening sequence: a group of men sit for a dinner at a tavern and talk about various topics, ranging from elections ("The French want Communist mayors as long as the government is right-wing!") to everyday life (the protagonist Michel, played by the excellent actor Philippe Noiret, is shown in his first scene fixing a clock on the wall in the kitchen, and then goes to eat and comments: "That's the advantage of bachelors. We can eat onions"), which feels genuine. The viewers still don't know what kind of a movie awaits them just from this opening sequence. The next morning, as two police detectives show up and inform Michel that his son murdered a man, the movie transforms into a character study about the older generation that lost touch with the new, young generation, whose radical conduct they cannot understand anymore, especially connected right after the rift of the '68 protests in France. 

Tavernier is a conventional director, sometimes allowing the events to almost lead the film more than the (vague) story itself, especially since the arrest of Michel's son doesn't happen all until an hour into the film, yet he has a knack for good dialogues, mostly between Michel and the Inspector ("France is a strange country. It has 50 million people and 20 million snitches"; "I don't think anybody ever loved me that much as that little boy, even though it lasted only for a minute. I was unhappy only twice in my life. And I think I am starting to recover from this"; "We cannot even understand our own kids, let alone the other people's kids"), but also between the Inspector and the reporter, speculating about the motive for the burned car ("I wouldn't want to pronounce the word the left..." - "But you already pronounced it"). The best sequence is a suspenful one: two men randomly throw rocks and break the windows of the store, so Michael and his friend take the car, chase the two thugs, breat them up, whereas Michel even throws one of them into the river! It stands out the most because it is dynamic, and one wishes the movie had more of this, and less of overlong sequences of Michel wandering through the streets. Tavernier's characters are his main focus, though: in the end, as bad is it is that his son is arrested and awaits trial, Michel finally re-connects with him and begins talking and finding out more about him. "The Clockmaker" is a very good film, yet it is still below the status of a classic, as something is missing in Tavernier's lukewarm approach at times, which underwhelms occasionally.

Grade:+++

Monday or Tuesday

Ponedjeljak ili utorak; drama / art-film, Croatia, 1966; D: Vatroslav Mimica, S: Slobodan Dimitrijević, Fabijan Šovagović, Sergio Mimica, Jagoda Kaloper, Gizela Huml, Pavle Vuisić, Olivera Vučo

Zagreb. 24 hours in the life of Marko. He wakes up, has breakfast, and goes to work in his job of printing press. Intermittently, he has recollections from his childhood—his father was killed during World War II; his grandmother brought him up—and thinks about his contemporary time—he divorced from his wife who takes care of their little son; he has a new lover, but she is pregnant and wants an abortion; he writes novels, but nobody wants to publish them. While watching some men beat up a horse on the street that doesn't want to move, it starts to rain and Marko imagines he talks with his late father. At the end of the day, Marko returns back to his apartment, has dinner, watches TV, and then goes to bed.

"Monday or Tuesday" continues the director Vatroslav Mimica's 'stream-of-consciousness' phase ("Kaya, I'll Kill You!"), depicting 24 hours in the life of Marko, where recollections and flashbacks of his childhood are filmed in color, while the present is filmed in black and white, to symbolize the alienation of that generation with the current time they are living in. The overall result has its ups and downs: some moments are better than the others. The opening 8-minute sequence, for instance, is brilliant—it depicts Marko having a dream of himself, in color, in a park as an old grandmother with a red umbrella is shouting: "Marko! Marko!" Marko says: "Grandma, here I am!", but the woman just walks pass him to talk to a child that represents Marko as a kid. The strange flashbacks are filmed in surreal way, sometimes interwoven with fantasy—for instance, a wall of an orange crust melts and collapses in slow motion, and then the movie jumps to grandma covering the eyes of the kid Marko as Fascist soldiers, with Freddy Krueger-like masks, take his wounded father, bleeding, away from the house. 

Another moment has kid Marko crawling through some tunnel, while a sleeping grown-up Marko in the present is seen releasing a tear from his closed eye. An indeed great start to a film, but the rest starts losing its power, especially in some banal and heavy-handed random archive clips of corpses and war crimes from World War II juxtaposed with the peaceful modern city milieu. Some moments repeat the greatness on their own, unique way—for example, at work, Marko asks a colleague if he knows someone who can make an abortion, but the guy advises him against it: "Keep the child. I'll be your best man!" - "Are you crazy? Where do we get the apartment?" - "Look at all the space. It wouldn't be bad to have another little Marko in the Universe", as he shows Marko a photo of a whole Galaxy in space. The rest of the movie struggles to justify this loose structure and meandering of random episodes, falling into the trap of empty walk. For instance, the episode revolving around a man (Fabijan Sovagovic) showing Marko his pigeon coop leads nowhere, save for some neat moments of freeze frames of a pigeon flapping its wings. Yet, all the scenes of Marko just walking through the streets without a goal can only go so far until he viewers' patience starts to get exhausted. A tighter narrative would have been welcomed, since various experimentals films feel less fresh today. As the movie abruptly ends, one cannot feels as if something is missing in the overall picture, though Mimica has a couple of interesting stylistic ideas (the camera pans from a black and white scene on the left, through dark, to a scene in color on the right).

Grade:++

El Cid

El Cid; historical drama, USA / Italy, 1961; D: Anthony Mann, S: Charlton Heston, Sophia Loren, Herbert Lom, Raf Vallone, Genevieve Page, John Fraser

The Iberian Peninsula during Reconquista, 11th century. General Ben Yusuf from the Muslim Almoravid dynasty wants Al-Andalus to continue fighting and annexing the Christian cities. The Christian nobelman Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar and his army capture two emirs, al-Mu'tamin and al-Kadir, but lets them go if they promise not to attack Christians anymore, so he is given the title "El Cid". Because of that, El Cid is accused of treason and kills Count Gormaz in a duel, the father of his fiancée Chimene. When Ferdinand, the King of Castile, dies, his two sons Alfonso and Sancho fight for the crown, and Ben Yusuf assassinates Sancho to start a civil war. However, Alfonso is declared the King, but since El Cid suspected he killed Sancho, El Cid an Chimene are exiled. They are summoned again to lead an army during the Battle of Valencia, and they win. When Ben Yusuf's army counterattack, El Cid is wounded, but is tied to a horse to charge the next day against the Moors, thereby assuring victory over the Almoravids.

"El Cid" is an example of duality among monumental epic films: on the one hand, it dazzles with thousands of extras, spectacle, lavish production values and aesthetic locations of the Peniscola walls and beach; on the other hand, it feels strangely stiff, mechanical, has underwhelming, pale characters and seems as a schematic PowerPoint presentation by a chatbot. The director Anthony Mann directs the film conventionaly, yet the sole story cannot be that easily bereaved of its intruige since it is one of the rare movie depictions of Reconquista, an era lasting over 750 years, since modern politics rather avoid films showing Christian-Muslim conflicts. The title protagonist is shown as an idealized hero, always true to his mantra of being just and fair—when he encounters a group of soldiers on horses, El Cid has a determined exchange with them ("Will you give me your prisoner, or must I take him?" - "There are 13 of us. And you're alone!" - "What you do is against God's law. Were you 13 times 13, I would not be alone!"), before he engages in a battle and defeats them all. After being exiled with Chimene, El Cid leaves a cottage and is surprised to find a hundred soldiers outside, waiting for him, and they have this exchange: "I am in exile!" - "Not you. We're all in exile!" It is difficult to find such a thoroughly honorable character in modern movies. Despite its running time of three hours, "El Cid" feels strangely as if it is told in ellipses and is missing some pieces of the bigger picture, since we don't find out more about neither El Cid nor Chimene, though their relationship is more complex than expected, especially after he inadvertently kills her father in a duel. The battle sequences, especially in the finale of the fights along the coastline of the walled city depictitng Valencia, are short and effective, as well as stylistically elegant due to being framed by such architecture, though they are no match for the choreography of future historical films, whereas the narrator's final line is strong ("And thus El Cid rode out of the gates of history... into legend"), and thus "El Cid" feels fluid and smooth even today.

Grade:++

Man of the Year

Man of the Year; political satire / drama, USA, 2006; D: Barry Levinson, S: Robin Williams, Christopher Walken, Laura Linney, Lewis Black, David Alpay, Jeff Goldblum, Rick Roberts, Tina Fey

As a joke, comedian Tom Dobbs decides to run for the President of the United States. Even though he starts off giving serious speeches about social and economic problems, his staff, including Jack and Eddie, encourage him to do a comedy speech during a debate with Republican and Democratic candidates on a TV debate, and indeed, the audience loves it. Unexpectedly, Tom is elected President. However, a computer glitch from the Delacroy counting company declared Tom the winner by error, and the Delacroy employee Eleanor Green tries to contact Tom about it. Delacroy CEO tries to hush up the error by drugging Eleanor and runing her reputation. In the end, Tom goes to Saturday Night Live and declares that he was elected by an error, and thus hands over his Presidency before he was even inaugurated.

The third and final cooperation between director Barry Levinson and comedian Robin Williams, "Man of the Year" is a movie that starts off very good, but then a third into its runtime, it seems as if it becomes scared of its own story, and then abandons it without exploring all the rich potentials of it. The opening act shows a daring and unusual plot concept of a comedian, Tom Dobbs, running for the President of the United States, which would prove very similar to the later events involving Zelenskyy depicted in the comedy TV show "Servant of the People". Williams still has some great examples of one-liners and jokes in this first third, whether he is arguing with his campaign advisor ("It's like the comic who gets to play Carnegie Hall but shows up and plays the violin. It's not what they go to see." - "How many analogies do you have left?" - "How many does it take to make my point?"), through his comical rant during the TV debate ("You don't want an amendment to the Constitution on burning the flag. Make it out of asbestos!"), or when he senses that all the reporters are now looking for dirt from his past, so he goes full rampage and gives them all the details possible, open and direct ("When I was 21, I went to a prostitute and I was so bad, she had to give me a refund"). Bizarrely and perplexingly, after Tom is elected President some 40 minutes into the film, "Man of the Year" suddenly stops and wants to avoid the obvious continuation of the concept. And that is a cop-out. The rest of the movie switches to suddenly follow a crime subplot of an election employee Eleanor (Laura Linney) being a whistleblower becuase the company error in a recount made Tom appear to win the election, when that was not the case. The jokes suddenly disappear, and the movie betrays itself. Tom ultimately doesn't spend a day as a President, which is disappointing and incomplete. It is comparable to what "Mrs. Doubtfire" would have looked like if Williams' character would have disguised himself as a woman, did a test with his brother, and then decided give up on this plan and just spend the rest of the film in normal clothes as himself trying to win his kids back.

Grade:++

Weekend in Taipei

Weekend in Taipei; action, France / Taiwan, 2024; D: George Huang, S: Luke Evans, Gwei Lun-mei, Sung Kang, Wyatt Yang, Tuo Tsung-hua

Taipei. American Inspector John travels to the city on his vacation to try to secure evidence against the drug smuggler Kwang, who feigns to be a respectful businessman. Unexpectedly, he gets all the evidence he needs when Kwang's 12-year old son Raymond who sends Kwang's accounting ledger book to John's hotel room, in the form of his protest against Kwang's fishing of dolphins. Raymond and his mother Joey team up with John, and Joey reveals Raymond is actually John's child, since John had a relationship with her when he was the last time in Taipei. Kwang's criminals chase after the trio, trying to erase any evidence, but in the end, John is able to beat up and arrest Kwang. He then renews his relationship with Joey.

Even though many expected just a routine action flick, George Huang's "Weekend in Taipei" turned out to be a pleasant surprise: fast and dynamic pace with a lot of chase sequences were to be predicted, but humor, likeable characters and numerous original ideas were a welcomed bonus that enriched the movie. Co-written by Luc Besson, "Weekend in Taipei" has two outstanding, delicious moments in the opening act that ignite the interest: 1) dressed in the style of "Breakfast at Tiffany's", Joey goes to a car salesman and demands to drive a Ferrari, takes her high heels and gloves off, and then uses that opportunity to drive so fast through the streets that the salesman is left traumatized. 2) fighting with criminals in a kitchen, undercover agent John suddenly tells them to stop for a minute because he needs a break (!), so he goes to the fridge to drink a bottle of water. In the middle of the great choreography of this fight, one henchman is pourred with cooking oil and set on fire, so he runs off and climbs into the nearby fish aquarium to jump into the water and extinguish the fire. This causes a great creative lift-off, but the rest of the film is rather standard and routine, never managing to reach that playful opening act. The comical moments help expand the character interactions, as Joey, Raymond and John form a new family while they fight and unite against the bad guy. Joey is played by the excellent actress Gwei Lun-mei who delivers a brilliant performance, whereas Taipei is a really photogenic city, especially in this gorgeous cinematography. The storyline tends to become stale in the final third, and the ending feels incomplete, yet the movie is overall a really good fun.

Grade:++

Fauda (Season 1)

Fauda; spy thriller series, Israel, 2015; D: Assaf Bernstein, S: Lior Raz, Hisham Sulliman, Shadi Mar'i, Laëtitia Eïdo, Tzachi Halevy

Israel. Doron would love to just enjoy his vineyard peacefully, but he is summoned to return back to the Israeli special secret unit Mista'arvim to help locate and eliminate Abu Ahmad, known as The Panther, a Hamas terrorist who was presumed dead, but is still alive. Doron and his team, led by Moreno, disguise themselves as Palestinians and speak Arabic to travel to the West Bank, mostly around Ramallah. The unit discovers Abu Ahmad as a guest in his brother's wedding, and in the ensuing chaos wounds him, but he is able to escape. Doron presents himself as a Palestinian to try to go on a date with Dr. Shirin who treats Abu Ahmad's injuries. While on a mission, Israeli agent Boaz is captured, but dies when the planned exchange for a Sheikh with the unit goes wrong. Doron enlists himself as a suicide bomber to reach Abu Ahmad, and thus the Israeli unit is able to track the terrorist unit that plans a terrorist attack with sarin in a synagogue. Walid, disillusioned with the way of the group, shoots and kills Abu Ahmad in his office.

Based allegedly on his own experiences, screenwriter and actor Lior Raz rightfully concluded that "Fauda" will attract a lot of international appeal based on the ever actual interest in the Arab-Israeli conflict, and indeed, the first season is engaging and slowly absorbing while presenting it all through the framing of a spy thriller. The action and chase sequences are routine, whereas most of the dialogues are disappointingly bland and standard, playing out like some soap opera (especially the subplot involving Doron's wife Gali cheating on him with his colleague Naor), yet the majority of the virtues are created through small observations and clever insights in the specific details of this milieu. For instance, in order to find the terrorist Abu Ahmad, the Israeli agents have to covertly inflitrate the West Bank, and thus spend a long time watching the mirror as they disguise themselves as Arab Palestinians (they apply darker skin make up; they hide tattoos on the skin using make up; an Israeli woman places a hijab over her head and later has glasses with a camera inside as she goes to a Palestinian public bath locker room). "Fauda" doesn't idealize nor presents black-and-white solutions, showing that some of Doron's unit's own conduct causes even more damage and problems, such as the sequence where Doron and his two men are revealed to be Israeli agents at a Palestinian wedding, the guests surround them, so Doron makes the disastrous decision to take the bride as a hostage / living shield, the groom inevitably wants to intervene and gets shot. Later on, to avenge her husband's death, the bride accepts to perpetrate a terrorist act in a Israeli night bar, reaching the full circle of violence. An interesting dialogue by Abu Ahmad is found in episode 1.11 where he reveals his plan to perpetrate a sarin terrorist attack which would force Israel to retaliate with "such war crimes that other Muslim countries will be forced to intervene, and will then destroy the Zionist entity". The suspense and the fight between various factions trying to outsmart each other are the virtues of this series, which is luckily concise enough to captivate the audiences.

Grade:+++

Avanti Popolo

Avanti Popolo; war drama / road movie, Israel, 1986; D: Rafi Bukai, S: Salim Dau, Suhel Haddad, Tuvia Gelber, Danny Segev

The last day of the Six-Day War. After they buried a dead companion and killed another one for wanting to continue to fight, two Egyptian soldiers, Haled and Gassan, walk by foot across the Sinai desert to reach the Suez canal. Along their way, they pass by a deserted Egyptian outpost and reach a UN Jeep with a dead UN observer in it, where they find whiskey. A British reporter arrives with Israeli soldiers, picks up Haled and Gassan in his van, but immediately throws them out after Gassan throws up on him. Haled is able to turn on the UN Jeep, but it gets stuck in the sand. The two get captured by Israeli soldiers who bring them along, but the next morning, the Israelis accidentaly walk into a minefield and die. Another group of Israeli soldiers shows up and starts chasing Haled and Gassan. Haled is shot first, while Gassan is shot at the Suez canal, as Egyptian soldiers exchange fire with Israeli soldiers.

A rare movie about the Six-Day War between Israel and Egypt, "Avanti Popolo" is unusal since it actually depicts the story shown from the perspective of two Egyptian soldiers, Haled and Gassan, and not from the Israeli perspective. The Egyptian soldiers were thus given a humane dimension, almost as three-dimensional characters. The episodic story is problematic, though, as it is structured as a road movie where they walk by foot across Sinai, and thus feels somewhat disjointed and random overall. Filmed in aesthetic locations with several good frames of sand dunes and moutains in the Sinai desert, "Avanti Popolo" is still more inspired cinematography-wise than narrative-wise, as it lacks a tighter narrative with a goal. One of the best episodes is when the Egyptian soldiers arrive at a Jeep with a dead UN observer, and Gassan, a struggling actor, finally opens up as the viewers discover a lot about him, whether it is his comment about the Swedish UN observer ("Even dead they look better than us!") or the irony of his first theater role ("I play a Jew! Shylock from the Merchant of Venice!"). Surprisingly, Israeli soldiers are depicted in worse light than the Egyptian protagonists, especially in the dark ending where a IDF unit just spots a wounded Israeli soldier and immediately starts shooting and chasing after Haled and Gassan, not even trying to listen to them that they were just helping the wounded IDF soldier who stumbled upon a minefield. The movie created the feeling of randomness and chaos of war, yet it still feels it needed a better and different storyframing than the one we got.

Grade:++

Saint Clara

Saint Clara; fantasy comedy, Israel, 1996; D: Ari Folman, Ori Sivan, S: Lucy Dubinchik, Halil Elohev, Yigal Naor, Johnny Peterson

Golda Meir school. Principal Tissona and his assistant Zvi are shocked that the entire class recieved a perfect 100% score at a test, and thus interogate students about this. They are unaware this is the work of student Clara (13) who is clairvoyant and can see the future. Students Tikel (13) and Rozy (13) are both in love with Clara, and thus argue. Clara proves her powers when she gives Tikel's dad a forecast of the lottery numbers, who thinks he won 4 million shekels, yet Clara's dad gave the info about the number to 300 other people from the factory, which greatly diminished the reward. Allegedly, Clara will lose her powers if she falls in love. She predicts an earthquake, which causes people to flee from the city. Alone in the streets, Tikel and Clara go see a movie in the theater, and as they kiss an earthquake strikes.

The feature length debut film by director Ari Folman (excellent "Waltz with Bashir"), who co-directed it with Ori Sivan, fantasy tween comedy "Saint Clara" is one of those movies that set-up a great premise, but then don't know what to do with it and get lost in meandering, isolated episodes which lead nowhere, yet is saved by an endearingly quirky sense for humor and stylish tone. The main problem is that the clairvoyant title heroine Clara (very good Lucy Dubinchik) is bizarrely underused, to the point that she is absent for almost half of the film and thus almost feels like a supporting character, and the narrative has no clear goal that leads it. However, there are numerous funny scenes, ideas and characters that keep "Saint Clara" consistently fresh. For instance, the dialogue between the students observing a seismographic station ("When there's an earthquake, the scientists are really happy. The seismograph draws Marilyn Monroe naked, and they determine the size of the quake by the size of her tits"); the way one of Clara's family members shows how to cut a cake into seven equal pieces (he uses a knife to cut it into eight slices, then takes one and throws it away out of the frame by saying: "Stalin", leaving only seven pieces); students riding on a bronze statue of Golda Meir by dragging it across the school hall; or the surreal scene of the students sitting on a couch in the middle of a swamp. The characters are so sympathetic that one wishes this was an even better film with a tighter storyline, yet it is still fun to watch it, as it symbolically depicts the tribulations of growing up.

Grade:++

Pelle the Conqueror

Pelle Erobreren; drama, Denmark / Sweden, 1987; D: Bille August, S: Pelle Hvenegaard, Max von Sydow, Erik Paaske, Björn Granath, Astrid Villaume

Denmark, 19th century. The 12-year old Pelle and his old father Lasse Karlsson arrive via a ship as immigrants from a Swedish town in search for a job. They are picked up at the harbor by a foreman and hired to work at a farm led by the rich Kongstrup. The two take care of the cows and the harvest, while Pelle is bullied in school by other kids for not knowing Danish that well and for being a "cuckoo's egg" because his father has a relationship with Mrs. Olsen, whose husband, a sailor, is presumed dead because he is missing for a year. When Olsen's husband returns one winter, Lasse's plans are again ruined. A worker, Erik, is bullied by the foreman and rebels, but is hit in the head by a stone attached to the well pump. Erik promises Pelle to escape with him to America in two years, but since Erik is injured, he is fired from the farm. Lasse doesn't want to leave the farm, and thus Pelle has to leave into the unknown all by himself.

The critically recognized adaptation of the first volume of Martin Andersen Nexø's eponymous novel, Bille August's "Pelle the Conqueror" is an ambitious, intelligent, cultured, elevated and patient film depiction of poverty, work exploitation and growing up of a Swedish immigrant boy working in a farm in Denmark, serving both as a chronicle of that era as well as a broader depiction of some universal traits in every generation (the confusion of growing up; kids bullying other kids in school; yearning for a better life and future). Defying the typical three-act structure imposed by Hollywood, August instead builds the film as a 'slice-of-life' story composed out of episodes, yet they all work as a cohesive set of bricks that build this storyline, and a lot of praise should be given to its two main actors, the young newcomer Pelle Hvenegaard as the title hero, and especially the veteran Max von Sydow as the hapless father Lasse who ultimately "gives up" and resentfully accepts his "life trap" as a man without a wife, without a good job, without a home, without any future: the actor gives this character more dignity than others would have. 

There are several interesting moments and dialogues which make "Pelle" engaging throughout, despite its running time of 2.5 hours: for instance, the comments regarding the rich farm owner ("He fathered children to every woman except his wife") or Lasse scorning the sick Pelle who jumped into the ice sea ("If he had drowned, I would have beaten him up senseless!"); or the illustration of the cheapskate foreman who prepares only an ordinary meal for a holiday for the over dozen workers—one worker, Erik, protests ("You could have bought us pork at least for Christmas!"), is expelled out by the foreman, but Erik then takes a harmonica and defiantly starts playing the song "Silent Night" in the snow, much to the amusement of the workers. It is not surprising that some film critics deciphered socialist themes in the story about the plight of these poor farmers. Everything in "Pelle" is done right, yet it somehow feels as if something is missing, as if it is too schematic. The story is conventionaly great, the dialogues are conventionaly great, the direction is conventionaly great—but one wishes that something unconventionaly great would have happened in the film which would have made it even greater.

Grade:+++

Enemies, A Love Story

Enemies, A Love Story; drama, USA, 1989; D: Paul Mazursky, S: Ron Silver, Lena Olin, Anjelica Huston, Margaret Sophie Stein, Alan King

New York City, 1 9 4 9. Jewish immigrant Herman is stuck in a puzzling situation, in an equidistant affair between three women: he cannot break up with his Polish wife Yadwiga out of guilt since she hid him in a barn and saved him during the Holocaust; he cannot break up with his mistress Masha since she says she is pregnant with him; and on top of all, his long lost wife Tamara, whom he thought died during World War II, shows up again, since she survived being shot at. He cannot say this to any one of the three women, and thus marries Masha. When Herman finds out Masha was lying and she was not pregnant, he decides to leave her. She committs suicide with pills because she wants to be burried together with her deceased mother. Herman disappears, Yadwiga gives birth to his daughter and raises her together with Tamara.

"Micki + Maude + Masha" would be a fitting description of "Enemies, A Love Story", a humorous drama about a love rectangle revolving around a man having an affair not with two, but with three women simultaneously. The director and screenwriter Paul Mazursky crafts this unusual story at first as a "collateral" consequence of the Holocaust, since all of their relationships are an indirect result of it (Herman cannot break up with Polish woman Yadwiga out of guilt since she saved him by hiding him in her barn during World War II, whereas he is shocked to find out his long lost wife Tamara (excellent Anjelica Huston), presumed dead, actually survived the war, and thus he is now in a "marital limbo"), but later on he plays it as "straight" as any given "normal" situation that can happen to any man if he is dishonest and full of betrayal, torn between more love interests. It is disappointing that after this concept is set up, the storyline fails to differentiate into something more, settling only for the standard, conventional and predictable route of Herman constantly going from one woman to another, never knowing what to do, always stalling. Sadly, the writing is hardly more imaginative or inspired than what described at face value, and the dialogues are strangely thin for Mazursky. Some of the best moments are when Mazursky invests some spark into these characters and gives them something unusual to do: for instance, upon hearing about Herman having affairs with two other women, his "presumed dead" wife Tamara actually offers to help him and be his "manager", whereas Herman and Masha have this one inspired dialogue when he finds out she lied to keep him ("You swore to me on a holy oath!" - "I swore falsely"). With a running time of 120 minutes, "Enemies" is too overstretched and features too much empty walk, not quite managing to fill out this tantalizing concept to the fullest.

Grade:++