AND NOW LADIES & GENTLEMEN Rating: (out of 5 stars) Director: Claude Lelouch Producer: Claude Lelouch Writer: Claude Lelouch Director of Photography: Pierre-William Glenn Cast: Jeremy Irons, Patricia Kaas, Thierry Lhermitte, Alessandra Martines, Ticky Holgado Visit the IMDB page for full cast and crew

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Review by: Erik Nason
7/27/03

The best dreams are the most deeply felt, and typically make no sense whatsoever. Last week I had a vivid, passionate dream about playing soccer. I don't play soccer. I don't watch loopy, French-style romances either, and yet here I am, forced to admit love for And Now Ladies & Gentlemen, the very title of which makes me want to watch wrestling. I'm not even sure why, but I loved it -- it's crazy and funny and sad and whimsical and I swear I'm not gay, really.

Now getting you to see it will take some effort, so let's be honest -- this film is everything you haven't been waiting for. It's an abstract romance starring Jeremy Irons and some jazz singer named Patricia Kaas, whose songs give it a slow, languid pace. Oh, and the director is French. And how 'bout that title! Did I mention it's slow?

Luckily, the tone is set right from the start. Jeremy Irons plays Valentin Valentin (he was born on Valentine's Day), a jewel thief who seems to view robbery as an excuse to be silly. Posing as a detective, he informs a store-manager that they've set a trap for an "old but wily" thief who is about to strike. He then returns, in old-guy makeup, as the absolutely ancient thief, and performs the funniest, crankiest stickup scene you'll ever see.

In a yet another summer of Hollywood's sledgehammer escapism, here's a movie with actual charm. Irons is spectacular, in a role that (in retrospect) seems perfect for him. Valentin is suave enough to seduce a young beauty but too heavy-hearted to stay with her. So he of course embarks on a sail around the world, then promptly passes out, drifting ashore in Morocco. The director is French. (The film, though, is in English. Mostly. It's really good, really.)

The French writer/director, Claude Lelouch, conjures a world of grace and wit, where everyone is jaded yet whimsical. His style is effortless. I can't recall a joke that felt uninspired.

And it's sad, deeply sad. The jazz singer, Patricia Kaas, plays a jazz singer named Jane Lester, and doesn't so much act as embody a mood. Her face is the only thing more melancholy than her music, and so she fits well with Irons, who may have the most morose thousand-yard stare in the business. He has of course had years of practice, whereas Kaas, in her movie debut, acts like someone posing for an album cover. She does it well though.

Their characters meet through a shared affliction: abstract amnesia, more metaphorical than medical. They're both consumed by memories -- she had come to forget heartbreak, and he feels guilty about his thievery -- and it's never clear what exactly they can't remember. In any event, they share some days together, seeking out a mystical healer while waiting for CAT scans. This isn't what I would call a plot-driven movie.

Like the story, they come alive most in dreams. Valentin dreams (literally) of going back to his victims, reimbursing them for what he's stolen. These are amazing, transcendent scenes -- Valentin is all but bursting with heartache, yet even his dreams are witty. They take the movie to another level.

Jane's approach to romance is similar. She charms him -- and breaks out of her funk for once -- by fabricating an alibi for him, and then, as they wallow in amnesia, fabricating a love story. As she spins a tale of their sexy and heroic (though fictitious) night together, we see the scene as if in flashback, and later see it again in his memories. By the end, he seems to dream from her point of view, and we know it's love.

Lelouch has achieved the look and feel of a dream, and doesn't stop there, though some viewers may wish he had. The story itself is dreamlike, wandering around Morocco and through their heads. It moves at the pace of a jazz ballad sung in French. Subplots come and go. Logic isn't a priority.

There are characters who repeat themselves, and ones who barely register, and ones we assume will be left behind but who keep reappearing. The whole film is, like Valentin, goofy but smart, heavy-hearted but fun. It's the kind of movie I've spent years avoiding, and yet it totally charmed me, so either it's magical or I need to reevaluate things.

(A Paramount Classics release. Opens in New York and Los Angeles on August 1, 2003.)