If you relish, as I do, great French actors then you have died and gone to heaven because Alain Resnais has reassembled the bulk of his repertory company of the cream of French actors, supplemented it here and there, and turned it loose on a conceit that may not be to everyone's taste but is a ball for everyone else; it's rather like assembling the cream of the Old Vic actors, Michael Redgrave, Ralph Richardson, Johnny Gielgud, Richard Burton, and not having to take the vastly overrated Larry Olivier as part of the package. The premise is simple; Denis Podalydes, a Giradoux-type playwright has died suddenly and left a 'living will' in which he summons the actors - Sabine Azema', Mathieu Almanac, Michel Piccoli, Pierre Arditi, Anne Consigny, Lambert Wilson, etc - who have, over the years, appeared in various stage productions of his take on the Orpheus legend, 'Eurydice'. The idea is that they will pass judgment on a new production by a young Acting company but this, of course, is just a stepping-off point for them to reprise the roles themselves. To be honest it's less of a movie than a Master Class in Acting and whilst I have no problem with that and am happy to wallow in a gang of great thesps doing their thing I accept that not everyone will share that opinion.
Review of You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet
