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Twice Upon a Time review
:. Director: Antoine de Caunes
:. Starring: Jean Rochefort, Charlotte Rampling
:. Running Time: 1:32
:. Year: 2006
:. Country: France
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Following the vampire thriller Love Bites and the historical piece Monsieur N, former TV star Antoine De Caunes goes back to his first love, comedy, in Twice Upon a Time.
Jean Rochefort (The Man on the Train, Lost in La Mancha) and Charlotte Rampling (The Night Porter, Swimming Pool) play a director and his ex-muse at odds because of their past off-screen relationship.
Starting with a battle of the sexes, the film then turns into a cat and mouse game, which premises the expected conclusion. Twice Upon a Time isn't built on suspense or twists but rather on a confrontation between these two actors.
The actor turned filmmaker has always been good at creating sarcastic and sharp dialogues and his craft with words is showcased here, allowing the film to feed only on the juicy verbal exchanges between Rampling and Rochefort. In the background, he also sets up a light satire, taking shots at various things, from French cinema - quoted as unintelligible and elitist - to crazy Canadians as well as the Brits, as most Englishmen encountered here are gay.
Romantic stories involving senior citizens certainly don't abound in Hollywood - only Clint Eastwood's The Bridges of Madison County left a mark in recent memories - but Twice Upon a Time shows that romantic comedies can work without a youthful and glamorous cast, as long as the actors have enough charisma to transcend their age - though it's unlikely that anyone has ever doubted the charming powers of Rampling anyway.
Fred Thom
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