Tout ça... pour ça! (1993)

Marie, a young lawyer, leaves with her husband Fabrice and a couple of friends, Francis and Alessandra. They are engaged in a dangerous sentimental game together, from which their relations will not come out unseemly.

Director:

Claude Lelouch

Writer:

Claude Lelouch

Stars:

Marie-Sophie L., Francis Huster, Fabrice Luchini

2 wins.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Marie-Sophie L.	...	Marie Lenormand
Francis Huster	...	Francis Barrucq
Fabrice Luchini	...	Fabrice Lenormand
Alessandra Martines	...	Allessandra Barrucq
Vincent Lindon	...	Lino
Gérard Darmon	...	Henri Poncet
Jacques Gamblin	...	Jacques Grandin
Evelyne Bouix	...	Marilyne Grandin
Charles Gérard	...	Policeman
Céline Caussimon	...	Esmeralda
Maria Ducceschi	...	Fille du bal
Agnès Pelletier	...	Fille du bal
Mimi Young	...	Fille du bal
Christian Charmetant	...	Banquier
Jacques Bonnot	...	Chauffeur du camion

Storyline

Marie, a young lawyer, leaves with her husband Fabrice and a couple of friends, Francis and Alessandra. They are engaged in a dangerous sentimental game together, from which their relations will not come out unseemly.

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Plot Keywords:

barefoot woman | dancing barefoot | barefoot dancer | nude dance | reference to johnny hallyday | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Crime | Romance

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Details

Country:

France Canada

Language:

French

Release Date:

1993 (Canada)

Also Known As:

All That... for This?!

Filming Locations:

Boulevard de Magenta, Paris 10, Paris, France

Company Credits

Production Co:

Centre Européen Cinématographique Rhône-Alpes, Les Films 13, Sofiarp

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

User Reviews

All this for that

In spite of shortcomings and with hindsight, "Tout ca...pour ca!" might be Claude Lelouch's most palatable moment of all the works he left in the nineties. It would be a lie to hail it as a masterwork (you can count on the fingers of one hand the films that reach this level in the filmmaker's copious filmography) but it is filled with enough energy and humor to omit boredom.

It's a "Lelouchian" work to the core with some of the topics cherished by the filmmaker throughout his career: love affairs between men and women, chance that links some men's fate. These two themes are the backbone of the two chief plots of the film. On the first road, we follow the love to-in gs and fro-in gs of a judge (Francis Huster) and a lawyer (Fabrice Lucchini) with their wives and mistresses. Then, on a second road, Lelouch films the adventures of three immature men acted by Gérard Darmon as a taxi driver, Vincent Lindon as a waiter and Jacques Gamblin. They wound up together after a disappointing love affair for each of them and plan to earn as much money as they can to leave France with Jacques Gamblin's daughter. Their two-bit tricks and swindles will bring them to court.

Do these two plots complement themselves? There's superimposition and you have to wait until the end to see fusion maintained. Frankly, Lelouch had better discarded his judges' love stories because they are uninteresting and flimsy. It's the same drawback as "le Chat et la Souris" (1975), another honorable effort from Lelouch in which all that deal with Philipe Léotard's sentimental life was gratuitous filler. And in spite of Lelouch's virtuosity at camera, his directing seems extracted from a film of the seventies and makes his effort a little obsolete. It also could have gained with a more tightened editing.

But when the film lays the focus on the incredible adventures of the colorful threesome of men, it really gathers pace and takes off thanks to the energy conveyed by the three actors. It amounts to a beneficent change of scene fueled with humor.

All this for that? It means a little lame but enjoyable excursion from a filmmaker who persists in developing his personal ideas in films? Well yes. But if this film made of two unlikely plots charmed you, at least Lelouch won't have worked in vain.