Watch The Things of Life For Free

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

This film opens with the car crash of the main character. He is not dead. The rest of the movie then slowly unravels; we hear his thoughts on love, his wife, society and his life in general.As it slowly progresses, with a series of flashbacks we see how the last few days of the main protagonist's life have changed his whole existence. Piccoli perfectly captures the sadness and prevents needless sentimentality as he inexorably and gradually descends towards death. He is going through problems with his wife, played by the wonderful Romy Schneider, we see how he feels compromised in his modern lifestyle, and how he feels for his relationship with his son. Sautet places each scene with great skill to create an atmosphere of unavoidable tragedy, of longing and regret. Sautet stays away from cliché and prefers to show each scene in slow-motion without great effects, just to frame the emotion of the moment. The acting is spot on, never overplayed, also understated, and always poignant and effective. This film is Gallic passion at its most powerful.What is the most important thing in life? What choices are the right ones? Is everything just pointless? What really matters? Sautet made me think long after this film as to what we think about when our life flashes before us. And believe me, you'll be feeling a little emotional yourself when the credits roll up.

With "les choses de la vie" ,Claude Sautet relinquished his former style ,film noir ("classes tous risques" "l'arme à gauche" both worth seeking)in favor of bourgeois psychological dramas ."Les choses de la vie" was the first link on the chain,and -with the exception of "Max et les ferrailleurs" (1971),which showed Sautet at the height of his powers,when he came back for a short while to his first inspiration-remains the best of this "cinema de qualité".Unlike the other works ("Mado" "Cesar et Rosalie" "Vincent,François,Paul et les autres" "une histoire simple" ,etc etc etc) ,"les choses de la vie" has an emotional power and an unusual inventive direction.Editing is stunning (the first picture is one wheel of the car ),and never a car accident was filmed with such mastery.Flashbacks are used with great skill too.The nightmare scene (the wedding) remains very impressive today.And the metaphorical way Sautet uses to depict the hero's death commands respect and admiration.The last part of the movie is almost completely silent,but the strength of the pictures and the actors' talent (Piccoli,Schneider,but Lea Massari and Jean Bouise too)work wonders.Superb score.louis Delluc prize.Remake :"intersection" featuring Richard Gere.As I cannot say something nice...

A typical 70's drama, something that still gets its way when it comes to touch that emotional key in us (Or some of us) and makes us long for that passionate love story, without a tragic end of course. Through a filter of pastel tones, Sautet portrays the typical struggle many have put themselves through to fork onto a secondary sentimental route in life, thinking they can have it both ways. Albeit its apparent sappy tone, Les Choses de la Vie is an intense mature story of love and sacrifice, a double one at the end. I find European dramas very attractive, perhaps because they portray a kind of no-frills passion that is very hard to come across nowadays, both in movies and in reality. A movie like this surely has its clichés, the dual life, the regrets, the tragic death but in this movie Sautet is a wizard in enfolding the viewer with a very bitter-sweet sequence of happy yet solemn flashbacks. Pedro Lazaga's Largo Retorno (1975) happens to be similar in the way the relationship between the two main characters comes to an end (The memories, the sorrow, the death), granted in Les Choses de la Vie there is a three-way story. Both Michel Piccoli and Romy Schneider fit perfectly in the above scheme of things.Just like in Largo Retorno, a very somber yet passionate baroque score complements the entire movie, leaving us with a soggy handkerchief at the end.

Yesterday (Dec 15, 2001 I saw "Intersection" (with Richard Gere and Sharon Stone), so, I immediately wanted to see the original and ... there is no place like home. I went to a Blockbuster and, once again, the original is much better. Try to see it and you wont regret