SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

This film was directed by and the screenplay was written by Peter Ustinov. You even see him in a bit part as a Prince and he's apparently dubbed his voice into the film a few times."Lady L" begins in what appears to be about 1965. Everyone in this English tableau is celebrating the 80th birthday of their beloved Lady (Sophia Loren). Soon she begins talking about her life story for a biographer and the movie begins in earnest. About 60 years earlier, Louise (Loren) is a laundress who works for a house of ill repute. Along the way, she meets a handsome revolutionary, Armand (Paul Newman) and she inexplicably falls for him. I say inexplicable because apart from being handsome, there's never an apparent reason for her loving him--even after he neglects her and spends most of his time plotting to kill nobles since he's an anarchist. There also isn't much chemistry between them--just a woman putting up with a neglectful man. Along the way, she also meets the nicest Duke you could imagine (David Niven). He gives her everything, treats her like a queen and loves her...yet, she still holds on to her love for Armand during much of the film. It never makes any sense whatsoever....but at least the leads look nice and the film obviously cost a lot to make because of all the great costumes and sets. However, like a pie made out of just meringue, this film looks great but never really satisfies--much of it also because the humor never really pays off. A lovely looking misfire.

First, I am a fan of Loren's but never when she plays ladies! She belongs in the world of Fellini and Italia. She is Mother Earth, the masses, Roma after the war. She has no business playing women courting royalty. She looks like a gay man playing a woman in these pictures that Hollywood and Pinewood placed her. I'm just sorry she didn't realize it herself, but I'm assuming she did some for money and others for friends like Ustinov. The distressing thing is everyone else is awful around her as well. These films like 'A Countess from Hong Kong' 'The Millionairess' all exhibit this yearning for the upper classes which I find detestable. It is anti human. She behaves and nothing is more boring than watching Loren behave! Gone are the tirades in Italian that endear her to us all, the larger than life gestures that say, "Pay attention, I'm talking here, and I represent the people!" It's sad that she finally became this caricature of a fine lady and lost her humanness. BTW, Paul Newman played Paul Newman in this.

Viewing this movie after a 30-year gap, I realize I need to appreciate the movie as a Peter Ustinov film rather than as a Sophia Loren film. While Sophia Loren is a delight for the eyes with her hour-glass figure, she proves that she cannot act competently as an elderly lady--her hoarse voice is as phony as phony can be.Ustinov and Romain Gary carry the film. I have had the good fortune to have met Ustinov as a film critic in 1984 and discussed the few films he had directed. He was delighted as a small boy that someone remembered that he was once a director as most people recall him as actor. Ustinov the director is a superb wit and his visual digs at French and Russian society are hilarious (Romain Gary, I guess, contributed to the verbal digs at the Poles). Ustinov and Gary do not even spare the British. The farcical comedy is at its best in the opening 15 minutes with some good camerawork and some fine, witty dialogues.Ustinov is not a top notch director but he can provide sufficient material for the laughs to keep flowing. For instance, he does not show the face of Paul Newman as the car driver, but the audience can guess that the director is hiding a crucial fact. The brothel scenes, the escape in the balloon, the actions of the police, are orchestrated with admirable finesse for a director who is detailing a farce.That Carlo Ponti allowed Ustinov to direct this venture is a credit to Ponti as the outcome was more rewarding for Ponti's wife Loren than for Ustinov for the average viewer. The French actors were superb: Phillipe Noiret, Michel Picolli, Claude Dauphin, Jacques Dufilho, and Marcel Dalio. Claude Dauphin stood out as the best among the range of French talent. The images of a prince playing with a bomb as though it were a plaything reduces the farce to absurdist black humour as is the choice of the assassin's dress (a priest's cassock!). So is the coughing signals alerting members of the police force during a concert. It is fun that can be enjoyed at all levels--thanks to Ustinov and Gary more than due to the contributions of the formidable line-up of actors.

This movie is a "bit of fluff" but a very lovely "bit of fluff". The costumes are wonderful and Sophia Loren makes them look even better. Entertaining story told in vignettes about a pretty racy lady who may, or may not, be even racier than intimated. Also, she has a chauffeur to die for. Yum!!!