I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

disgusting, overrated, pointless

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

I've not read Sheldon's book but I've no doubt the movie is a fairly faithful transcription. It has all the elements that appeal to the ladies. For a start, it's concerned with the loves and passions of the rich, and it moves – in scenes of incredible luxury – against a background of war, fashion, politics, and even Hollywood. It also has a soap opera plot that relies on twists rather than believability, plus soap opera characters who can turn on emotional fire-works with as little depth as a pizza, and who revel in dialogue that they can chew around and waste a grand amount of time enunciating. And yet, despite everything, this soap opera is so skillfully tailored and fashioned, it's hard to resist its overblown appeal. No doubt the producer had hysterics when he saw the editor's final cut in which he threw away scene after expensive scene of incredible period detail in order to concentrate on TV-style close-ups of the cardboard characters. The producer also went to the trouble to utilize real locations in Greece at enormous cost, but what the editor left on the screen was so minuscule, it wasn't worth even one per cent of the expense. In fact, they would actually have done much better to forget about Greece and simply played against a process screen in Hollywood.

SPOILERS;SPOILERS"The other side of midnight" is the melodrama of Sirk and Stahl in the seventies ;the only thing that is new is nudity .In "leave her to Heaven " there was self-induced abortion, and suicide disguised as homicide;in "midnight" ,Marie -France Pisier is more practical -minded :she uses a coat hanger;and Raf Vallone does not even need a dead body to make sure his lover will be sentenced to death.Marie-France Pisier,who is considered in her native France an intellectual actress ,and thus is cast against type ,was never as attractive as in "midnight" .At the beginning of WW2,a fighter pilot (John Beck)got her pregnant and left her .As many heroines of melodrama ,she becomes wealthy and famous and revenge is a dish best eaten cold.The movie includes all the available clichés and for kitsch lovers it is a true delight:Paris Romantique with the usual Quais De La Seine and the Eiffel Tower and the Trocadero ,Greece and the tycoons (Raf Vallone 's character was probably inspired by Aristote Onassis :don't we learn he left a diva for Noelle?),Cathy (Susan Sarandon)drinking like a fish -her "death" in a pasteboard and plastic sea is a great moment as is the scene of the caves,the landing in Zurich ,and to top it all ,the sinner in her wedding gown facing the fire squad .It has to be seen to be believed !And do not tell that Charles Jarrot is not a true art house movies maker. In his 1971 movie,he told the story of two women who did not live in the same country whose destinies met ,Mary Stuart and Elizabeth the First. Here ,a French girl and another one,who lives on "the other side of midnight" ...like Mary and Elizabeth ,they never really met ,but their lives were closely linked .

"Anne of a Thousand Days" director Charles Jarrott's "The Other Side of Midnight" struggles hopelessly to amount to a sophisticated romantic revenge melodrama. Sadly, scenarists Herman Raucher and Daniel Taradash's adaptation of author Sidney Sheldon's bestseller ends up as a sophomoric comic book soap opera. Initially, this is surprising when you consider that Jarrott also helmed "Mary, Queen of Scots" and the splendid Jack Palance made-for-television chiller "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" from 1968. We'll try to forget his movie misfire, the musical version of "Lost Horizon." Not only was Herman Raucher, who wrote the bestseller "Summer of '42," no lightweight penman, but also neither was Oscar winning scribe Daniel Taradash who penned "From Here to Eternity" as well as "Golden Boy," "Picnic," and "Hawaii." Meanwhile, what is not so surprising is the basis for the film, Sidney Sheldon's bestseller. The leads are nothing spectacular. Vietnamese born French woman Marie-France Pisier went nowhere in America and her leading man John Beck didn't make much of an impression and wound up playing supporting roles. Only Susan Sarandon had a Hollywood career to speak of.Essentially, "The Other Side of Midnight" occurs before, during, and after World War II, but it is not a war picture. The Raucher & Taradash screenplay deals with a love quadrangle. French ingénue Noelle Page (Marie-France Pisier of "French Postcards") is sold into the fashion business by her father. Jacques Page (Roger Etienne of "Marathon Man") advises his daughter, "You have beauty. It's your only weapon of survival. Let the hand under your dress wear gold." She is shocked by this advice and at firsts tries to be a good girl. Not long afterward, however, Noelle surrenders her virtue to a greedy little dressmaker Lanchon (Sorrell Brooke of "The Dukes of Hazzard") and he wants her to fulfill his every desire. Instead, Noelle flees to Paris and runs into a dashing, no-good jock of a Royal Air Force pilot, Larry Douglas (John Beck of "Rollerball"), who wines and dines her. No sooner does Larry promise to marry Noelle than he abandons her with a baby and a bleak future. Wielding a coat hanger, Noelle aborts her baby in a bathtub and decides to use her body to become a high-priced fashion model and European film starlet.Meanwhile, Catherine Alexander (Susan Sarandon of "Joe") is a fortune-seeking American girl who seeks her fortune in Washington, D.C. As a magazine advertiser, Catherine can only handle the really tough assignments and fouls up the easy ones. Dispatched to Hollywood to produce a war documentary, she falls in love inadvertently with that no-good Larry who takes her to the altar. After the war, Larry suffers problems readjusting to normal life, a problem which is financed by Noelle who is determined to ruin his life and force him to return to her and marry him! While engineering Larry's downfall, Noelle becomes the mistress of a vindictive Greek millionaire Constantin Demeris (Raf Vallone of "Nevada Smith"), the richest man in the world. Larry winds up as the pilot for Noelle's plane which the Greek buys for her and she begins an affair with Larry behind the Greek's back. Ironically, Noelle cannot marry Larry who she really and truly loves because he cannot divorce Catherine who worships Larry like a god. Imagine what happens next? This kind of absurdity is dragged out for well over two and a half hours and "The Other Side of Midnight" feels like it takes that long for the events to resolve themselves. Director Charles Jarrott tries to relieve this tedium by flaunting classy production values. Furthermore, Oscar winning "Towering Inferno" cinematographer Fred J. Koenekamp provides some stunning picture postcard photography of Greece. He makes it seem like you are watching an extended tourist travelogue. When you're not a tourist, you're a voyeur. Koenekamp's cameras turn the bedroom and the nudity of its stars into a geographical "Playboy" shoot. Expect a lot of profanity and sex from this epic along with some occasional suspense. The way the script spells everything out ensures that nothing will be left to your imagination. "The Other Side of Midnight" qualifies as little more than glossy trash. Further, the way thing develop makes this film seem unintentionally silly and stupid. For example, why does Noelle go to such lengths to wreck what starts out to be revenge? Despite the film's numerous faults, there are some women who dream of being a princess and men who crave all the wealth and power that the world can offer. These people may find something redeeming about this sappy soap opera. All that can be said about "The Other Side of Midnight" is that the filmmakers or novelist Sidney Sheldon refrain for anteing up another side of "Midnight!"

I caught an encore of this film on FMC the other night and while I knew before hand what I was getting into (a 3 hour drama), the sheer intrigue of the storyline was virtually impossible to resist.During WWII, a young (Marie-France Pisier) and down on her luck woman comes to Paris with the hopes of making it as a model and is robbed penniless on her very first day there. Delirious, tired and confused she slowly makes her way (on foot) around the neighbourhood where she has been abandoned until she finds a hotel and decides to rest in the lobby for a while. The concierge discovers her soon after and is about to throw her out when she is rescued by an American air-force pilot (John Beck) who is also a playboy who tactfully romances her. Over the course of time the two seeming lovebirds become committed to one another but Larry Douglas (Beck) is called to duty one day. Noelle Page (Pisier) is devastated but Larry promises that he will be back and provides for her financially for the next six months. Noelle gets a job as a model and patiently awaits the return of her lover, to no avail. Months later she discovers that she is pregnant and on the same day finds out from an old acquaintance that Larry (who has no been sent back to America) made an English girl pregnant. Devastated, Noelle aborts the child she is carrying then slowly begins to work her way up the social ladder.Meanwhile, in America Larry meets a beautiful working girl named Catherine Alexander (Susan Sarandon) whom he woos in the same manner that he did Noelle, only this time, he marries this one. Years pass by and the war ends and soon Larry is out of the job. He soon finds out that he is unable to get a job anywhere in the US, so when he is offered a job in Greece, he jumps at the offer. It is only when he arrives there to meet the millionaire tycoon whom has hired him that he realises that Noelle, the woman he jilted 8 years earlier is his new employer.