Good idea lost in the noise

Best movie ever!

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

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

I recorded most of movie on VHS many years ago, and have just bought a used DVD from USA.I wish to warn viewers, that a full 17 minutes is omitted on DVD, near the films end.From point where the older Olivier returns home finding Serge delving in the garage, asking for help to sort out mess, to the point where Olivier drives on his motorbike to the little house and gives Marcel his just deserts, full 17 minutes omitted on DVD .THIS IS THE HEART OF THE MOVIEWill try to relate what is missing on DVD :-Father Serge in Garage, finds old bottle of Calvados; he and Olivier consume it all getting drunk. They accuse each in turn of running away from home.When they rejoin the two women, man and boy are in a bad way, Olivier singing 'House of the Rising Sun'.Wife takes Serge to bed nursing his hangoverLater mother relates to Nadine what happened out shopping. Surrounded by lady shoppers, Gossip questing about return of husband and son. Newspaper reports true relative Olivier ? (Implication rent boy).Nadine finds Olivier in bed crying. She joins him. Olivier produces sisters questionnaire board and supplies Nadine, with all the correct answers.Then Olivier half dressed, enters Nadine's bedroom; she in turn is crying. He joins her in bed, he is cold and lonely. Nadine questions him again about Paris. He explains that his life has been in a series of railway station, his orphanages.She draws him closer and then they have sex.(Viewers wondering is this incest)?Later Nadine becomes utterly convinced that Olivier is her brother and rushes to tell father Serge what she has seen and heard outside the houseAt this point, we rejoin the DVD near the film's end, Olivier sorting out Marcel.I think it criminal that heart of the film omitted on DVD.olivier olivier is a very fine film, ruined in the DVD version. Buy the VHS and enjoy !Sincerely, Michael Darlow.

My first Agnieszka Holland movie was "Total Eclipse"(1995), and I was very disappointed. At the end of that of that movie I couldn't feel any sympathy for the lead characters. But that didn't stop me to see some of her previous movies: "Europa, Europa" (1991) and this movie, "Olivier, Olivier" (1992)."Olivier, Olivier" is not as good as her 1991 movie was, but it comes so close, that I simply cannot give it less than 10/10.The most important character of the movie is Elizabeth Duval, Olivier's mother. Brigitte Rouan's performance is extraordinary. Her portrayal of the over-possessive mother is perfect.The rest of the cast is very competitive. Gregoire Colin is a wonderful fake prodigal son. Francois Cluzet and Marina Golovina are superb.The movie does however have a flaw. Nadine's supernatural powers are interesting to look at, but useless to the plot. Forgivable.

The much-pampered, oedipally-loved son of a neurotic french mother, disappears without a trace (almost) while running a routine errand. Years later, a street-hustler teen, claiming to be the long-lost boy, is brought to live with the family, reuniting the mother and the father but alienating the older sister who remains skeptical of the youth's identity. Not entirely flawless as evidence of the lad's true fate are dropped like Hiroshima bombs upon the viewer. Perhaps if a certain Australian singer/actress had played the mother this film could be retitled "Olivier, Olivier Newton-John".

Now this is a truly wonderful film. It's simple enough: one day, a young boy goes missing from his family. Several years later, he returns - or does he?This movie is a flawless dissection of a frighteningly twisted family, with extremely vivid characters. Agnieszka Holland has succeeded at that difficult task: create realistic characters in a believable situation, yet present them with shockingly eerie dilemma. Strongly recommended.Side note: the only flaw in this movie was the rather ridiculous invocation of the supernatural. Fortunately, it's part of an almost completely irrelevant subplot, and can be safely ignored.