Don't Believe the Hype

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

One of the few mainstream films I ever saw dealing with a manic-depressive. Which is a disease, the guy is not "just crazy" or "abusive". Anybody who knows about depressions (clinical) will appreciate the film. Of course it is not perfect, her falling in love with him could have been done a bit more believable, Vadim is no Antonioni, but still I like it a lot. In the USA Easy Rider was one of the first films where people smoked pot ("without raping a nurse" as Dennis Hopper stated), Vadim showed it almost 6 years earlier! He was quite hip and brave to make the film, dealing with a mental disease which is still under the carpet 50+ years later, in the first place. Not many people care for depressive persons. His ex-wife BB had some understanding as well of course, she tried to kill herself a year before the film was made.

This film had some charm by the time it was made. BB was in a great shape. The youth in occident were strongly influenced by a fashion based on a vulgar reading of existentialist philosophy. The first time I saw this film, during the sixties, I was 17 or 18, and a kind of a "rebel without a cause", fond of existentialist literature. So the film impressed me.Today, seeing the film again, I found it almost stupid. I explain.1. The revolt of Renaud is not explained in a context, so we don't know exactly why he is bitter, cynic, self destructive and iconoclast. 2. The author of the story tries to glamorize Renaud revolt, but, what I see can't be glamorized. For instance, Renaud wears the same unwashed clothes during several weeks (which seems to be the time the story lasts) doesn't take a bath and doens't shave his beard. He smokes all the time and drinks heavily since the time he wakes up. So, his clothes and his breath certainly stink disgustingly. He messes seriously Geneviève's apartment spreading all around dirty dishes and ash trays stuffed with smoked cigarettes. All this mess and dirtiness for nothing... or to punish unjustly Geneviève?3. Geneviève looks rather as stupid blonde female because she falls in love with a stinking revolted pseudo-existentialist who does't do anything useful to anyone and criticize hardly the middle class life style, middle class of which he is actually a parasite. The film deserves to be seen because of the presence of BB. She was marvelous by that time and a real icon of a generation. A queen of many dreamers as me.

When the Parisian bourgeois Geneviève Le Theil (Brigitte Bardot) travels to Dijon to resolve issues in the inheritance left by her wealthy aunt, she mistakenly opens the door of another room in the hotel, finding a suicidal near death on the bed. Later Geneviève goes to the hospital and is introduced to Renaud Sarti (Robert Hossein), the nihilistic alcoholic vagrant she saved. Geneviève falls in love for Renaud and brings him to her apartment in Paris, initiating a destructive, masochistic and corrupt relationship with the abusive man."Le Repôs du Guerrier" has a great premise – a conservative woman falling in love for a destructive man that corrupts her in a masochist relationship. The story is long, disclosing many abusive and humiliating situations that Geneviève is exposed in an erotic way, considering that this is a movie of 1962. For example, the orgy in Katov's apartment is not explicit but it is very clear that the participants are having sex, using drugs and drinking booze. However, Roger Vadim's option for a corny conclusion gives the sensation of a melodramatic soap-opera and spoils the dramatic and crude romance. My vote is four.Title (Brazil): "O Repouso do Guerreiro" ("The Warrior's Rest")

May be you will say that this is spoiler. But it is not at all. It is just the truth. Because I can assure you there is not another way to write about this movie picture. If you are in the mood to become a cretinous man (or woman), see this film. If after some minutes you begin to answering yourself why you are watching this film (except for enjoy Bebé charm, not show at this work, by the way), you can see the movie. It has got the extraordinary capacity of every people and everything inside was infinitely silly. The Repos du guerrier showing at TV is an excellent chance to switch off the tv set and read a book (Gonzalo Amigo's Las crónicas trascendidas, for instance),and learn some good Spanish at same time.