Many film fans run screaming for the door when confronted with French film drama. It is true: a lot of them tend to be over-talkative and self indulgent. François Ozon's Sous le sable is a worthy exception. Carried almost entirely by Charlotte Rampling, this story of a woman unable to face the loss of her husband marks the return to form of a great actress. Through her sensitive handling of her character one tends to forget the effort that must have gone into depicting an intelligent woman slowly going to pieces. Ozon managed to capture the special sensuality of an older woman especially well in the erotic scenes; imagined or otherwise. It is not an easy film to watch, the subject matter too painful, but its unflinching honesty coupled with Ramplings moving performance make it more than worth-while.


I disagree with a few comments below: first, I believe it 'is' appropriate to switch back and forth between French and English because the character is an english literature professor in Paris and has bilingual friends; second, I feel it is unfair of anyone to characterize the main character as elderly, she is sensual, attractive, and tentatively has a good life to live in her future. I think the loss to the woman of her husband is like suddenly confronting the loss of the last 25 years of her life. To be able to cope with this changed reality she must cautiously explore a new experience; she is afraid to let go of her past and afraid to take hold of a future. I believe at the end of the movie we are shown that she will continue to refuse to relinquish the past, yet, invariably, it is shown to her that she must go on, embracing the present, as must we all.


Mental illness as a lifestyle option seems to be the theme of this work. Very potent in examining the reality and meaning of loss and acceptance (or lack thereof). The always captivating Charlotte, (great to see Dirk Bogarde's little girl all growed up) looking elegant as a woman of a certain age in a very Anglo-Parisian sheath dress-wearing kind of way, is wonderful in her ability to convey contained confusion struggling to make sense of a pain too great to bear. Also noteworthy, stylistically, is a rare instance of unease being effectively evoked in spite of sunlit sets and daytime outdoor shots. No doom and gloom here, she gets to suffer in the light of day. A film that will remain with the moviegoer long after viewing because of its painful emotions and its visually powerful final shot.


I don't quite understand comments about the movie being slow. To me it was quite unpredictable and it maintained suspense throughout. The acting was very good and what struck me the most was how the movie was able to strike a realistic balance in everything, that was almost eerie. Indeed that is what made the movie so convincing to me. What also fascinates me is that even though the movie was realistic it was magical . I guess the real world is a magical place :-)

Bottom line: go see it!


Under the Sand (2000)

The plot is simple, almost too simple, and because very little happens, it depends on mood and deeply serious thinking about death to survive. And on Charlotte Rampling to have the nuance and range to pull it off.

And it works, overall, because of just those two things: heavy subject and Rampling. There are issues (and tricks, cinematically) with ghosts and memories, but these play small against the bigger strain of the lead woman dealing with this sudden trauma in her life. Even though the main event in the movie happens at the start, I don't dare mention it because it's surprise is important (I didn't know it was coming, and liked the way it was handled very much).

Director Francois Ozon never seems to quite nail down the pace and editing of his films, at least for American sensibilities. Even the sensationally complex Swimming Pool doesn't quite use its material to propel us in every scene. But let's turn that on its head and say that Ozon uses emptiness and gaps in the action to give his movies breathing room, or maybe, in some old fashioned sense, the make them serious. When nothing is "happening" you can only start to think and dwell on the events, along with the characters. In Under the Sand there is nothing else to do and yet it's exactly what Rampling in her role has to do: think and dwell. It's slow at times, yes, but only if you don't let yourself relax and get absorbed.

And, like the character, confuse what is real from what is chimera, and what she needs with what she once had, and even one man from another. Even her fluid bi-lingual abilities add to the duality. By the time you get to the final scene you are left wondering what true love really is, and whether it's worth it. Because maybe it is. She has something most people do not, and it seems like a sickness and a gift at once.


The death of a beloved person implies also a big loss, a loss which dependents refuse to believe.

Director Ozon flurries and unsettles the viewer again. It begins with the cut right after the vanishing of Marie's (Charlotte Rampling) husband Jean. It's summer. The married couple apparently enjoys their vacation at the sea. Suddenly, Jean disappears and the search of the police remains without a result. Cut! Marie sits with friends at a table, ostensibly in a flashback, outside it's winterly, Marie tells from Jean, who is waiting at home. She goes shopping and buys some clothing items for Jean. However, by and by, the viewer realizes, that this is not a flashback: It is the time after Jean's vanishing and Marie lives on as if nothing has happened.

The film concentrates only on Marie and her denial of reality, her non-acceptance of the loss, which goes so far, that she i. e. sees Jean in the door while she sleeps with another man, Vincent. Jean remains ubiquitous in Marie's life, he is always there and only disappears in a few scenes when reality comes in her life for a second. He is also present in the character of Vincent, whom she replaces with her missing husband, talks to him and treats him as if it was Jean.

That's why the film takes place in Charlotte Rampling's face, who shows a fantastic performance: She appears in every scene, her mimics symbolize the whole suffering of Marie. In clear, calm shots Ozon glances at the emotional recovery of his protagonist. Behind her chilly facade, Rampling only forebodes the psychological precipice of her figure and screens the film from flying out into melodrama. Rampling is the undoubted highlight, the highlight of a film which leaves behind an unsettled viewer.


Losing a loved partner one has lived with for years can be a devastating thing to cope with, but not really knowing if he is dead or alive -- or worse, going into denial that he has died -- can lead a person right into the edge of the abyss. Such a thing should never happen to anyone, but it does to Charlotte Rampling's Marie Drillon, a university professor who is happily married to Jean Drillon (Bruno Cremer in a near-silent performance). The opening ten minutes describes everything one needs to know about them: their dynamics, their love for each other unquestioned, quiet, but as potent as a garden filled with the scent of roses and lavender.

On a trip to the beach, Marie drifts into sleep as Jean decides to take a swim. When she awakes, she misses him and thinks he's within the area. Unfortunately, he is not... and the more she looks for him the less likely it is that he is alive. A search brings forth little comfort, and she if left from there on in limbo, wondering where Jean may be, if he is alive, or dead.

Her behavior from then on becomes increasingly erratic, which is an indicative of what happens to a person who's become so attached to another and the horror that slowly arises to the surface when those ties are suddenly, irrationally severed. She catches a glimpse of a young college student and is suddenly unable to continue giving a lecture; she seems a little off at a dinner party; she has gone on a spending spree (buying a new shirt and tie for Jean) despite the fact that her account is overdrawn and due to Jean's disappearance she has no access to his funds (which leaves her in a predicament as to how will she survive). Above all, she is acting as though Jean is still alive and well.

A particularly disturbing moment arrives when Marie decides to embark on an affair with another man who comes into her life: Vincent (Jacques Nolot) which establishes that maybe reality for her has finally cracked. Vincent and Marie begin making love, seen mainly through the motion of their hands... and then Jean's hands come into the left of the screen, identified through the blue shirt she bought him. It continues in perfect silence, with only her moans barely overheard. A later sequence has this odd threesome repeated as Jean observes her and Vincent making love from a distance.

In many ways, UNDER THE SAND has the elements of a thriller. A disappearance, the search, and the inevitable revelation as to what exactly happened. However, when a person is so deep in denial, those things matter little, if at all. Marie receives the crucial call from the morgue and decides to ignore the message left. She seems unable, unwilling, to face what has happened, and one of the more heartbreaking scenes of her anguish take place in a small montage where she is seen alone, sitting on a subway station, then riding the train, looking forlorn and empty.

Charlotte Rampling makes this her movie all the way. She's on screen at all times, and her performance is reminiscent of the one Juliette Binoche gave in BLUE. As a matter of fact, Binoche herself might have been the better choice, but Rampling is outstanding in her willingness to portray a woman in intense pain, suffering and coming apart from the inside out, desperate for answers but equally closed to them. Her disconsolate weeping at the end is an emotional tour-de-force wrenching itself out from its restraints, and that final scene on the beach as she runs towards the enigmatic, ghostly image of a man she believes to be her husband (whom she seemingly cannot reach) packs a devastating blow to the senses. A powerful masterpiece from the hands of Francois Ozon.


Francois Ozon's film 'Under The Sand' has a dark, sombre scenario. French couple Marie and Jean have been married for a quarter of century. They take their annual vacation un the south of France. The drama unfolds as they're enjoying a beautiful summer's day at a local beach. While Marie lies down to have a sunbake, Jean, after a reflective glance at the surf, rises, and heads into the surf for a swim. After dozing off, Marie wakes up to find that her husband is not lying beside her. She searches the beach and he is nowhere to be found. He has vanished, her nightmarish ordeal has begun. The best decription I can find for this film is that it charts the intense, oscillating experiences of one woman as she has to face the loss of her husband in a horrible way. Charlotte Rampling's performance as Maris is strong. The whole gamut of experiences are revealed. Even as Marie tries to accept a new lover but struggles, because her husband is still very much with her. This film was dark, even grim, but recommended.


If you (as I do) rate films & plays by how much after-show interesting conversation they provoke, then this film is at the top. Go with at least one other person and leave time afterwards to discuss: How far over the sanity line is she, or is she? Is he or isn't he? Did he or didn't he? How much of what her mother-in-law talls her is true? What does she believe and when does she believe it? What are her choices about what to believe, and what are the implications of each choice. Is she capable of making a choice?


As a fond of Ozon I was really happy, when Russia became the first country where "Sous le sable" was presented. It's an enigmatic film about an elderly woman, who tried to find her husband. On the beach he went to swim and disappeared. This mystery ruined her life, she tried to substitute husband by lover but failed. "Sous le sable" is a dainty French film about a lone elderly woman under the sand of time. I recommend the film to all fans of good European cinema.


"Sous le sable" tells the story of Marie Drillon, excellently performed by Charlotte Rampling, whose husband disappears when they are on holiday after he went for a swim in the sea. What follows is the struggle of Marie who can't accept the fact that her husband is dead and that he will never return. In several scenes is shown that Marie still talks to her husband in the present tense, like he's only gone for a couple of days but will return very quickly. In one of the last scenes we know for sure her husband is dead because they found his body. In that scene, we see again that she just can't accept it because the body that is found has all the characteristics of her missing husband, but she still denies that it is her husband.

Charlotte Rampling gives a remarkable performance. The movie is partly based on something Francois Ozon experienced in real life. Years ago, when he was at the beach, he saw a woman who's husband was went for a swim in the sea and didn't seem to return. He always wondered what happened to the woman and her missing husband. Excellent movie, Francois Ozon is a brilliant director. I've seen "8 Femmes" as well and this is also a very good movie, although it's something completely different.

8/10


This film is magical. The way that it is directed through to the way that you really don't quite know what is going on at the end. The portrayal of Marié by Charlotte Rampling is inspiring that such a high level of acting could be protrude on film still. Her performance is one of the best I have ever seen and really drives home the subtle sub plots of what makes her do and think what she dose. The switch between scenes in English and French works well also though some of the subtitles are not so good. This alas is a constant problem. Bruno Cremer's performance is both realistic and spiritual which really drives home his characters role. I was amused to see that François Ozon thinks of Germans in the same light as his countryman Anton De Cones, as a race obsessed with nudity. As the only other occupants of the 'German Beach' were naked.


The Psychologist Elizabeth Kubler-Ross highlights five stages of the typical mourning process: denial and isolation, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. It is clear to see that Marie does not follow this process. And although she clearly expresses denial, her denial is not shrouded in isolation. This is first shown in the dinner party scene as she discusses Jean flippantly and in the present tense, Ozon using a study of Marie's friends' reactions to show that something is not right. This runs contrary to the writings of both Freud and Kubler-Ross, who observe the social withdrawal of those in self-denial, as if the only way to maintain the mourner's alternative reality is to cut him or her from all outside factors which have the potential of ruining the fantasy. This scene is difficult to watch due to Marie's matter-of-fact delivery with no hint of melancholy, and the friends' inability to confront Marie or force the issue of Jean's death.

Marie's grief seems to be marked as atypical by her willingness to face these outside factors, which comes across as almost stubborn rather than genuinely self-deluding. Under normal circumstances, such a high level of social interaction would appear to lead to a greater sense of reality for the bereaved. However, Marie is armed with several defence mechanisms which she uses when directly confronted with her true situation. In the first instance, when confronted by Amanda after the dinner party and after a lecture, Marie uses changes in language to switch the tone of the conversation. It seems that she can feel more comfortable and isolated when speaking in English, and perhaps she was able to use the same technique before Jean's disappearance to exert her own individuality within her marriage. This use of language draws certain comparisons to isolationist behaviour seen in psychological studies of grief and bereavement, for example Colin Murray Parkes' elusion to "the widow who spoke in a whisper for fear of making reality too real".

Later in the film, as Marie's defences begin to get breached, she resorts to both anger and insults in order to keep her personal reality from being destroyed.. she transcends her calm veneer for the first time when confronted about Jean by Vincent, and when confronted by her mother-in-law she resorts to petty insults. This series of reactions seems to come to a head when she returns to Lit-et-Mix to face the final reality of her husband's death. Having seemingly run out of ways to deny her situation, Marie breaks into laughter. This can be read either as a confirmation of Marie's descent into madness or as a prelude to her final moment of acceptance as played out on the beach in the final scene.

Despite these deviations from established psychological writings, Marie's behaviour does in part correspond to some of Freud's theories as set out in "Mourning and Melancholia", in particular when he describes mourning as the process of "reality-testing"6. Marie's actions can be seen as a way for her to examine her new emotions and social surroundings since the loss of Jean. In fact, the film could be seen as a study in the way in which Marie explores several alternative realities: the awkwardness of her fledgling relationship with Vincent displays her hesitation in leaving her personal reality of a monogamous life with Jean, as if she is performing experiments on herself, constantly testing the limits of the world she has conjured around herself. This is expressed visually by Ozon in studying Marie's physicality, the way in which she interacts physically with her surroundings. The most explicit "reality-testing" scene occurs when Marie is lying on her bed and is caressed by six hands, those of Jean, Vincent and herself: It can be seen almost as the transition sequence between two of her realities. Ozon also frequently uses reflections of Marie's face in order to convey the idea of her physicality, literally highlighting the reflective nature of her self-discovery: in order to truly recover from the loss of her husband she must re-identify herself, perhaps also coming to terms with her own mortality, the subject of which is most explicitly conveyed in her conversation with Vincent about Virginia Woolf. It is also hinted at during her conversation with her mother-in-law: the two of them trading insults over who will be the first to end up in a psychiatric home, while Ozon makes studies of the mother-in-law's aging features. The scene in which Marie passes out when seeing a cemetery could be seen as a reaction to Jean's death, but could equally be interpreted as her reaction to her own mortality.

However, despite these references to the psychology of loss and bereavement, Ozon's film cannot simply be read in this way. The film is as much about life as it is about death. In a way, the presumed death of Jean runs merely as a sub-plot in the story of Marie's self-discovery. The essence of the film is clearly based around Charlotte Rampling's central performance, which remains ambiguous but powerful throughout, reflecting complex ideas about attachment and loss, and leaving behind several unanswered questions over the reasons for her actions as well as what results from them. Ultimately, Ozon's film is intended to remain open-ended, as displayed in the final scene where Marie runs towards a mystery man, perhaps reflecting the ambiguous nature of life and death in a secular society in which death is no longer associated with notions of an afterlife or ritualistic coping mechanisms intrinsic in Christian interpretations of mortality.


Charlotte Rampling does an award-winning acting job depicting a woman's reaction to her husband of 25 years disappearing into the ocean in the south of France. They seemed to be a serenely and smoothly functioning couple taking their annual vacation together. They had a lovely seaside villa and seemed to know the routine of travelling, opening the house and preparing to relax. They seem like a loving couple, but she is in her 40's, fit and trim while he was aging and overweight. He got wood for a fire and she made pasta and they went to bed together with affection, but no passion.

The next day was lovely and he lovingly applied sunblock to her back. He went swimming by himself as she preferred to relax for awhile and read a book. She never saw him again as he never returned. She was frantic and initiated a search, but no body was found. The following year she was trying to get on with her life, still denying her husband's death. Her friends grew increasingly concerned and tried to fix her up with a pleasant single man, and eventually she agreed to have a date with him and make love. The image of her husband remained with her in a soft, friendly way.

Events accelerate, the finding of the body, a shocking talk with her aged mother-in-law. Ultimately she seems to come to grips with reality as she breaks down and cries on the beach, but the sudden ending must be watched closely for a clue to how she eventually copes.

After the love-making scene, there is a shocking realization by the new boyfriend, that their physical intimacy meant nothing to her after the fact. This is what many lovers feel when they realize the physical intimacy was only skin deep and temporal. One wonders by what magic enduring love and commitment happens.


After seeing Swimming Pool (my first Ozonic experience - his first American-language movie), all of his previous films and now this one, I've come to the conclusion that Francois Ozon is a truly brilliant filmmaker, someone who is capable of foraging deep, DEEP under the surface of things - as only a Scorpio can - to convey what is nearly non-conveyable in films: psychological state and motivation. Charlotte Rampling is superb in Swimming Pool, and in Sous Le Sable (Under the Sand), she creates one of the most stunningly subtle and heartbreaking portraits of grief that I've ever experienced; this film is profoundly sad, a brilliantly accomplished, astoundingly mature piece of work.


This is a tour de force for Charlotte Rampling - her performance alone makes this worth watching.

Things begin with Marie (Rampling) and her husband Jean (Bruno Cremer) heading out of Paris to their summer home in the country. In following the mundane activities of their trip and first night away we learn quite a bit about them. The rhythms of their married life have long since been grooved. Marie's attachment to Jean is apparent, but Jean's feelings for Marie are less well established and this becomes a relevant plot element.

On the day after their arrival at the summer home the couple go to the beach. While Marie suns herself, Jean goes for a swim and he does not come back. Marie goes through all of the expected reactions - waiting anxiously, calling the police, witnessing the search, and finally giving up. It is here that we move into the deeper waters of the story, as it were. The expressions on Jean's face just prior to his going on the swim sets the tone of ambiguity as to the cause of his vanishing. Was his disappearance an accident, suicide, or willful?

Marie deals with this bewildering situation by entering into a state of denial and this is where Rampling and Ozon boost this movie beyond the ordinary as they subtly trace the gradual chipping away of Marie's illusions. The reaction shots of Marie's seeing an older man swimming in a pool, or receiving a recorded message that a body has been found, are powerful in their understatement. The use of lighting to accentuate Marie's moods is quite effective, like the use of harsh white light when she is in obvious agony.

Rampling is at the top of her form and she completely puts to rest any idea that a woman in her 50s cannot be sexy.

The subtext of how Marie's friends try to deal with her reactions is engaging, making you wonder about the best way to deal with a friend in a state of denial. You want to be supportive, but also want to encourage them to face what you think are the realities of the situation.

Relationships are always more complicated than the participants understand and, as is the case here, a traumatic event can unleash emotions and thoughts previously unexplored. I took the ambiguous ending to personify the hopes, fears, and unknowables in Marie's relationship with Jean, and maybe in all significant relationships.


A surprising change of pace for (up to that stage in his directorial career) shock auteur François Ozon in the wake of bourgeois facade-ripping as REGARDE LA MER and SITCOM, this minimalist masterpiece deals with love, loss and grief yet never becomes heavy-handed.

Middle-aged Marie (luminous Charlotte Rampling making a belated but extremely welcome return to leading roles), an English literature professor at a Parisian university, quite literally loses her husband (hauntingly sad-eyed Bruno Cremer) while on seaside holiday. She takes a nap on the beach as he's out swimming. When she wakes up, he has disappeared. Accidentally or voluntarily drowned ? Hiding perhaps from a stifling marriage ? Ozon offers no solid answers but focuses but focuses on Marie's stubborn denial of her husband's departure as she resumes her professional and social life as if nothing had happened. While those around her assume she's slipping from sanity, the truth proves considerably less tangible and far more nuanced. A tentative affair with the friend of a friend seems doomed from the start, leading to the shattering final scene, all the more heartbreaking for being open to any number of interpretations, none of them particularly cheerful.

Even though the filmmaker has reigned in his wicked humor and morality-defying shock tactics, this fortunately doesn't mean he has gone all solemn on us. The general lightness of tone might indeed startle in light of the subject matter, plus there's even an astonishingly erotic moment when Marie imagines herself being groped by both husband and lover in an elegant masturbatory fantasy. Ultimately, this is very much Rampling's show and clearly intended as such. Rarely out of frame for more than an instant here, she delivers the type of performance  both subtle and sensuous  that has been her stock in trade since she started enchanting movie audiences worldwide back in the '60s, her mysterious beauty undiminished (if anything, augmented more like) by the passing years. Contrary to her personal code of conduct (she will rarely work more than once with the same director, always looking for new experiences to further her craft and personal growth), she went on to star in Ozon's deceptively upbeat SWIMMING POOL and took a supporting role in his first failure to date, the atrocious ANGEL.


I am amazed at Ozon's insight into loss. When death is so sudden there can be the illusion of life continuing, particularly when a couple have grown together for so many years. We are led to see everything from Marie's point of view to the point that even her best friend, Amanda, seems unsympathetic. When Marie does attempt to move away from Jean's memory, the new lover, after only one night, is already volunteering to help her with her "problem". The brief scene with mother-in-law is superb. The allusions to Virgina Woolf are also key to understanding.

For me, it is the sympathy given by Ozon to the character of Marie, the one who has to cope with loss, which gives this film such power. Without a hint of indulgence, we see a strong character attempting to survive an experience which has shattered her life.


This is a mature, thoughtful study of the games we play with ourselves to make it through the day; a walk through loss and denial. The acting is simple and superb throughout.

Rampling gets deserved praise for this role, but Bruno Cremer as her husband has perhaps the most difficult role to tread, it's a fine line done marvelously.

Ozon is one of my favorite Directors. His work is always thought provoking, risky, and willing to explore the dark corners to bring fullness to the life of his characters. Some of Ozon's work is bright and campy. His other mode is quiet and serious. This is one of his most serious, and one of the best.


I just saw this movie this afternoon and really enjoyed it. Was anyone else taken back a little by the change from French to English and then back to French without any notice. The first time it happened, I was very surprised. Why do you think that was done? I don't see any purpose The only time, it made sense to me was when she was teaching and reading from an English novel, otherwise, it didn't make sense in other places. Any comment? Excellent movie, I will recommend it to friends and try to see a few more Charlotte Rampling movies. It is a snowy day here and so this movie went very well with our weather. Can anyone recommend any other Charlotte Rampling movies? I would definitely like to see something else that she has starred in. Does she do both French and British movies?


This charming sober film from French filmmaker Ozon poses the questions of loss and denial, sexuality, and the many ways that we deal with grief. When we grow to know someone all our lives, how do we function when our conditions have changed? And in what ways do we compensate to fill the voids and human touch that we linger for?

The story is simple enough, but the meditations are complex and intricate. Marie and her husband are on holiday in the picturesque south-west of France when at a deserted beach, the husband goes for a swim but never returns. The extensive majority of the film is concerned with Marie's perception of her world after her husband mysterious disappearance and her reflections on sexuality and ageing.

This is a fine film. In tradition with the French school of film-making, there are many quiet, meditative scenes; moments where Rampling's character glides through ornately furnished rooms and houses of her affluent companions who offer support and counsel. The sparse dialogue creates an introspective and reflective film - totally refreshing and mature in the demands on the audience.

The city streets of the Landes region and the associated beaches are serenely photographed. It is truly beautiful to watch. Add Ozon's exceptional direction that heighten the loneliness and regret enforced by Rampling and the film is a treat for the senses.

Rampling's performance deserves a special mention. She carries the entire film for the duration. She is a sensual, sexy, sophisticated and fully-developed female. Her acting is minimal but it works to great effect. She is able to communicate her feelings of denial, regret, giddiness and womanhood with sometimes no dialogue, realistically playing Marie with the constraints of society's norms but tempted to break free and unleash her feelings and guilt buried under the sand. This is one of the great film performances.

This was so refreshing and beautiful to watch, a treat to be engulfed in picturesque Landes for a while. It was a truthful and honest portrayal of how we cope with loss; when we are so used to living our lives, taking our loves for granted. Ozon and Rampling were both stunning, sensual and reeled me into their world. By the film's end I was reluctant to leave her world of memories and regret, and I drifted of listening to the credits as long as I could. I wanted to continue listening to the crash of the waves, the peaceful tides pulling me under the sand.


SPOILERS AHEAD.

Charlotte Rampling gives a marvelously understated portrayal of the fragility of a woman who has lost the central pillar in her life.

Her reaction in the mortuary scene provides a fine example of her skills as an actress.


Slow, deliberate, and a perfect example of great editing, every movement seems to have meaning. I never realized Rampling was such a powerful dramatic actor. The ending is just that-- and ending. There's no dramatic closure, the viewer is unsure of the ending, but that is as it should be. Saw this the same weekend as Moulin Rouge, which underscored what a pleasure it is to see a thoughtful character study on screen.


This is a film that is slow in developing but not without losing its grip. It is not boring unless you are 18years old. Actually, this is a mature film for mature viewers who understand the complexities and bliss of mid-life relationships that are further complicated by the loss or disability of a steady partner whose patterns are well learned and experienced along that long path. Long relationships lead to an acceptance and craving for shared performance, habits and body language - either good or bad. In long-term relationships, bad times are blended with the best. All bad times are without risk.

As others have commented, Marie (Charlotte Rampling) has lost her husband Jean (Bruno Cremer) in a low-keyed holiday trip to their seaside residence in southern France. We do not know much about them other than it appears that their relationship is either strained or okay. We learn those elements not in high-level drama but one of progressive mental torture going on in Marie's mind - particularly after Jean disappears beachside while Marie is basking on the sand.

This script is a tiptoe dance between the real and unreal; between sanity and insanity; between a temporary mental aberration induced by bereavement and the need to retain the memory of a life-partner at all cost. Perhaps, what we see is just a short slice in time or worse, something more permanent.

We will never know that answer.

We only know the experience that Director François Ozon created that has an open ending.


This is definitely Charlotte Rampling's film. On the screen nearly all the time she admirably plays the part of Marie, a middle-aged woman whose husband Jean disappears suddenly during a sunny day at a lonely beach.

Her mounting despair and refusal to accept the facts which seem to point to his certain death by drowning grip our attention at once. The uncertainty of the incident and her disbelief nurture in us the hope, however meagre, that somehow or other he is still alive.

The acting throughout is both sensitive and convincing. Charlotte Rampling is a great actress moving with such grace she can even make the preparation of a cup of coffee interesting to watch. The magic of this film is found in the simple every day incidents that make up our lives...like going to the beach or wondering who is at the other end when the telephone rings. Add to this a mystic quality and you have a winner.

Not every one perhaps will agree with the ending, but I think this one is intriguing. A big question mark confronts us. Our hopes rise..... There comes to mind the old saying...."The wish is father of the thought".


Ozon seems to have made here, what he couldn't quite succeed with See The Sea. Charlotte Rampling's performance is so amazing it hurts. But the real credit should be given to Ozon himself. It's surprising for a director of his age to make a film so economic, so mature and hiding the director from the viewer when it's all depending on the director. It's a master's work. It's François Ozon's masterpiece. a touching drama about a woman's denial of her loss, an everyday habit maybe like mentioned in the "waves". the last shot of Charlotte Rampling running on the sands towards the illusion of her husband is amazing. and how ozon cuts it before she ever reaches.


Under the Sand was a haunting, touching movie. Charlotte Rampling was excellent as the denying, grieving wife. I think the film did a good job in examining the effects from the death of a spouse. It is not a young person's movie nor is it a particularly happy movie. It does have an effect on you. I wondered if I would be as strong or as weak as Marie Drillon if placed in a similar situation. The movie invited this introspection and that for me is the hallmark of a good film.


A beautiful simple story, told with no unecessary effects (Ozon respects the natural pace of mourning time). But what strikes most is Charlotte Rampling, who's never been so real, so beautiful, so mysterious. I won't forget her face in this film. It's not usual, that kind of meeting between of an actress and a character.


I'm not going to talk about the actors. Everyone here has already done that and the problem I have with this film doesn't involve the acting at all. It is very well done. However, it is sad and depressing. Not many people will want to watch Marie struggle to accept the fact that her husband is 'gone' and that she is now alone. Her husband has been gone for 3 months and she talks about him as if he never disappeared. The husband's mother, who is in a nursing home, makes a comment to Marie telling her that she's probably crazy and boring too. Maybe that is why her son disappeared-because he was bored with his life & his wife. Why anyone would make such a comment to someone suffering is beyond me. But for some reason, there it is, this pathetic scene hinting that Marie might be insane. She isn't. She's grief stricken and unable to accept the fact that her husband may be dead, perhaps by suicide. If this all sounds dismal, be prepared. This is NOT an uplifting film at all. I enjoyed "Swimming Pool" much better and wouldn't want to sit through this again. Try something else.


The strikingly lovely Meg Foster and baby-faced, shaggy-haired Michael Burns are a flighty, wide-eyed, free'n'easy hippie couple who encounter a stunningly twisted array of distinctly all-American grotesque characters during their aimless trek across the United States in this compellingly groovy "Easy Rider"-inspired early 70's road movie curio. Foster and Burns make for likable leads, with the underrated and always captivating Foster particularly fine in a rare starring role (Foster basically reprised the character in the oddball cannibal horror outing "Welcome to Arrow Beach"). Bruce Dern contributes a stand-out scary cameo as a jittery, switchblade-wielding psycho motorist in a yellow hot rod; Joyce Van Patten likewise turns in a marvelously hideous portrayal of a bitter, smugly square and shockingly venomous suburbanite harridan mother from hell; Mariana Hill and Burke Burns are alarmingly gross and vulgar as a loud, trampy white trash wife and her boozy, insecure macho jerk husband, and "Hill Street Blues" TV series regular Michael Conrad is solid as a burly, scruffy, friendly, but horny truck driver who gives our wandering twosome a ride into San Francisco.

Quentin Masters' spare, sharply observant direction wisely avoids the usual stylistic overkill excesses which mar many counterculture films made at the time, opting instead for a more timeless, largely unadorned and plainly naturalistic style which has dated pretty well. Don Mitchell's episodic, yet coherent script conveys a series of vividly realized, colorful and engrossing vignettes with topmost clarity and acuity, perceptively nailing the rampant hedonism, moral permissiveness, Nixon-era unease and paranoia, corrupting and erosion of flower child ideals, mass disillusionment, and intense spiritual malaise which defined the early 70's. Harry Stradling, Jr.'s dewy, golden-hued cinematography gives the picture a sunny, beautifully lyrical look while the soundtrack boasts plenty of nicely harmonic and flavorsome folk ballads. The carefree tone darkens as the film leisurely progresses towards its hauntingly downbeat conclusion, thus ending things on a startling note of grim self-discovery. An admittedly passé, but still intriguing period piece.


Thumb Tripping is a little-known hippie road movie made in 1972. It's little-known for a reason. The reason is that it is somewhat poor.... and those who saw it (of which there were few) did not build for it a word-of-mouth reputation of any note. There are a few cast members in it who went on to bigger and better things, notably Meg Foster and Bruce Dern; also the director Quentin Masters would later score a sexploitation hit with the Joan Collins movie The Stud. However, in this film there is very little of interest other than a freewheeling narrative that offers occasional insights into the permissive and casual attitudes of the youth of the late '60s/early '70s. In most departments, Thumb Tripping is a tedious, dated, muddled and totally forgettable misfire.

Young hitch-hikers Gary (Michael Burns) and Chay (Meg Foster) make their way around California together, hitching rides when they can and spending evenings under the stars. Gary is a kid from a decent background and a home in Connecticut who has chosen to postpone going to college in order to "discover himself"; Chay is a more freewheeling type who just wants to experience the here-and-now while she is still young. During their wanderings, Gary and Chay come across various weird types and sometimes find themselves caught up in bizarre adventures. They're picked up by road-racers Smitty (Bruce Dern) and Simp (Larry Hankin) who threatens them with a switchblade; later they hitch a lift from an embittered woman (Joyce Van Patten) who has hated hippies since her daughter ran away to become one; another time Chay finds herself being ogled by a middle-aged trucker (Mike Conrad); and in their final "thumb trip", they find themselves travelling with dysfunctional husband-and-wife alcoholics (Mariana Hill and Burke Burns).

The episodes come and go without leaving much of an impression, partly due to the fuzzy soundtrack (which renders much of the dialogue inaudible) and partly because of the thoroughly uninteresting main characters. Michael Burns gives a non-performance that may one day be recommended by doctors as a cure for insomnia, while Foster fares little better as a dislikable female lead whose character seems to think she's free and happy but in reality is just a self-centred slut. The gallery of background characters are far more fascinating than these two, but they come and go too quickly to make much of an impact. The script (by Don Mitchell, from his own novel) has no idea where it's going and merely ambles along from one pointless situation to another. Where Easy Rider was similarly plot less and freewheeling, at least it had interesting characters and situations, and charismatic performers. Thumb Tripping has none of that and is a very tough film to endure from low-key beginning to unsatisfying end.


The past few months I have collected Voyager seasons 4 to 7 on DVD (I only had 1 to 3 on video before that, because Kes is my favourite character) and have just reached the end. I saw them when they were originally shown on TV here in the UK but had forgotten most of it. Am I satisfied with the ending? I think I am. Naturally as I fan I would have liked to have seen more about what happened to the characters when they got home but that's left to our imagination. In many ways "Endgame" is similar to Next Gen's "All Good Things" The involvement of the crew in the future, but mainly the captain. A new romance starting in the finale (Troi and Worf in Next Gen and Seven of Nine and Chakotay here), which results in death in the future. I truly loved "Endgame," fair to all characters, Neelix appears although he left the ship two episodes earlier. B'elanna gives birth to her daughter with loving husband Tom. Tuvok is ill but returning home means he can be cured. Harry has always been the most anxious and determined but admits the journey is important. The Doctor, in the future, is well respected by all and finally chooses the name Joe! But of course the Captain has the largest role, meeting her future self who wants to get the crew home earlier to prevent casualties. The Borg are involved, as they have played a massive part in this period of Voyager. Alice Krige plays the Borg Queen again fantastically, just her voice and acting method are magnificent. I feel sorry for Susanna Thompson though, the TV Borg queen replaced by the movie Borg queen. Maybe she wasn't available though. The special effects are fantastic, the Borg sub space hub and the Borg queen falling apart! It's very tense. Especially when they come out of the Borg subspace corridor and say their location is right where they thought they'd be after they'd said they'd have to go in a corridor that leads back to the delta quadrant. And what a wonderful idea to get inside a Borg sphere for protection, on the DVD special features they say it was like the Trojan horse. Voyager could have continued. If it was more popular they would have stuck with their original idea of the crew realising the ship is their home, like in Harry's speech and what Tom said because his wife and child are there. And then they could have got home in a film!

Overall, Voyager was a bit hit and miss. The sixth season seemed to be one good one followed by one less than good one. The two episodes set in the Holographic Irish village are horrible! My perception of Seven of Nine was that she took over, it all revolved around her, which wasn't true. When she first appeared, season 4 was focused on her for too many of the episodes but it evened out after that. And her character is ingenious at times, 20 years as a Borg drone gradually rediscovering her humanity. I like her, especially in "Someone to Watch Over Me," "Imperfection," and "Human Error." When Naomi Wildman was scared of her initially but then became her friend often by her side, that was lovely. Chakotay became my least favourite character. Gone was the chemistry with Janeway (will they/won't they?) and you'd never think he was first officer, he's completely pushed aside most of the time. I loved seeing Tom and B'elanna's relationship blossom against the odds. I always liked Neelix a lot. Tuvok was good at times, especially when he lost his logic, gained emotion and was friends with Neelix. Harry was annoying at times but a okay character at other times. The Doctor is probably my favourite, seeing how far he comes and comedy situations he creates ("Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy" is fantastic!). Janeway is my favourite Captain of any series and you can tell Kate Mulgrew is really enjoying it.

I wish there was more, I love Voyager!


This is a great ending to the show. The fact that Adm. Janeway was able to do a double switch on the Borg was great. The fact that she allowed herself to be infected, thus infecting the Queen with a "poison" that in, essence, ended the Borg was great. The way they ended it also left some, not a lot, for a reunion movie. However, they did bring them "home" and the way they did it was fantastic!! It was sad to say good bye to a part of my family. Ending it with Tom and B'Lanna having their baby just as they enter the Alpha quad. was a great way to show a new beginning. It would be nice to have a reunion movie of some type - just to see where their characters would be today.


After eagerly waiting to the end, I have to say I wish I wouldn't have joined the whole series at the first place. The final episode was everything against the previous seven years. It has ruined everything. The journey was 23 years, but captain Janeway has the power to reduce it... let say, seven years only. Why seven? Why not just one? Or nothing? Why not avoid the whole adventure? Crewmemebers were dying all along the journey. Why she wants to save Seven of Nine only? The others don't count or what? The most ridiculous part when the crew states that getting home is not really the most important thing to them. As the say, "journey is more important than the destination". Unbelievable. And at the finale scene the are surrounded by other Federation ships and the Earth is in sight. Nothing about landing, returning to the normal life.

Worst ending ever.


SPOILERS. Like other posters, I felt that the ending was a bit abrupt. I would have liked to have seen the crew adjusting to life back on earth after their return. I suppose the writers anticipated this problem by "front loading" some Voyager on earth sequences at the beginning of the episode. (Of course, that time line has been eradicated, so it's all moot.) I did like how Admiral Janeway died for the Voyager crew. As fans, we get to have our cake and eat it to, by having Janeway both make the ultimate sacrifice and live on. I admit that the scenes of Janeway and her older self having conversations was bizarre and so easily could have crossed the line into camp. Fortunately, Mulgrew(s) pulled it off.


I was not really a big fan of Star Trek until past 2-3 years. Thanks to the advent of Netflix and post 2000 video technology distribution, I am able to embark into the past of all the great Star Trek episodes. For those that don't really watch every single episode and know them by heart, through TNG, DS9, Voyager, etc., general popular consensus will say -- "I like The Next Generation" the best. That's because Captain Picard and his crew were fresh when they first appeared after decades of Star Trek starvation. But to be quiet honest, I appreciate the creativity of Voyager's episodes more than TNG. Voyager's episodes also progresses through time unlike TNG. Granted Data from TNG is great but it eventually gets old but Voyager's doctor -- now that's creativity! Instead of making artificial intelligence awkward and jerky, give him the freedom to express beyond anything you imagined. Not only is Picardo such a great actor but the premise setting for his expansive, self growth, as a doctor, self realization now that is science fiction at its best! Endgame portray him as a husband married to an "organic", inventing neuro-implant transceiver for human-machine interface, and even -- in the episode before Endgame, to disobey Captain's order and make "human" mistakes. Unlike DS9 which are blessed with 2 beautiful women right from 1st episode, Voyager has to survive 3 seasons without Jeri Ryan and I believe it is Picardo that carried them with his personality. Of course the rest of the Voyager's cast chemistry just flows effortless, Harry Kim and Tom Paris -- very natural. I love Tuvoc occasional humor, despite being a Vulcan. Finally, I'm so glad they got rid of that original female captain -- oh, if you get to watch the rare footage -- thank God for Kate! She has developed through the 7 years into an extremely confident, believable, and respectable female captain. What a GREAT job! Thank you Star Trek for making Voyager, I enjoy every episode, the creative exploration of possibilities, of morals, and of our Cosmic expanse.


This final Voyager episode begins 23 years in the future. Voyager has made it back home. In the many years it took to return tho, the Vulcan Tuvoks' mind has been destroyed. He carried a disease they were too late getting home to cure.

Captain Janeway comes across aliens who have time travel technology. She realizes, there's a Warp Conduit in the Delta Quadrant that could bring Voyager home immediately - if she could go back in time and notify Voyager. There's one problem. The Conduit is deep inside Borg Space.

Janeway visits Tuvok. He's like a child. He scribbles tho, obsessed, working on math problems or movie reviews or something, he's convinced are important somehow. In the institution, Tuvok cries, asking for 'Janeway' to please, please come back to him.

Janeway decides to commandeer a federation shuttle and equip it with weapons technology 20 years ahead of the Borg, in the hopes of going back in time and using this new technology to guide Voyager to the Warp Conduit.

When she goes back in time and links up with Voyager, Janeway meets her younger self. The two captains disagree, arguing about the plan. The real-captain visits Tuvok asking him if it's true he has a brain disorder. Tuvok admits it's true, but it can't be cured by the facilities on the ship so he's kept it to himself.

The young Captain agrees to the older Captains' plan. To increase their chances of success the older Janeway plans to distract the Borg with her shuttle craft. The Borg actually capture Janeway and her shuttle. The Borg Queen personally assimilates Captain Janeway. But Janeway's expected this! the Borg Queen has assimilated a virus into herself that kills her. With the Borg Queen dead Voyager makes it thru the Warp Conduit back to federation space.


The young NIGHT NURSE watching two sick little girls finds herself pitted against a gang of heartless criminals.

Barbara Stanwyck is a standout in this taut little film. Independent, resourceful and tough as nails, she pits herself against the bullying authority she encounters in the hospital and the absolute evil she must confront at the bizarre private home where she is sent to work. An intelligent & spirited actress, it was roles such as this which would hasten Stanwyck into becoming one of the biggest film stars of the 1930's.

A fine cast gives Stanwyck ample support. Ben Lyon plays the free spirited bootlegger who takes a shine to Barbara. Brassy Joan Blondell portrays her worldly wise roommate. Charles Winninger brightens his few scenes as a cherubic doctor, as does Edward Nugent as a flirtatious intern. Vera Lewis is properly implacable as the stern head nurse and Blanche Frederici adds a note of strangeness as a distraught housekeeper. Not yet a star, Clark Gable is very effective as a menacing chauffeur.

Movie mavens will recognize Willie Fung as a Chinese patient & Marcia Mae Jones as the sick child who needs the milk bath--both uncredited.

The Pre-Code status of the film is readily apparent. Stanwyck & Blondell are viewed in their lingerie as often as possible and Stanwyck must suffer some mighty rough handling from various villains in the movie. Capping it all off, Barbara exits the film with her new boyfriend, an unrepentant & unpunished crook involved in everything from thievery to murder, a situation certainly not allowed just a few years later.


Gritty depression era flick, showing why Warner Bros. was the studio of record. It's tough broads here that get the leads. There's Stanwyck (before her teeth were fixed) and Blondell (gum-popping her way through the Nurse's Oath), both trying to survive grabby interns, unscrupulous doctors, murderous families, and no money. No, this isn't Young Doctor Kildare. Just compare Night Nurse with that sappy 1940's series for insight into what the Production Code did to social realism. Here nurses break the law, doctors violate their oath, and unless you go along, you don't work. Not exactly the professional AMA image. Sure, it's contrived melodrama. But there are elements of the real world here that would disappear from the screen for 35 years, courtesy the PC. Also included are gamey one-liners, mild strip scenes, and a really sardonic look at motherhood, along with a very scary Clark Gable. For a brief period from around 1930-34, Hollywood operated with the lid off, pressed by audiences with no work, no money and no prospects. Movies like NN reflect that reality, which was, of course, too unvarnished to survive. So catch up with this neglected period when you can, especially if the movie's from Warner Bros., like this little gem.


Barbara Stanwyck plays a night nurse at a very strange household where some children may be in serious danger.

Strong pre-Code film has (for 1931) strong dialogue, Stanwyck and Joan Blondell in their underwear, alcoholism, nymphomania, attempted rape, child abuse and Clark Gable (without his mustache) slugging Stanwyck unconscious.

The plot is kind of silly but the film moves so quickly (72 minutes) that you sort of disregard it. There are also some nice directorial touches from William Wellman. The whole cast is great: Stanwyck is just superb in the title role--smart, strong and has no fear--she almost manages to stare Gable down in one of their fights. Gable is incredible as the bad guy--violent, brutal and very scary. There's great support from Blondell as Stanwyck's best friend and Ben Lyon as a bootlegger with the hots for her.

A really great film--don't miss this one!

Two of the many great lines: "I'm a nymphomaniac...and I'm proud of it!" "You MOTHER!"


Barbara Stanwyck as Lora Hart is having a little trouble getting a job as a nurse in a big hospital. Seems she needs a high school diploma. That's no problem for Lora, she just shows middle-aged Dr. Bell (Charles Winninger) a little leg and a big smile, and everything is set. She soon becomes chums with another girl with some nice legs of her own, Maloney, played by Joan Blondell. The girls are in nursing school in the hospital, though it looks more like reform school. Be in bed by 10 p.m., no boy friends allowed, and work, work, work. The pace is fast and the interns are hot on the make, but Lora falls for a bootlegger when he shows up for treatment with a bullet in his arm. No problem, we just won't mention that on the medical report. The girls get an outside assignment taking care of some little girls who are slowly being starved to death for insurance money by "Nick", (Clark Gable!) Lora stands up to Nick as only Barbara Stanwyck can when she's steaming mad. No problem for Nick, though, he clocks her a couple of times, (the camera cuts discreetly when Lora takes it on the chin) and down she goes. There's a chiseling doctor Dr. Ranger in on the scheme, a real low-life type wonderfully played by Ralf Harolde, whoever he is. But have no fear, Lora and Maloney will set things right somehow. This outrageous film is highly recommended. A must for Stanwyck and Blondell fans.


"Night Nurse" is my favorite film , in a big way sister! This movie contains humor on various levels. Barbara Stanwyck and Joan Blondell are 2 tough broads who can hold their own against the evil Doctor Granger and even "Nick The Chauffeur" played by Clark Gable. It does help to be an actual pediatric night nurse to understand this movie to its full potential. The camp is both intentional and unintentional. The movie has a rebel flair with the nurses mouthing off to authority and even befriending a bootlegger (who is one of the heroes of the film).The movie is pre-code so it's pretty spicy for the 30's . You can even see Barbara and Joan in their skivvies.The medical lingo is very amusing. Barbara Stanwyck's character has "blood type 4h" and they got some very pudgy little kids to play the starving children. I own the video and have passed it along to co-workers who are also pediatric night nurses and it has become a cult favorite amongst my collegues.


One of Barbara Stanwyck's best early starring films is Night Nurse which essentially is two separate stories.

The first is young Barbara in training to be a nurse and teaming up with Joan Blondell, another would be nurse, in a typical Joan Blondell role. Stanwyck is a bit more dedicated to the profession, but she learns from Blondell how to take a more realistic attitude.

The second part of the film concerns Stanwyck being assigned as a private night nurse to some kids who are being slowly starved to death. Something is really wrong when you see malnourished kids in a purportedly wealthy home. Stanwyck suspects something amiss and she's quite right. The doctor Ralf Harolde and the chauffeur Clark Gable are in cahoots in a murderous scheme.

Stanwyck puts her own career on the line to bring some justice and compassion to her charges. In doing so she has to step on some medical toes and question the ethics of who she's working for.

Clark Gable was loaned out from MGM to play the murderous chauffeur and if he hadn't been discovered as a new kind of tough leading man, he would have had a grand career as a character actor playing all kinds of thugs who slug. And slug Stanwyck he does, right on the kisser.

Stanwyck gets some help from breezy bootlegger Ben Lyon who would soon be leaving for the UK with his wife Bebe Daniels where he would have his best success. Earlier in the film Stanwyck kind of winks at the rules where Lyon is concerned and she makes a friend who comes in real handy when dealing with Gable and Harolde.

Lyon is fine, but this seemed to be a part James Cagney would have been perfect for. And Cagney going up against Gable would really have made this a classic.


This tense 1931 melodrama stars a very young Barbara Stanwyck in the title role as Lora Hart assigned to take care of the two young daughters in a wealthy family. However, she uncovers a plot hatched by their alcoholic mother to kill the girls in order to steal their trust funds with the assistance of a nasty chauffeur and a corrupt doctor. Directed by William Wellman, the movie features several risqué moments with Stanwyck and pal Joan Blondell dressing and undressing in their uniforms, as well as moments of unexpected violence. Again, Clark Gable shows up in a sinister role as the chauffeur and slaps Stanwyck around with convincing malevolence. While I prefer her work in 1933's "Baby Face" on Volume One, no one shined more than Stanwyck in these pre-code films since her non-nonsense manner was a perfect fit for the era's candor and directness.


Remember that a great part of America was rural when this film came out. When you watch it, try to put yourself in the place of one of those folks who has come in from the farm on a Saturday night to see a moving picture at the Bijou. Whoa, Nelly! Undergarments, sexual innuendo, moral ambiguity galore! An urban environment where only the toughest survive. What must those farmers have thought of faraway New York City? Until the Code kicked in, films like these did a lot to move small-town America out of the sexually repressed dark ages. How you gonna keep them down on the farm after they've seen Paree? A revolution parallel to the release of the first jazz recordings by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band. It's all been downhill from there! Oh, and is Barbara Stanwyck not the perfect vehicle for this revolution? A hard-as-nails demeanor that only comes out when it needs to, otherwise she's just an innocent looking charmer.


A tawdry and downright disturbing pre-code film that stars Barbara Stanwyck giving one hell of a ferocious performance.

Stanwyck plays the titular night nurse, assigned to care for the two small children of a negligent and drunken floozy. The children's' father is dead; the family chauffeur, played by a hateful Clark Gable, is running things, and he wants the children to die so that he can collect the trust money that was intended for them. Therefore, the children are wasting away from starvation while a useless maid dithers around and Stanwyck tries to get the hospital to intervene.

The film would probably be instantly forgettable if not for the fierce performance of Stanwyck, who throws herself (quite literally) into the role of savior, taking punches, getting thrown into a wall, all while dishing out some punches of her own. This is film-making of the sensational Warners variety, featuring lots of suggestive dialogue, shots of Stanwyck and her nurse buddy, the saucy Joan Blondell, in their underwear, and a world in which things like murder are o.k. as long as they're done for the right reason. The movie is certainly no masterpiece, but it does have that energy and sizzle that characterized Warners films from this time period, and it is effective on its own modest terms.

Grade: B+


Anyone who thought exploitation movies were invented in the 1960s will know better after having watched Night Nurse. It's a strange mix of comedy, drama and mild sleaze. The story is pretty weak but for fans of Barbara Stanwyck this is an absolute must see. Her performance is very energetic (aggressively shoving her face very close to that of other people, punching big guys, hurtling bottles of champagne around etc.) and she really comes through as a sensuous  albeit tough as nails - nurse. For some time she must wear a tiny band aid on her chin which makes her even more attractive. Joan Blondell is also great as her gum chewing friend, setting the standard for vulgarity. The movie basically deals with the ethics of the medical profession which is treated with amazing cynicism.

The highlight for me was the conversation between the excited Stanwyck character and an older Pappy-type doctor. The nurse suspects foul play in a particular medical case and Pappy tries to calm her down with sensible arguments. The nurse quickly loses her patience and her temper, shouting. Aw, ethics, ethics, ethics! I'm through with ethics!" It's really a well played scene which brings the character and temperament of the nurse to the fore and reflects the atmosphere of the whole movie. I also liked the unethical doctor with his facial twist and snazzy uniform which must have influenced people who created the wardrobe for Starship Enterprise. His big office has very elegant Art Deco trappings and is in stark contrast to the rather cramped conditions in the ethically operated hospital shown in this movie.


Soap opera starring Barbara Stanwyck as Lora Hart, nurse in training who rooms and works at a big hospital under a stern head nurse, a real stickler for the rules who punishes nurses who stay out past curfew by putting them on night shift in the emergency ward. Lora's roommate is a wisecracking blonde, played by - who else - Joan Blondell, who advises her friend to stay away from the interns and find herself a patient with dough. Well, Lora meets a handsome, injured bootlegger while working in emergency, who plays in this film later as she gets involved working duty caring for two sick little girls (who actually looked quite healthy to me!) who are dying of starvation in a wealthy household that is occupied by an assemblage of real shady characters including a mean chauffeur in black, an abrasive housekeeper, a bad doctor with a weird eye twitch, and the mother who proudly proclaims she's a "dipsomaniac".

This is a pretty weird movie - it's really comprised of two separate halves. The first half is the reasonably normal, and interesting story of a young nurse learning her trade and dealing with typical hospital stuff - the only slightly odd thing being the constant focus on showing these nurses in their lingerie as they change from street clothes into uniform several different times. The second half of this film is just a real shift in the focus of this story to the very oddball starvation/murder plot. The saving grace of this film is seeing Barbara Stanwyck acting up a storm and Clark Gable, who's fun to watch playing the evil chauffeur. Worth seeing for a bit of campy fun.


"Night Nurse" released in 1931, in the depths of the Great Depression, was the kind of film Warner Brothers cranked out at that time. Barbara Stanwyck plays Lora Hart, a woman down on her luck who applies to become a nurse. She does so, with success. The initial part of the film takes us into the inner workings of a hospital -- circa 1931. Stanwyck is befriended by a fellow nurse, played by Joan Blondell, who provides much comic relief throughout the film. Stanwyck's first assignment is to take care of two sick children of a wealthy mother. Soon she begins to realize there is a sinister plot to starve the children so various people can profit from the children's trust fund. The children's mother is a serious alcoholic and seems to completely ignore her children, leaving them in the care of nurses and a housekeeper. A young Clark Gable has an eerie and threatening presence playing a chauffeur, who apparently is in league with the alcoholic mother and the children's sleazy doctor. Brought into the mix of all these characters is a charming bootlegger (prohibition was still the law of the land) played by Ben Lyon. He falls for Stanwyck after she patches him up from a bullet wound and doesn't report it as required. The film is clearly "pre-code" meaning the code was down in ink but largely ignored by studios until enforcement in 1934. There are some scenes of Blondell and Stanwyck dressing and undressing, and we see them in their undergarments several times! Liquor flows freely, despite prohibition and there are several scenes of various drunken party-goers. One drunken man tries to assault Stanwyck. There is some fairly graphic violence by 1931 movie standards. There is also some funny, snappy dialogue from Stanwyck and Blondell. My favorite line is when Stanwyck, after wrestling with the drunken, neglectful mother, looks down at her passed out on the floor and says "You mother..." I won't give away the ending, as it is a bit bizarre, but this is an entertaining film. See it just for Stanwyck. She gives a spirited and tough performance.


**SPOILERS** Shocking film involving the brutal and Neanderthal Nick, Clark Gable, the family chauffeur and his partner in crime the unscrupulous Dr. Milton Ranger, Ralf Harolde, planing to do the unthinkable; Starving two little girls Densey & Nanny, Betty Jane Graham & Marcia Mea Jones, to death in order to get their greedy hands on the girls trust fund money!

Getting the two girl's widowed mom Mrs. Ritchey, Charlotte Merriam, good and drunk Nick and Dr. Ranger also known as "Twitchy" cut down the food intake for Desney & Nanny slowly having them die from malnutrition. That's until the in house night nurse Lora Hart, Barbara Stanwyck, shows up on the scene. Trying to get the two girls help, and away from Dr. Ranger, Lora is threatened with bodily harm or worse from the brutish Nick who's, from judging his gangster-like manner, killed before and, with little provocation, will kill again!

**SPOILER ALERT** Lora herself ends up on the receiving end of a straight right, that almost knocked her bottom teeth out, courtesy of Nick when she dared to try to call the police to get them to rescue little Desney & Nanny. Despertely Lora finally gives in and gets her bootlegger boyfriend Mortie, Ben Lyon, to do the job that nobody seems to want to do! Put and end to Nick's reign of terror, on the Richey household, by finally putting him out of operation and in his place: The City Morgue!

Electrifying performance by a very young, just out of her teens, Barbara Stanwyck as the heroic as well as abused, by her boss Dr. Ranger, nurse Lora Hart. Risking both her job as well as her health, in volunteering for a massive blood transfusion, Lora went out of her way to save the little girls who had only days if not hours left to live. It was when Lora's good friend, who got her the job as a nurse in the first place, the kindly but looking the other way, in what Dr. Ranger was doing, Dr. Arthur Bell, Charles Winninger, finally grew a pair of you know what and not only came to Desney and Nanny's rescue, in defiance of the evil Dr. Ranger, that this horror or horrors the wanton starving of the little girls finally came to and end! Together with that motley crew of murderous sickos weirdos and drunks like Mrs. Ritchey and her always boozed up boyfriend Mack, Walter McGrail!


Another win for William Wellman! He keeps moving up the list of my favorite directors. In this one, Barbara Stanwyck stars as a nurse who is assigned to watch two young girls. She discovers that they're illness is being exacerbated by a crooked doctor. It seems that the doctor and the kids' mother's chauffeur (Clark Gable, looking delightfully evil in his black chauffeur's uniform) are conspiring to let them die. Unfortunately, Stanwyck is obliged to follow the doctor's rules, as per her profession's code of ethics (hopefully this has changed over the past 75 years!). It's a good story, and Stanwyck is fantastic in it. My major complaint is that Wellman goes for some strange comic scenes. The girls' mother is an alcoholic (the doctor and chauffeur are also trying to keep her inebriated, so she doesn't stop their murder plot), and she always has friends over for parties. The drunks are all played as comical, which grates against the more serious themes of the movie. Joan Blondell co-stars as the nurse who takes care of the kids during the day (and apparently she's nowhere near as concerned as Stanwyck about it, or at least she doesn't do anything about it!). This movie is found in Warner's Forbidden Hollywood Vol. 2, not in Vol. 3, which is nothing but Wellman films.


Just finished watching this pre-Code movie called Night Nurse starring Barbara Stanwyck on VHS as one in several of a series of videocassettes named "Forbidden Hollywood" hosted by Leonard Maltin. Before the picture starts Maltin tells of and shows many scenes that a few years after the year this film was made (1931) wouldn't have been allowed. Like scenes of Ms. Stanwyck and Joan Blondell undressing or of a bootlegger (Ben Lyon) getting away with murder. Clark Gable, in one of his early roles, impresses greatly in his scenes with Barbara as the brutal chauffeur who's in cahoots with the crooked doctor in her hospital. And it's always a treat to see Charles Winninger in another one of his kindly elderly paternal roles, here as Stanwyck's moral superior. And seeing Blondell and Lyon with the leading lady are such a treat that I'm now curious if they did anything else together. Quickly and efficiently helmed by William Wellman who directed James Cagney to stardom in The Public Enemy the same year, Night Nurse is one of his more underrated gems.


What other movie has a bootlegger as a likable hero. Where the phrase "my boys just took him for a ride" can give you a happy feeling. What movie but "Night Nurse" - an addictively weird movie. Barbara Stanwyck gives a typical top rate performance. Clark Gable plays a psychotic chauffeur. The studio may have been testing him in different roles because the same year he was in "The Easiest Way" playing the decent, hard- working and quite moralistic husband of Anita Page - an even more "blink and you will miss him" role. Joan Blondell is always great - this time as Stanwyck's pal. Ralf Harolde as the oddball doctor with some strange tics and even stranger habits - the film seemed to leave it up to you to figure him out and it was not hard. Marcia Mae Jones who was so powerful in "These Three" plays Nannie, one of the little children in the midst of the intrigue. You will go back for a second and third look at "Night Nurse". "sez who" "sez me in a big way sister".


A great picture of the sleazy side of life in the thirties before the Hays commission took over. Barbara Stanwyck is fabulous as a tough streetwise girl turned nurse. Any rumors about her having some flaw in her figure should be finally put to rest by her slim form in camisole and pettipants. Joan Blondell makes an equal impact as her wise-cracking sidekick. And last but definitely not least, Clark Gable plays a tough but very very sexy chauffeur who menaces Stanwyck in a rather seductive way. Although he later went on to play this roguish character to perfection in films like Red Dust and Gone with the Wind, here it has a nasty quality that brings out a new side to his acting. Overall, a wonderful guilty pleasure!


A crooked doctor. A bootlegger hero. A heroine who socks people.

Child abuse! Drunkenness! Gun-pointing!

You can really tell this one is pre-Production Code.

(The shady physician's pronounced facial tic will remind many Canadians immediately of a certain discredited Olympic sports doctor.)

Barbara Stanwyck is good in an early role, and Joan Blondell, well, what a shameless scene-stealer.

Then there's those subjective camera shots from inside the careering ambulance! Whoa! It's just like "Cinerama"! Grab onto something quick


I wish the complete series would come out in Season boxes. I used to sit at home in my room every Sunday evening just before 7. Needing to watch this show. The UST between Kate and Geoff was mainly what kept me going, they are one of the best matched TV-couples I have ever seen. I liked the show less at the end when all the focus turned on 'what was happening in Coopers Crossing' in stead of the 'accident of the week'. Other than that I liked the series from start to end and whenever possible I watch every re-run there is on any channel I can get it... I think it's called an addiction :) I just bought the DVD with 8 episodes (the episodes around Geoff and Kate's wedding and of course the wedding itself) I can't get enough, I hope they bring out more episodes... PLEASE CRAWFORD PRODUCTIONS....


I did not like the Flying Doctors; I absolutely adored them! When the series were on TV, I had never been to Australia before. Through the series, I discovered the real Australia; rough terrain, people keeping in contact through 27M7 radio, people living far from each other and the social life on the streets, in small villages. From August 1999 till May 2000, I have been to that land down under and found out that everything shown in that series, was real. I have been to Broken Hill, NSW and seen the township of Minyip in Victoria. It is the truth, that, once you've arrived in these small villages being a foreigner, everybody knows you're around.

You might say that, in a way, I went to Australia because of the Flying Doctors.

BRILLIANT SERIES!!!


I think that The Flying Doctors are one of the best TV-Series to date. I'm only 17 years old, but I've seen the series twice already. They are showing re-runs here in Sweden now again, and I can't be happier! It's a fantastic series, Kate and Geoff are really wonderful, and all the personalities in the show's just amazing! I really love this! I just wish that Crawford Productions, or whatever it is, would distribute DVD, or VHS of the complete series. I've looked everywhere on the internet, but I haven't found anything! Anyone who knows where I can purchase anything? Anyway, the series is awesome and I hope they'll never stop showing it!


I thought it was the best series around i live about 3quarters of an our away i use to go with mum after School every 2nd Wednesday and meet quite a lot even the 2 old cogers :) one who lived in Minyip nice chap :) herb Krause very nice to have a chat with the old Emma Garage is now a Internet Cafe , the 2 milk bars have now closed down. they only just recently opened a new one across from the Public toilets, the old bank

they only got Bendigo bank now , the Pub that they used has now Been Reopened was closed for a while, they only had one pub for awile down near Primary school end great people there nice lunches the emppty Bakery still there, the supermarkets still there, the chemists still there, most hasn't changed they still use the football Ground minyip-Murtoa alternate games between Minyip & Murtoa got a lot of friends both places

i remember going into the Milk Bar where i met Viki Blanch she was nice some talk to you for a while especially when their between shots


I really love the flying doctors. I've watched it when i was a child and now as a young adult again. And i know i will still love it after 10 or 20 years. It will always be my favorite TV series. It's well written and easy to follow. I like all the story lines. But especially the romance between Geoff and Kate. It's so beautiful to watch them get close. They are all great actors. You really believe what they say. You can feel there pain and there happiness. I'm so glad that they are now playing the series back on Belgium television. But what i really want is that they make DVD's of all the episodes so i can watch whenever i want to. So please make the DVD boxes !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


A few weeks ago they started to show reruns of the flying doctors here on TV and I couldn't be happier about that. Every Saturday-evening I'm hooked again. I used to watch this show as a young teenager every week and now I'm watching it every week as a young adult and I'm still loving it.

It's very exciting and has some great acting. It's a kind of show where you really start to care about the major characters. The pacing sometimes is a bit slow, but I don't mind at all. This way you can really get sucked into the story and start to know and care about the people involved. Something which doesn't happen in most shows nowadays. I really hope that the reruns are going to last a long time, because The flying doctors is really a one-of-a-kind great show.


As an avowed life-long fan of Mr. Caine, and a true fanatic for The Manchurian Candidate, I was willing to give this whole miserable mess a bit of slack, until I got about twenty minutes into another scene w/ Mr. Caine as Mr. Holcroft loudly reminding us of his character's seemingly endless stupidity. (Michael Caine as a noisy simpleton? Give me a big, fat Nazi break! Not even Michael Caine is that good of an actor.)

The idea that life in a Nazi thriller unfolds like a Pink Panther sequel without punchlines is too difficult to swallow. Some of the scenes actually seem to me as if they were outtakes or lighting checks that ended up in the final edit by accident. I don't think I would care so much except that it is my beloved Michael Caine I am talking about here. The screenwriter should have been shot instead of this movie. The whole thing would have been more successful and excusable as a light comedy starring Peter Sellers as the bumbling Holcroft, neatly missing numerous assassination attempts while managing to solve the entire mystery purely by accident.

The queasy merger of bad 80's costumes and completely uninspired cinematography is the only conspiracy worth noting in this absurd waste of talent and money. I think the whole awful eighties cocaine craze was rampant on this movie set, and that no-one could tell a terrible script from a silver spoon by the time the whole thing got into production. I agree with the earlier reviewer - save this for a Worst Films Night with some good friends after a few stiff drinks are had by all, and hope no friendships are ruined in the process.


Another classic from the man who gave us The Manchurian Candidate in 1962. Covenant". The story follows Noel Holcroft (Michael Caine) - A New York real estate business man who has just found out he is going to inherit a huge amount of money that his Nazi father had stolen from Nazi Germany at the end of WW2 just before he died. Holcroft soon finds out that he is getting into a dirty and dangerous business. The story is full of twists and surprises and leading actor Michael Caine is great here. The film was shot in beautiful locations in Europe that really are a joy for the eyes. 5.4 here come on give me a break, this is way under-rated. Now available on DVD, rent it, buy it you are going to enjoy for sure. Recommended


Michael Caine always could anchor a spy flick, and The Holcroft Covenant is no exception. While the plot is a trifle flat, and a couple of the supporting actors (Victoria Tennent) stretch their abilities, the cinematographic techniques and direction by John Frankenheimer are superb, and Caine and Lilli Palmer are absolutely wonderful. The elements of film, particularly outdoor angles from crowded streets and icy violin sound effects echo back to the great spy movies of the Cold War era and lend an almost Hitchcockesque eeriness. The seedy Berlin night life is not overly useful and a bit tawdry, but it passes as just a spicy interlude. And when the climax finally reveals the plot, even the dense can see the implications and relevance to contemporary events in the 21st Century.

Frankenheimer puts on a great show!


Have not seen this film in years and just recently enjoyed viewing it once again. I always enjoy the acting of Michael Caine who played (Noel Holcroft),"Surrender",'87, who is an American working in NY on skycrapers and very successful and is drawn into the past horrors of Nazi rule in Europe. Noel gets involved very deeply with Victoria Tennant(Helden Tennyson),"Strangers Kiss,",83, and falls in love with her sexy charms. They both run through the "RED LIGHT" district in Europe through a carnival of FREAKS, which keeps the audience wondering just where this film is going to lead us and will Noel eventually obtain the BILLIONS of Dollars he is responsible to handle? Enjoyed the last and great acting of Lilli Palmer(Althene Holcroft),"Body & Soul",'47, who was formerly married to the late Rex Harrison, "My Fair Lady", fame on Broadway. Lilli gave an outstanding performance, however, Lilli Palmer will be greatly remembered for her long career in making outstanding Classic films. This film will keep your interest right to the very end, sit back and enjoy every moment, which keeps you on the very edge of your seat.


The essence of a good spy flick is the plot. Today repetitive spy movies, like James Bond, have easy and most of the time boring plots with a bad guy who wants to rule the world. Add to this unbelievable stunts and special effects... If you like these, don't watch this movie.

On the other hand, if you like real spy flick like this 1985 movie, with a twisted plot and betrayal this one is for you. The action is believable, the storyline is intriguing and the ending is surprising...

A must see for people who like real spy movies. 3.5 / 5 stars.


Yoko Saito,who astute observers will remember from Takashi Mike's "White Collar Worker Kintaro", stars as the titular Scorpion, who goes to jail after circumstantial evidence convicts her of blowing up her hubby in her car. Of course she's innocent and survives jail long enough to break out and find the real culprits. This had to be the lamest women in prison flick I've ever seen and trust me in my hormonally charged youth I watched those type of films non-stop. Horribly acted, the nudity couldn't even save this one. Steer clear.

My Grade: D-

DVD Extras: Art Gallery; Theatrical Trailer; Trailers for "Terminatrix", "Weather Woman Returns", "Sunny gets Blue", "Beautiful Hunter", "Tokyo Mafia: Battle for Shinzu"; and a promo for the 2004 Big Apple Anime Fest

Eye Candy: it's a WIP flick, so almost every girl has a moment of nudity, but it's also a jap flick she no bush BOO!! HISS!!


SCORPION'S REVENGE (1997; AKA Sasori In USA) Japanese interior designer (Yohko Saitoh), wrongly sent to an American cooler for the murder of her husband via exploding car, gets a flip through the back catalogue of women-in-prison movie indignities: delousings, showers, beatings, cafeteria catfighting, yard catfighting, a warden who quotes scripture while he brutalizes and rapes the fishies, raging American bull dykes, and an absolutely inhumane LACK OF PANTS! But Scorpion's revenge ain't against the system, baby, even though she does manage to fuck it up a bit on her way out; it's with the people who killed her man and sent her away, and when she breaks out with another fish in tow, a blind girl looking for her own justice against the sleazeballs who offed her Latino guitar-picker boyfriend, and discovers in a staggering revelation that her husband faked his own death in order to kill a bunch of shyster lawyers who were suing his company (not a spoiler!), she realizes his clock must be punched, permanently. This probably should've been more tongue-in-cheek, but perhaps director Daisuke Gotoh wasn't aware just how big a joke the genre has become to American B-movie filmmakers and fans. As such, however, he does include everything one has come to expect from a babes-behind-bars epic; problem is its all crammed into the first 40 minutes, the remainder being dedicated to a rather laborious trek across the desert and the decidedly predictable and anti-climatic round of score settling with The Man.

Worth it if you can find it cheap, and compared to fellow Asia Extreme labelmate BEAUTIFUL PREY, a fair bit more fun. I give it a 7.


I thought this would be really campy, kind of brutal/sexy revenge story, but it took it's time setting up and laying out the story. There were a couple ridiculous plot points, but overall it played out very simply and satisfyingly. The acting was decent to poor, but the leads were adequate. Yoko Saito did a good job as the lead playing in both English and Japanese and managed to handle some of the cheesier dialogue bits. The one real twist in the plot was worked up to very well by some of the dialogue between Nami and her male friend, not giving it away entirely, but foreshadowing effectively. Nothing new, probably not ridiculous enough for most, but a better than average revenge thriller.


Director Daisuke Gotoh clearly doesn't understand the erotic psychology behind a successful (or even interesting) women-in-prison film. I mean, the primary component of dykey-women-molesting-other-women-behind-bars seems to have completely escaped him in this one! Yoko Saito is certainly well-cast as the pretty Scorpion, unjustly accused, convicted, and thrown into a California women's penitentiary on clearly spurious grounds. But once she's there, nothing even remotely interesting happens. Yes, there are some dykey-looking women about, as well as some pretty young female inmates just waiting to be sexually victimized by them. But it never happens. There's really no lesbianism whatsoever. Instead, it's the male warden and his guards doing all the dirty work. So why the women-in-prison setting? If he didn't want to include scenes involving girls with other girls he should have set this story in a nightclub or brothel. Obviously this director knows (or cares) nothing about this genre of films, and it was very disappointing as a result.


I started watching the show out of curiosity and I ended up a fanatic. Great script, great performances, superb directing. The show is a advertisement for both Turkey and Greece. I Give 9/10 and not straight 10 because of the poor Greek Language the actors speak. We had a similar show here in Greece but ours was a drama (with no reason). Yabanci damat changes the spectator's mood. Nazli is unbelievably beautiful and Nikos despite the fact that he is a rookie -I think-(Winner of reality game "Turkiye Academy"????) is doing pretty good. Gongratulations!

Rcpjimmy, Heraklion Creta, Greece

P.S. Great soundtrack too!


Well, this a very good TV series from our neighbor country Turkey. Its a series about romance and love.Very good indeed.Here in Greece we had a similar series but is was a dramatic one (cant understand why Greek writers are stuck on this kind...drama is not always good).To be exact I prefer the Turkish one cause combines lots of good things (characters, script etc) and cause as a curious Greek I'd love to see the Turkish point of view...with this one u can see the common cultural background of modern Greece and Turkey.This TV series was really a good surprise for me.I am addicted neighbors!!!Not forget to mention than Nehri Erdogan is the most beautiful creature on Earth!!I would be happy to see her coming here to Greece!Congratulations!!!Merhaba!


It's one of the best TV series of 2005 in Turkey.Nazli;a Turkish girl from Gaziantep doesn't want to marry Kadir(her childhood friend)and run away from home and goes to Bodrum where she will meet Niko who she will fall in love.But there's a huge problem because Niko's Greek.Greeks and Turks do not get along well generally but their big love won't be ruin by this problem and they decide to get marry.Niko comes to Gaziantep and meet with Nazli's family and the comedy starts.The cast of the series are all experienced Turkish actors and actresses except Özgür Çevik(Niko)but he acts like he's an actor for years.They are all very talented.Sumru Yavrucuk(Nazli's mother) Erdal Özyagcilar(Nazli's father) Arif Ekin(Nazli's grandfather) and Binnur Kaya(Nazli's elder sister)are the most funny characters.Probably Anna and Kadir will fall in love and maybe Memik and Niko's grandmother too!!!And also Yabanci Damat will be played at Greek TV channel Mega TV in july.Anyway let's keep watching this beautiful and funny TV show...(I really don't understand why greeks like Nehir so much, she is hundred times uglier than Natalia Doussopoulos!!!)


This show is excellent !!!! I am Greek living in Geneva, Switzerland and everyday, I get together with my Greek and Turkish friends and we are watching it, while drinking a glass of ouzo or raki. We are having so much fun, we have so many things in common ! Congratulations for the show, maybe it will come out on DVD one day, i ll buy it certainly. I hope that maybe there will be enough inspiration or imagination to make a second season. I also hope that the Greek producers will make also a comedy on the subject and not always the drama stories that they usually do. And by the way I find that Nehir is extremely beautiful, my Turkish friends prefer Natalia though. Iyi gunler neighbors !


This is an amazing story with a lot of emotion, fun, etc... But the real thing is ... my boyfriend is Greek from Thessaloniki and we leave in different countries. We are together for almost 8,5 months. The DVDs of the episodes are provided weekly with a Greek newspaper in Greece. My boyfriend buys them and brings them to me whenever we meet. We watch them together with the Greek subtitles. The interesting news is that his mother also started watching them (not sure if this good news or not:-)). We find the episodes both entertaining and educating. It really illustrates the similarities between Turkish and Greek societies. Especially after watching them, I personally believe that similarities are more than the differences... There is a lot in it, love, fun, sadness, passion... The soundtrack is really amazing. Acting, directing is really good. I just wish, in our relationship we don't have the same difficulties that they had. I gave it a 9, because it makes me cry sometimes:-)


I am Turkish and I watch the show every week and have every single episode recorded,great show,i recommend every 1 to watch it,it is really amazing that we are so close to Greek friends,we must be brothers and sisters same culture living in different countries,I love grandfather of nazli and grandmother of Niko,every Buddy fits in to their role and the show is acted perfectly,i would say it is the only show i watch actually,I can give copy of all the episodes to any one if requested(in Canada,Toronto area only) I salute all of Greek friends.I love you people all except Turkish and Greek politicians,they are leading us to wrong way.Take care all.


Wonderful story line, great actors, priceless characters. It clearly shows to all the similarities between Greeks and Turks who'd mostly like to think they are different. The ugly side of prejudice, family love, day to day lives of a couple of families with socially different backgrounds that were forced to be joined by marriage and a common grandson are all shown on this sitcom beautifully. The acting is superb, there is not a person that appears on this show that I could claim does not belong. My husband and I anxiously await Friday nights each week to watch it. My husband's father was among the Turks sent out of the Island of Crete many years ago, so he can identify with the Greek family that were forced to leave Istanbu. He enjoys the show from 2 different angles. It is nice to see a situation of this sort under a funnier light as opposed to heavy dramatic flavouring!


The sort of show that simply wouldn't make it to television today, "Then Came Bronson" told quiet, lyrical, sometimes comic, sometimes dramatic stories about a young man traveling through America in search of personal meaning; unlike many attempts at this theme, the show was never heavy-handed, offering intelligent, often quirky character portraits of the people Jim Bronson encountered. The viewers always came away with a rewarding, thought-provoking experience. It's a pity both the pilot film & the individual episodes aren't available on video or DVD. Shows of this caliber may be born of their particular time, but their substance is timeless.


BRONSON reran on TV for awhile in the 1970s and then simply disappeared, It would be great to catch up with the show someday on A&E or Bravo or TV Land. A young Michael Parks, who was already an established TV and movie actor, played a James Dean-ish character in a knit cap who traveled the U.S. on his hog, learning little life lessons through the people he met each week. Old formula (think ROUTE 66 and THE FUGITIVE) with a bit of a twist, and a very appealing lead in Parks. GREEN LANTERN and GREEN ARROW were to follow BRONSON's lead with a memorable story arc in the 1970s that had them riding hogs and traveling the nation. Parks also got to sing on the show, and wasn't half bad. Parks has aged badly over the years, but his lined face and booze-and-butts voice has played to his credit, particularly in stone cold killer roles in THE CHINA LAKE MURDERS and on WALKER Texas RANGER.


They don't make films like this anymore! This is one of the pioneer reality films. originally, the studio wanted to market Michael Parks as a replacement for James Dean, a teen idol thing. But he turned out to be so much more,the innovator of real TV and docudrama. This film takes you with him on his travels around the country as he competes (motorcycle). They throw in an interesting, non cheesecake girl, Bonnie Bedelia and the song "Wayfarin' Stranger" and the sojourn continues. People who like this film should see Michael in "Wild Seed", a train hopping adventure which features Rupert Holmes and Celia Kaye. The movie "Then Came Bronson" later landed Parks a popular TV show of the same name in the 60's.


I was 16 when Then Came Bronson was broadcast, but I still vividly remember moments from 6 or 7 of the episodes.

Maybe it was that I'd never seen that kind of delicacy and sweetness in performance before--and rarely since--nothing "thrilling," nothing forced, nothing fey, nothing indulgent--just careful observations and filled moments. At least, that's how I describe it now. Nothing was underlined; I never felt like I was being told how to react.

Over the years, I'd think, is it possible that show was really that good? Nice to know some people agree with me.

And some of you really have all the episodes on DVD?


I was in the 8th grade in 1969 and had already discovered the joys of motorcycles, owning a 50cc Roma from Italy for about a year when the show debuted. From the very first episode, Jim Bronson became a powerful influence on my young and impressionable personality. I am 51 now and have never owned a Harley, but over the years, more than a few have commented on my even temperament and controlled response to volatile situations. I thank God for an early role model like the fictitious Jim Bronson. If you've seen the series, yet not the TV pilot, Jim left San Francisco on the Harley Sportster vacated by his friend Nick's suicide. (played by a very Emilio-looking Martin Sheen) In 2000, I bought a dear friend's Honda Shadow V-twin 1100 cc (Sportster wannabe) and had some very memorable rides before parting with it in 2003. If all goes well, next year, I'll be replacing the bike with something similar and using my 3rd week of vacation for a Then Came Bronson adventure. Jim never rode the major highways, as I recall. He was never in a hurry and wouldn't have had the kind of encounters that the nation's back roads are much more conducive to.

The theme song was a bit misleading; Going Down That Long Lonesome Highway, as it didn't appear so lonesome for Mr. Bronson. I highly recommend the show and the lead character's proactive engagement of relationships. Life is short, enjoy the ride!