Laurent Mousson

Captain Future, or rather "Capitaine Flam" was one of the First wave of Mangas to be broadcasted in France in the late seventies, along with "Goldorak" and "Albator". It was dubbed in French, and, now I've seen most of it again, I realise th e dubbing and translation are pretty poor, but at the time it didn't matter much. The scientific explanations, in general, although probably sound, were completely screwed-up in french. And why oh why rename the Comet "Cyberlab" ??? Based on Stories by Ed Hamilton, one of the greatest space-opera authors ever, Captain Future already stood out at the time of its release because of its pretty good writing standards. Each story was developed over four 25-minute episodes, with a few very nice cliffhangers at the end of episodes. Design is okay, character development is too, though, well, they very much suit japanese cultural patterns. The Captain's crass male chauvinism, especially, is barely bearable nowadays, as is the insistence of Joann in getting abducted by the baddies in every story, so Curtiiiis can come save her, but, well, those were the days...

As mentioned by other reviewers already, one of the series main assets is the incidental music, splendidly groovy and moody japanese jazz-rock, which gives a timeless feeling to the lot, Sad thing is, in the french dubbed version, the original score is drowned under the daft Jean-Jacques Debout title song (that guy is french singer Chantal Goya's husband, and he wrote most of her brain-dead children's songs) or its instrumental version, although sometimes you can still ear the original score poking in underneath. Bugger. Well, the title song is so corny it's actually cult as well in France...

The lot, that is 13 stories of each 4 episodes (we're talking about 22 hours), has been re-released on DVD in France. Sadly only in dubbed version, and well, the transfer is pretty cheap, but if you can get it as 7 DVD box set, it's not really an expensive one. Besides, you can watch all episodes of every story in a row without having to suffer those annoying titles in-between... or wait one week to know what happens next, the way we had to 20 years or so ago.

Of course, people who've seen it as kids will love seeing the lot again, but I think that , despite its shortcomings, the series could appeal to mainstream science fiction fans too... though purely french cartoon SF series "Il était une fois l'espace" is probably even better in the script department, and more suitable for european kids too !

I'm flabbergasted to read comments from the US complaining about the awful accents in "Secret and lies". Hey, people, you're 'merkans, and this language is supposed to be you mothertongue, it ain't mine, and I can nevertheless cope, so what ?? Has Hollywood's cliché-ed accents eroded your capacity to understand other ones that just happen to be real in the UK ? How d'you think Brits, Aussies and Kiwis cope with 'merkan accents then ? Yet US films are the same problem to them ! Come off it, panning a movie just because one is too lazy to make a little effort in concentration ia a wee tad unfair ! "Secret & Lies" is an excellent movie, great acting, and well, Timothy Spall and Brenda Blethyn are good in there because they sound real, because ther accents may not be that smooth to some ears, but they do add credibility to their characters.

BTW, a good few Brit movies on DVD happen to have english subtitles for the hard of hearing, the feature could be a help into getting used to those weird accents 60 million people across the Pond happen to have...

This one's meant as satire. Pretty heavy-handed satire indeed. Jean Yanne enacts his own fantasies of normal-guy-becomes-electronics-tycoon-and-master-of-the-world in a 1973 France full of design artifacts and garish colours. In fact it's quite revealing of the utopias and illusions of the time and place.

It may be, along with "Tout le monde il est beau...", Jean Yanne's best effort at directing, if only because there's some conviction in it. The whole movie really feels like a bunch of mates having fun together and making a film out of it. Some great scenes nonetheless, notably those with Bernard Blier... A really interesting bit, though, is the short cameo by 70s French Jazz-rock-gone-barmy combo Magma, playing in a futuristic cathedral, which gives an idea of how much of a shock their gigs must have been for audiences at the time. It is truly hilarious if watched with enough distance and knowledge of the era. If you don't, look elsewhere.

Well, it may possibly not have aged that well, notably the story line, that's pretty linear, but this film nevertheless has a few decent assets.

First, the cast, granted you get Gabin playing lead, or rather freewheeling lead, but look at the rest of the cast : an impressive array of distinctive supporting actors, many of which can be spotted in many other films of the day, who do a spendid job in here, even when silent. For example, André Pousse has the perfect face for the ruthless gangster job he does in the movie.

Second asset is the mood, a sort of sticky, foggy, terribly square version of the late sixties. The final scene in a rundown factory is truly awesome. This atmosphere is enhanced by Serge Gainsbourg's splendidly sober score (Gainsbourg himself appears in one scene, singing the striking "Requiem pour un con"), based on mesmerising percussion loops (way ahead of its time) or very gentle hammond organ parts. Oh and one song by Brigitte Bardot ("Harley Davidson") is also featured as background to one scene.

Third, which can only be fully appreciated with a good command of French, is the script and dialogue, where Michel Audiard delivers some of his hilarious trademark one-liners, such as "le jour où on mettra les cons sur orbite, ben t'as pas fini de tourner" ["the day they'll put gits on orbit, you'll be far from stopping to revolve"], which rely on slang and adequate delivery to give an unmistakable texture to the lines.

The only real downers here are the embarrassingly "hip" nightclub scenes, complete with sitar-laden raga-rock, that are pretty unwatchable to today's standards.

Last point : it's pretty violent for its time, but in an almost choreographed way, which could in a way evoke "Spaghetti" Westerns or Sam Peckinpah's work...

An enjoyable slice of 1960s french cinema, simply does the job.