Peut-être (1999)

Pretty Good

Brilliant and touching

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

It was the first New Year's Day of the millennium and an old son disappearing tried to convince his young Dad to correct the time- line.Well, you don't dream: it's indeed a French movie with a lot of good things: an old icon (Belmondo), my favorite French actress (Geraldine) and actor (Romain) together, under the direction of the most innovative of French filmmakers (Clapish). Unfortunately, the result is rather bad.I don't know if it's deliberate or due to the lack of money but the movie is the all-time number one for hideous costumes and make-up: the 1999 party is bleak and the people from the future are bleaker! Compare Tatoine and you will have a brighter Tunisian landscape! Beyond, the story seems lost in sands because it's never emotional: It's a pity because there was a pit of good ideas: parenthood, Paris under sand, excavating the basement for antiques! Ironically, the movie has become what it depicts: a small hope of unknown in a desert of French production (always about comedies or drama) but quickly drowned under a sandstorm.

This is a surprisingly clever, sardonic and oddly charming science fiction film that manages to be engaging without the usual big budget special effects. The filmmaker instead achieves more witty, quasi-surrealistic results by moving the narrative forward with quirky unanticipated plot twists reminiscent of films such as "Being John Malkovich" (1999). Less is more -- entertaining, that is. Leave it to the French to create a disturbingly plausible future that envisions the outcome of a wasteful disregard of the planet, while simultaneously maintaining a touch of romantic energy and charm. Actor Jean Paul Belmondo looks great for his age and contributes some sage presence to the story. This is a nifty and imaginative French film that should have received a theatrical release in the U.S. for American art house cinema audiences but, alas, somehow never did. It's a surprisingly entertaining little gem of a movie.

*** Possible spoilers below ***I don't know, if Cedric Klapisch have seen "Window to Paris" (1994), but the comparison strongly suggest itself: both main characters, Arthur and Sergei, travel through space-time by the means of corridors, garrets and windows. Artur makes a trip from contemporary Paris to ruinous Paris of future, where he meets his aged son, daughter and their families.Possibly maybe this film could be a little bit better, if the director won't lose his temper right from the beginning. The movie started very energetically, with some great unusual scenes emerging from very usual situations, -- but, after the Arthur finds the window to future sand-covered Paris and talks to his descendants -- the storyline goes completely illogical and unreal, and I (sorry) can't believe in what is taking place no more."Peut-etre" is very nice, sentimental and funny, but it would vanish from your memory right after you'll leave the cinema hall.

This film is surprisingly good, if you let yourself be drawn in by it. Just sit back, relax and turn up the volume a bit, because the soundtrack is really brilliant: if you're a music lover, you'll love this strange tale with great musical timing....