Tetrady not as good as all the hype

BroadcastChic Excellent, a Must See

Stoutor It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

Catherina If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

writers_reign Seems like Bertrand Blier can't do Surreal unless he begins either in a train station (Buffet Froid) or else ON a train (Notre Histoire). You can't say he doesn't go to the top-of-the-line because here he not only features Alain Delon and Nathalie Baye but throws in Vincent Lindon, Jean Reno and most notably Jean-Pierre Darroussin. If he'd only thrown in a decent script we might have been talking Classic as it is we have to content ourselves with fine movie brilliantly acted by Delon and an almost unrecognizable Baye - funny thing is that Darroussin is completely recognizable albeit light years younger than in most of the films we know him from, whilst Baye albeit far from a dog is not a tenth as gorgeous as she subsequently became and remains. What we're left with is a Cesar Award winning Best Actor performance, thoroughly deserved, by Delon, another SHOULD have won a Best Actress Cesar from Baye and Blier taking some of the stuff he lays on his analyst when on the couch and transforming it to the screen.

jotix100 Robert Avranche, a man riding in a first class compartment of a train, is seen lost in thought. One thing is clear, the man loves to drink his beer. Robert tells us how he will meet a strange woman, who surprise surprise, materializes soon after he announced it. She is Donnatiene, a woman who loves to hang out in train stations to see the passengers getting on, and off the trains that pass by. She is a mysterious woman, and Robert feels he must follow her to her home. What he finds there is a chaotic situation involving a whole community where the men love to come to watch him in action.Not having seen the film before, we had a chance to watch it on a cable channel not long ago. The allure of seeing a film directed by Bertrand Blier with Alain Delon and Nathalie Baye in the main roles was a defining factor. "Notre histoire" though, is a dated film, which no doubt had a different resonance when it made its commercial debut. The script was written by Mr. Blier, who has done much better before. What the director gets is good acting in general. Mr. Delon and Ms. Baye are able performers that are able to carry any film by themselves. The interesting thing about the film is that actors of the stature of Jean Reno, Vincent Lindon, Jean-Pierre Darroussin and others are seen in small roles.

Harry T. Yung "Our story" starts not unlike "Before Sunrise" which came a decade later, with an encounter on a train. For a few brief minutes, it looks like it's even going to develop in that direction, until the film takes a sharp turn and starts to look like Pirandello's "Six characters in search of an author" as Robert (Alain Delon) and Donatienne (Nathalie Baye) try to decide who is a minor character in whose story.This is not the super-cool Alain Delon that we are used to, but middle-aged, confused, dejected and sometime even comical, clinging to bottles and cans and glasses of beer which becomes the recurring motif in the movie. The story starts to get surreal as an ever-growing cast rampages through the affluent neighbourhood in the middle of the night in amorous and other pursuits. Superbly mesmerising Nathalie Baye starting out as the mysterious woman on the train becomes something like a particle in the quantum theory, changing constantly even as the observer observes.And yet, there is meaning to all the apparent madness, and everything ties together quite well in the end. Those who must have a logical explanation for everything will be easily satisfied, but those looking behind the surface will find ample food for thought. Fantastic movie.

darren_parry Please don't get me wrong - I like this movie. It is pure 80's French romantic cinema, has two excellent leads, and like the Flic flicks of the time, has relevant modern themes. It is, however, deeply flawed."Notre Histoire" is a classic example of a movie in which an established director carries out all the mistakes he should have shaken off at film school. For instance, Blier is the only director I know who doesn't know how to use music effectively - music is just slotted in at random points, and very unsuitable points at that.Like a lot of Blier's work, this is a film of confusion, alternative reality and twisted takes on what we call normal life. Its' characters change persona, distance becomes meaningless, relationships blur - yet the film's final few seconds puts everything - and I do mean EVERYTHING - into sharp context.Essentially, this is a vehicle for Alain Delon, but it's nowhere in the same league as Le Samourai. It's Delon - the King of 60s Cool - playing Robert, a middle-aged man in crisis; yes, playing against type! His marriage is on the rocks, but being Delon, he attracts the attention of wayward young mother Donatienne (Baye). After a fleeting assignation on an SNCF train, Robert won't let go. Donatienne is the woman for him, and he won't give her up! To hell with the marriage, the job, the house, the normal life - let's be reckless!What follows is a series of surreal set pieces taking Robert from fascination to obsession to the spiritual nature of beer. The surreal nature of the film does throw up some problems as times. The objectification of women for instance; women are displayed as problematic objects for men; inconveniences that get in the way of a good Gallic life. Even Nathalie Baye herself is portrayed as a hooker, wife, mother, teacher and adulteress in many episodes of the tale.However, the leads are wonderful - Delon gives it his seedy, confused best, whilst Baye (in my mind the most underrated French actress of her generation) gives a wonderful weak/strong performance as the many faces of Donatienne.Yes, this is a surreal love story. Yes, this is so Gallic it could not be remade in English. Yes, it isn't perfect, but it's an excellent example of a purely French cinema that is simply too homegrown to be appreciated by a wider audience.