ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

SeeQuant Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

filippaberry84 I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Jenna Walter The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

aterjanian-582-234875 Though this movie is based on the novel by Émile Zola, the story is as old as antiquity. Phaedra was a Greek legend/tragedy which must have inspired Zola. Phaedra is also the title of a movie shot in Greece by Jules Dassin in 1962 (4 years before Vadim's La Curée) starring Melina Mercouri. They all revolve around the theme of an adulteress wife who falls in love with her stepson. They usually end tragically. The difference with Roger Vadim's movie is the way he plays on the eroticism that exudes from the ever beautiful Jane Fonda. She plays the role of a Canadian young heiress who marries this distinguished french bourgeois businessman only to get aroused by his son who is closer to her age. If you like beautiful erotic shots and situations, you will like this. Of course Barbarella (2 years later by the same director and Jane Fonda) is even more erotic.

MARIO GAUCI From what little I've watched of Vadim's work, this is his most consistently satisfying effort (though the best overall film would still be his famous horror compendium SPIRITS OF THE DEAD [1968], co-directed with Federico Fellini and Louis Malle).Based on a novel by Emile Zola (curiously enough, the very next day I watched THE LIFE OF EMILE ZOLA [1937], a superb Hollywood biopic!), the film deals with a bourgeois family disrupted when the ageing patriarch's second and much younger bride falls for her husband's son from his earlier marriage (who is her peer); while the script isn't especially deep, the film is absorbing all the way. Impeccably shot by Claude Renoir, its garish style is very typical of 60s European Art-house cinema and the sitar-tinged score even gives it a psychedelic vibe! The three main roles - Jane Fonda (married to Vadim at the time and therefore still in her "sex kitten" days), Peter McEnery (a surprising choice but a good one) and Michel Piccoli (effortlessly hypnotic, he's simply one of the finest - if largely unsung - actors of his generation) - are splendidly filled. The ending is somewhat abrupt and unresolved but, again, it's totally in keeping with the times in which it was made!

shepardjessica-1 Jane Fonda at her sexiest along with THE CHASE released the same year plays a young wife fooling around with her stepson (who is approx. the same age). I don't think Vadim was a great director, but Thespis probably one of his better ones, although not up to the level of AND GOD CREATED WOMAN. Ms. Fonda is great in this - beautiful, talented, intelligent.I gave this a 6 out of 10. Best performance = Ms. Fonda. Michel Piccoli was always a commanding presence and Mr. McEnery looks right in an easy role. Tina Aumont - cute with apparent talent. I just watched Mr. Vadim's CIRCLE OF LOVE (LA RONDE) and this is better. Jane Fonda elevated this one!

moonspinner55 Just when you think you've got a handle on this picture, it tosses in a curveball. Flirtatious Jane Fonda, married (but bored) to an older millionaire, has a tricky relationship with her 20-ish stepson which leads to a steamy secret affair. Director Roger Vadim shows off an amusingly twisted sense of humor (odd for a director who, with "Barbarella" two years later, showed no sense of humor at all!); Fonda, at the time Mrs. Vadim, has a marvelous, wicked gleam in her eyes--she's determined to have not just her slice of the cake but the entire dessert! There are problems here, but only minor ones: the voice-dubbing of the actor portraying Fonda's husband is bad (he sounds like Thurl Ravenscroft, the ride-narrator at Disneyland) and the role itself is sketchy--he schemes on the side, off-camera, so we only see the results. Also, the background music is a tiny bit excruciating and repetitive. But Fonda and Peter McEnery (as the handsome kid she becomes obsessed over) are first-rate, as is the chilling ending. A most peculiar concoction, multi-layered and often devastating, with terrific production design, art direction (with subtle mod overtones) and cinematography. Well worth-seeing for grown-up audiences. *** from ****