neumu [ cinematronic ]




	And Now ... Ladies and Gentlemen
	Claude Lelouch Jeremy Irons, Patricia Kaas, Thierry Lhermitte, Alessandra Martines, Jean-Marie Bigard, Ticky Holgado, Yvan Attal, Amidou, Claudia Cardinale 2002		How's the old song go? Something like "Lovely to look at, delightful to see." And that's what comes to mind while watching the gleaming widescreen sweep of "And Now ... Ladies and Gentlemen," a heavily mannered travelogue-cum-romance from France's Claude Lelouch, director of the 1966 lovey-dovey date-movie supreme "A Man and a Woman." Perhaps the time elapsed since "A Man and a Woman" has strengthened Lelouch's visual flair and dulled his capacity to touch the heart. For the pretentious, beautifully crafted "And Now ... Ladies and Gentlemen," Lelouch's man and woman are jewel thief/master of disguise Valentin, played by Jeremy Irons in full ham mode, and nightclub singer Jane, played by cabaret singer Patricia Kaas in full moonlighting-dilettante mode. As he snatches gems from shops in Paris and London and she performs in various shows, Valentin and Jane bounce from scenic locale to scenic locale, always on the verge of meeting and never quite connecting. Only when they both come down with a similar, strange, come-and-go amnesia and separately travel to Morocco do the tides of fate (or malfunctioning brain-waves) bring them together. It's all quite bogus, but it looks so chic.