Watch The Night Heaven Fell For Free

Just perfect...

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

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

The spoiled Ursula de Fonte (Brigitte Bardot) leaves the convent where she was educated to live with her Aunt Florentine (Alida Valli) and her tutor and uncle, Count Miguel de Ribera (Pepe Nieto), in a farm nearby a village in Spain. While driving through the village, Ursula sees the local dweller Lamberto (Stephen Boyd) accusing her uncle of being responsible for the suicide of his sister. Lamberto goes to the farm to fight against Miguel but he is beaten up. Ursula falls in love with Lamberto but sooner she finds that he is Florentine's lover. When Miguel finds Lamberto in his real state, he shoots the trespasser and Lamberto stabs and kills Miguel. Ursula helps Lamberto to flee and they are chased by the police. Ursula becomes his lover and their love ends in tragedy. "Les Bijoutiers du Clair de Lune" is a silly melodramatic romance by Roger Vadim. I saw this film many years ago on cable television and I have just seen it again on DVD.The plot is absolutely ridiculous, with a terrible story and characters. Brigitte Bardot never convinces as a virgin girl that was raised in a convent and her character is annoyingly hysterical. Stephen Boyd also does not convince as a Spaniard and his wolf character is very unpleasant. The gorgeous Alida Valli has good performance in the role of a repressed woman that falls in an unrequited love with Lamberto, but the poor script does not help her. In addition to Alida Valli, the locations and the beauty and erotic situations of BB are the best that "Les Bijoutiers du Clair de Lune" can offer, but it is very few to enjoy this film. My vote is four.Title (Brazil): "Ao Cair da Noite" ("Near Nightfall")

French "new wave" director Roger Vadim expertly showcased his then-wife, the youthful Brigitte Bardot in The Night Heaven Fell, and he did a fantastic job. I went into this movie not knowing what to expect, and was delighted to discover that Vadim had made an epic, hard-hitting and moving melodrama somewhat along the lines of what Douglas Sirk might have made if unbound from the restrictions of the U.S. production codes.I watched the DVD release, and was somewhat surprised to find it filmed in glorious Eastmancolor and wide-screen. The majestic scenery and authentic locales presented within remain spectacular and awe-inspiring even today. The cinematography is lush and beautiful, and the action moves the film along at a brisk pace which never becomes tedious. Fabulous art direction adds to the enjoyment, and the film is like a trip to the exotic, mysterious, and thrilling Spain in the 1950's.Briefly, the plot has young Brigitte Bardot just out of the convent, going to stay with her Aunt and Uncle. Stephen Boyd is the town "stud," as the movie calls him, who has a vendetta against the Uncle for violating his sister, driving her to suicide. Handsome Boyd plays both Bardot and her Aunt (Alida Valli) off one-another, until the melodramatic situation escalates into violence.The actors all give solid performances, especially old pro Alida Valli, as the respectable Aunt who conceals her passions beneath a steely exterior. Valli brings an aura of experience and tragedy to a role that breaks many of the conventions usually associated with the roles given to more mature actresses. She looks fantastic, and her subtle transformation caused by her young niece is remarkable.Bardot also is in fine form, looking stunningly beautiful of course, but also displaying a lot of both charm and unexpected strength. She has a number of scenes with two animals, a mule and a piglet, which are poignant and real.And it's fascinating to watch her interplay with these creatures, considering Bardot's famous and long-standing advocacy for animal rights. Plus, she must have been horrified -- if she ever actually watched the film -- to see a dead bull dragged through the Spanish streets in a scene in which she does not appear. Nevertheless, Bardot's performance here gives me a new respect for her talents, which were so much more than superficial. Another memorable scene has Bardot beating off the unwanted attentions of a lecherous man attempting to force himself on her. The fact that this guy had no idea of who he was tangling with is obvious in Bardot's reaction and its aftermath.And American Stephen Boyd is surprisingly convincing as a Spaniard, and the dubbed voice used suits him perfectly and the lip sync matches just fine. He's trim, fit and great in the action sequences, including a scene at the start when he catches a ride on the sedan taking Bardot to her new residence. It's edge-of-your-seat stuff, and a great way to start the film! Though tame by today's standards, American audiences back in the 1950s were certainly shocked by the film's matter-of-fact approach to sexuality. While the film looks like an expert Hollywood production, the adult themes and brief nudity clearly illustrate how much more liberal European film makers were allowed to be.The Night Heaven Fell clearly was made for adults, and Vadim and his crew succeeded in making one of the most memorable, entertaining and provocative films to come out of Europe at that time. And for today's fans of directors like John Ford or the aforementioned Douglas Sirk -- there's plenty here to enjoy.

A love story in Spain. Delicate, silky and dramatic. A young girl in a strange world, a man out of law, a aunt who hopes in the transformation of past. Adventure and a dead body - innocent victim of a fight in which she has not place. A different Bardot and a brilliant Alida Vali. At the end,only the subtle wall , with romantic sketches. It is not a good or bad film. It is ordinary description of pieces of dream, shadows of reality, small things and childish desires. Nothing complicate and this is cause of the emotion at the movie's end. A feeling as a summer rain, warm and nostalgic, spiderweb in wind, the taste of evening and the silhouette of a Madame Bovary closed in everybody.

Although this movie has much to do with the Spanish sense of pride and honor, its real issue is a fierce competition between the beauty of Brigitte Bardot and that of the landscape of Southern Spain. As Bardot's performance is pretty uninspired here, this time the scenery wins. 'Les bijoutiers du clair de lune' makes good watching for its enjoyable shots. As for Bardot, she certainly did better in other movies.