Who payed the critics

Brilliant and touching

Boring

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Can't say they didn't ask for it. This is a cute and quirky little B&W short film lasting roughly 20 minutes. 2 best friends who share an apartment together happen to run into the same boy on the very same day and after, initially, playing hard to get both agree on a date so they can see him again.Now, back at home they tell each other about their encounters without finding out what really is going on while playfully mocking the other's taste in men. There's one moment during the conversation where one girl asks the other what did he say and I expected either reciting the "Who planted the first trees in Paris"- or "Girls always have cousins"-lines, so they would finally see through it, but it's not happening. Instead they're joking around about fitting both their boyfriends into the same bed and going on a double date to the movies.So when will they find out and how long can Patrick keep up the juggling game. In the final scene we find out which of the girls he picks. Was it your favorite of the two?

All the Boys Are Called Patrick (1959) ** 1/2 (out of 4)Simple twenty-minute short from Godard about two female friends who meet the same guy on the same day but don't know that the dates they've set up for the next day is with that same man. This is a pretty good little film that moves along very quickly and contains some good dialogue and performances. I was really impressed with the two women in the film played by Anne Collette and Nicole Berger. Both women turn in strong performances and best of all is that they make both characters very memorable. Jean-Claude Brialy also does a fine job in his role. I really don't think there's anything too overly special about the film and it really doesn't even look or feel like the work of Godard but for what it is the film is worth viewing.

Considering what I read about this little short film, the first directed by Jean-Luc Godard and one of the first, if not the first, scribed by Eric Rohmer, I thought this was just going to be a stupid, amateurish piece of fluff. As it turns out, Charlotte and Veronique or All the Boys Are Called Patrick is like a small little quasi-template for the stylistic and romantic attitudes of the French New Wave via Cashiers du Cinema. It's naturally un-polished and a little too quick to leave as lasting an impact as some of the other films Godard and Rohmer would make, but it also features some of their best qualities on display with the energy and liveliness of rebel filmmakers squarely in their youth. For one thing, the criticism of film at the time is slipped in well enough for any film geek to savor- like the newspaper headline one reads at a table that says "French cinema is dying under the weight of false legends"- which includes some minor hints of the convention-breaking camera angles (who says we need to see a person talking to one in a over-the-shoulder, or head on, angle anyway).And for me, unlike another commenter on this page, I didn't think it was necessarily more Rohmer than Godard. The sense of rapid-fire ease in getting realistic dialog regarding those of the opposite sex is there, to be sure, but there's a sense of rhythm that comes out in the dialog that wouldn't be found right away in Rohmer; actually, if anything, the whole rapport between Patrick with the two girls he courts reminded me of the pushy yet "cool" way that Belmondo had about him in Breathless. And the street photography out in Paris shows Godard being already unequivocal in his mastery of capturing the outside world in a unique style- that too is sort of a stylistic template for the Nouvelle Vague. And while it ends on a fairly obvious note- what Patrick really is after all the build-up of Charlotte and Veronique talking about 'their' Patrick- it nevertheless delivers on bringing some light and breezy times by way of hip filmmakers testing their chops on scripting the basics with character and getting down what it is to make the outside world into a form of poetry.

Charlotte and Veronique are flatmates. One day they both go out separately and take lunch alone by the same park. Charlotte is approached and chatted up by a guy called Patrick and they agree to meet the next day. Later, Veronique is also approached by the same man and chatted up. When they get home they talk about their days and are amused to find that they both met men called Patrick on the same day – but their respective beaus seem so very different they conclude that that must be the only connection.Godard's first short film set in Paris is also memorable for being the only time thus far that he has directed a film from someone else's script. The film is essentially a slight comedy about two women who meet the same guy without realising it and then go to meet each other's 'Patrick'. As a narrative it isn't amazing but it is enjoyable in its delivery if not its final substance. The script is well observed and is fun to watch as the two women are chatted up in an amusing and natural fashion. It may not end as well as I would have liked or have left me with any lasting impression but I enjoyed it while it was on and will come back to it at some point to rewatch it.The cast do very well to deliver the dialogue as if they were really these characters. Collette and Berger are good when separate and it is only when they share the screen in their flat that they come off rather flat and not as natural as they were alone. However I have never lived in a girl flat so maybe the giggling is how they are – but they seemed realer when resisting being chatted up (which says more about my contact with women perhaps!?). Brialy is good value and plays his character(s) well throughout the film.Overall this is an interesting film for several reasons but it is also quite an enjoyable one. The script is natural even if it hasn't got the strongest of narratives or best of conclusions and the cast do well to deliver it in a manner that is believable and natural making Godard's short worth seeing.