A brilliant film that helped define a genre

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

Well...I like Patricia Kaas. She is a beautiful lady and an extremely gifted and versatile singer. Her acting in this film is more than competent and from my point of view about the only redeeming feauture of this film. She very gently captures the essence of the lonely singer with a very serious helath problem. However what I tremendously dislike about the film is the shameless product placement for a well known French chain of hotels. The other thing is that the story seems to meander for way to long without really deciding what the film is about and what it wants to be. On a positive note you may argue that the film is not predictable but you could also say it's plainly boring because of the lack of cohesion. There are some nice shots in the film bujt you can't help thinking that all the parts just don't add up to anything at all. It really is a pity bevcause Kaas really shines in this film.

I kept waiting for this film to improve, but, alack, this is the worst kind of escapist movie: a spun-sugar confection that sinks under the weight of its own ponderous self-importance. The pace stumbles on like a legionnaire stranded in the Sahara. The absence of good dialogue leaves the appealing stars with little to do other than look good in white linen. Irons plays yet another moneyed charmer who's had a touch of the sun. Kaas is a pleasing singer but not much of an actress. Luckily, the script does not often call on her to emote away from the jazz club microphone. All the enviably relaxed, pretty, unnecessary characters take turns masticating the scenery with an air of weary sophistication. The whole exercise comes across like an interminably long Ralph Lauren ad. If you're past forty and believe Francophilia is the key to sophistication, you may well mistake this piece of cardboard for a baguette. Well, if you liked this movie you probably felt smart for appreciating Godard's leaden Éloge de l'amour, and you may even have sat through Le Divorce without cringing.

Plenty of food for thought and honey for the music heart'n'soul. The story of this weary master thief and a disillusioned (with love)jazz singer meeting,finding common ground and falling 'for each other' is age old. However, their common ground is quite unusual and a bit of a stretch (but hey...it's a story). Where they meet and how the story plays out, is an unexpected and interesting twist. To my mind, the acting and Morrocan setting are great. Jeremy Irons is his usual cool and collected self and the lead actress suits the part beautifully...and can she sing!! The soundtrack, to my mind (and heart) definitely steals the show. - I love blues/jazz and I found this sound track hauntingly, thought provokingly absorbing.

These comments will contain some SPOILERS, so please consider whether you want to read this. Jeremy Irons is Valentin Valentin, a career thief, with some inventive ways. In the opening scene we see him entering a jewelry store, identifying himself as an authority, tells the owner they are on the track of an elusive thief, shows him a photo of an older man, says to give him whatever he wants and let him leave, a virtual army would be outside to arrest him. In old man disguise, he re-enters a bit later, takes all the good jewelry, then disappears to the consternation of the owner. Later he buys a sail boat (named 'Ladies and Gentlemen', thus the name of the movie) and starts for a round-the-world sailing trip.Then we see French actress Patricia Kaas as Jane Lester, lounge singer who travels to find new work. We sense something is wrong. Later she and Valentin meet up, because they suffer the same malady, the get headaches and occasional blackouts. They end up seeing the same doctor in some third-world country, and the doctor's twin brother, also a doctor with a CT scanning machine, to treat their illnesses. Jane makes a pilgrimage to the top of a mountain at the gravesite of a mysterious woman. While Valentin apparently has surgery for a brain tumor. Much of the interest of the movie is the film editing. The story is not always told linearly, and some of the things we see turn out to be dreams. In one, Valentin is seen going back to the jeweler he robbed in the first scene, telling him he was sorry and wanted to pay him back, the cops are outside pounding on the windows to get in, Valentin begins to say "Don't worry, this is only a dream", then in a few seconds we see him wake up.