Karry
Best movie of this year hands down!
Merolliv
I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.
Myron Clemons
A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.
Claudio Carvalho
In 1789, in France, the outlaw The Black Tulip (Alain Delon) is a thief that steals the nobles for himself; however the poor people believes he is a revolutionary. He is indeed the womanized and dull Count Guillaume de Saint Preux, who has a love affair with the married Marquise Catherine de Vigogne (Dawn Addams). When the Chief of Police Baron La Mouche (Adolfo Marsillach) plans a scheme to arrest The Black Tulip, the bandit is marked by a scar on the face and La Mouche suspects Guillaume might be The Black Tulip. However Guillaume summons his clumsy and idealistic younger brother Julien de Saint Preux to pose as if were him to lure La Mouche. Meanwhile Julien meets the bride Caroline "Carol" Plantin (Virna Lisi), who is a revolutionary, and they fall in love with each other. When Julien learns that his brother does not have any principles or ideal, he assumes Guillaume identity and The Black Tulip to support Plantin (Francis Blanche) and his group in the revolution. Will they succeed?"La tulipe noire", a.k.a. "The Black Tulip", is an entertaining adventure of a Zorro-like anti-hero. The plot is very funny until the point when Julien is arrested. Guillaume's sacrifice is silly and the conclusion is awful and messy, with Julien celebrating the revolution with Caroline and totally forgetting his brother and his body.My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "A Tulipa Negra" ("The Black Tulip")
MARIO GAUCI
A lesser-known literary creation of Alexandre Dumas Snr. was this Zorro-type masked avenger at the time of the French Revolution who, unlike the contemporaneous The Scarlet Pimpernel, was on the side of the Revolutionaries despite being truly an aristocrat himself! I've never read the source novel myself but, in any case, I'm familiar with the character via a fondly-remembered Japanese animated series that I used to watch on Italian TV as a kid (where the titular hero was actually a girl!). Having said that, it seems that much of the narrative has also been changed for this handsomely-mounted, energetic but disappointingly bland cinematic adaptation.Alain Delon who, ironically, would go on to portray Zorro himself in an equally medium-grade Italian production in 1975 plays a dual role here as the jaded aristocrat who dons the black costume and as his naïve, younger brother who is forced to keep up the ruse when the latter is facially scarred during a swordfight with his nemesis (Adolfo Marsillach). No self-respecting swashbuckling hero goes by without a gushing female pining for him and, appropriately enough, we get two here in Virna Lisi and Dawn Addams one for each Delon persona! The fomer ditches her own imminent marriage when she meets cute with the shier Delon and the latter gets it on with the older Delon practically in front of her ageing aristocrat husband, Akim Tamiroff.
ragosaal
Just for cape and sword adventure fans, "The Black Tulip" is the French version of Zorro. Very much alike. There's Alain Delon in the main role for the ladies and he is not bad. You'll also find Virna Lisi in one of her early works rendering an acceptable work too. But if it comes to acting, veteran Akim Tamiroff is the clear winner in a supporting role as a villain noble. Photography and shooting on location in real palaces and old European cities add to the movie and a sort of sticky tune helps too.But what "The Black Tulip" really lacks is the sense of passion and real heroism American classics of the genre usually transmit, this being really odd since most of them are usually located in Europe including France. I think the director didn't make up his mind whether this would be a serious swashbuckler with a touch of humor or a comedy with a touch of serious adventure. So it didn't work neither way.Nonetheless the film is entertaining and worth a watch.
lorenellroy
It is always a tad unfair to judge movies in a dubbed version especially ,as is the case here,when the dubbing is perfunctory and careless.Actors voices are among the key elements of their personality and replacing them with an anonymous voiceover artist is tantamount to a form of castration.,not to mention the loss of credibility arising from poor lip synchronization.The movie needs all the help it can get anyway being a pretty feeble affair.The Black Tulip is a Zorro like figure,with a penchant for black garb and mask who sides with the peasantry in the French Revolution by holding up aristocrats and disbursing the proceeds to the downtrodden-a reverse Scarlet Pimpernel,whose sentiments,rightly ,were pro establishment.When scarred on his face by the Police Lieutenant General he substitutes his identical twin,an idealist,who takes to the role with some relishCue romantic entanglements,some woeful sword fights and a plethora of bad dubbing until we get to the finale where heroism and self sacrifice rule the day Delon is dull and lacks the balletic grace that marks out the best screen swordsmenMinor in every way