And Now Ladies & Gentlemen

Claude Lelouch must have had a great deal of fun making this bittersweet crime-and-romance confection, which was shot in exotic locales and boasts references not only to the writer-director's earlier movies but also those of other formidable filmmakers (Hitchcock above all). Jeremy Irons plays Valentin Valentin, a thief who specializes in cleverly denuding jewelry stores on the French Riviera. One of his jobs also secures him a lovely wife (Alessandra Martines), but after years of marriage he finally decides to pursue his dream of sailing solo around-the-world in the oddly-named titular yacht. Unfortunately, once onboard he's plagued by unexplained blackouts, and winds up in Morocco, where he meets Jane (Patricia Kaas), an expatriate French chanteuse who suffers from the same malady; he's also suspected of a hotel robbery and pursued by a local detective. The intention in all this was apparently to construct a romantic roundelay with light thriller overtones, but all that really succeeds is the slick packaging, overlaid with a Michel Legrand score. And Now Ladies & Gentlemen is two-plus hours of Gallic affectation, a cinematic soufflé that's supposed to be crisp and tantalizing but winds up soggy instead. Optional. (F. Swietek)