Word: inspectors
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Dear Inspector moves on. The mystery, while definitely the secondary plot element, becomes more interesting. The film is certainly helped along by the presence of the achingly beautiful Catherine Alric, who dimwittedly plays the central figure in the unraveling story: as the mistress of at least two of the victims and one police inspector who is assigned to the case after Lise is temporarily taken off it. In the end, though, the mystery dissolves into silliness--save for one scene suffused with skillful tension in an abandoned factory housing both murder weapons, murderer and a body. Here, de Broca displays...
Technically, Dear Inspector displays a sure competence, but not much else. While nothing is marred, the camera work is generally unspectacular, and the selection of shots shows proficiency but a similar lack of excitement. De Broca's direction, however, more than makes up for the everyday technical side of his film. He knows how to get the most out of a comic situation, and fortunately for this film, he can interplay a mediocre mystery with his major plot, as he did so well with Jean-Paul Belmondo in That Man From...
Finally, non-French speaking filmgoers will be glad to know that Dear Inspector features a really good set of subtitles. Usually, English-bound viewers of French films get the feeling that they are definitely missing something, but this time the titles capture most of its dialogue and all of its meaning. And though Dear Inspector is just another in a continuing series of films featuring "successful" women, it should not be stereotyped as such. Rather, it is an amusing and satisfying, if slightly dumb, romantic comedy in the true French tradition. Philippe de Broca is definitely back perhaps back...
...have any influence on the women's movement, it would seem we are in a heap of trouble. There seems to be a new variety of male chauvinism afoot, in fact. Only this time around the male directors of films such as Coming Home, An Unmarried Woman and Dear Inspector, for the European version of feminism, are using more subtle tactics than having John Wayne sweeping some broad off her feet. They are choosing instead to try and let women do themselves in, while their male counterparts sit back, calm, cool and liberated...
...real problem here is, do women want to model themselves after Jill Clayburgh in Unmarried Woman, Jane Fonda in Coming Home, or Annie Girardot in Dear Inspector...