I used to be French and I used to love Woody Allen - "used" because of a combination of geographical mutation and a vanishing memory... I remember seeing this movie in Sydney a few years ago, so taped it when it was on TV a few days ago. This time I watched it on my own, perhaps because I felt it might not be everyone's cup of tea, but I had a wonderful time revisiting... I did not worry about expectations and really it's one's best way to approach it, not to pull it on a slab and dissect it. (the same goes for so many other movies; it supposes to be fun, and it is. I liked the originality to involve W Allen the way it is done and make a romantic and funny story out of it. I was interested to read one of the comment mentioning that years ago Woody Allen, in "Play it Again Sam", Does a similar thing when he converse with a certain "Humphrey Bogart". I would be surprised if it was just a coincidence. Although I can't say it has any other bearing on this film.

This is getting weird. Yesterday I saw a movie in which Jacques Dutronc played classical piano and co-starred with Isabelle Huppert. The film was made in 1979 and pre-figured Merci, pour le chocolate twenty odd years later in which Dutronc is a classical pianist and plays opposite Huppert. Now, something very similar: Years and years ago Woody Allen wrote a play which was later adapted for the screen. It was called Play It Again, Sam, and the premise was that the lead character, Allen himself, held conversations with, and received advice from, Humphrey Bogart, his idol and, at the time the play was written and the film made, deader than Vaudeville. Now, it is Allen himself who enters into 'conversations' with Alice Taglioni who is his number one fan. Apart from that this is either a delightful rom-com or totally unrealistic rubbish depending on if you go to the movies to be entertained and transported for a couple of hours or to suffer unrealistic rubbish. Me? I loved it. Last time I saw Alice Taglioni she was a hard-nosed cop after a serial killer (The Prey) and before that she was the ditsy blonde mistress of Daniel Auteuil in a Francis Weber gem. This has lots of charm going for it and any film that features Ella singing Larry Hart's standout lyric to Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered over the credits with the verse yet cannot be bad and when a little later the lead actress confesses to 'adoring' Cole Porter what's not to like.

I had no expectations about this film, all I knew was it was French about a woman who had a penchant for Woody Allen. When you have no expectations and you see a really good film, you come out thinking: "That was an excellent film." It was so light, delicate, feminine I guess is one of the right words.People who find this film boring should definitely stick to Bond films, cops and robbers, anything described as an "Action Flick". Don't ever look at any of the films of any of the directors who feature in books about great films. Skip Almodovar, Bunuel, Godard, Fellini, Bertolucci, Bergman, Eisenstein, probably best not to bother with Woody Allen either, they'll just bore your socks off. Come back to them after you grow up!

I rarely watch films on planes apart from the small screen, I hate the ridiculous censors applied particularly by aircraft operated from Muslim countries. Anyway it was a long flight, I knew nothing of the film, the title I think I'd heard of, it was reminiscent of course of "Paris, Texas" so I was intrigued. A romantic comedy nice and easy. It was delightful, I was unsure whether it was a 'Woody Allen' film or not but when I discovered that it wasn't it made it even more wonderful that he appeared, little more than a cameo but perfect. I cried with joy, very sweet, light hearted and fun. If you don't enjoy it perhaps you have a wooden heart?