Belle Poitrine is Auntie Mame without a conscience.
355445
Let's all raise our martini glasses high in honor of the most famous fake Hollywood star!
I was given this book as a present by my mother, who knows I love "Auntie Mame". I don't think she expected the photographs! Of course, the photographs are half the fun. Perfectly staged (REAL diva-memoir photos wouldn't be half as realistic!) and brilliantly "acted" by theatrical aquaintances of Patrick Dennis (and sometimes by Dennis himself!), "Little Me" is the only Hollywood memoir you'll consider worth reading over and over again.
The richly detailed "biography" tells of Belle's humble beginnings as an actress in a delightful silent short where she had to undress in a "most artistic manner", to her rise to fame in such epic films as "Thou Shalt Not..." and "Forgive Us Our Trespasses" (not to mention "Arabia" and the later, more sucessful "Saudi-Arabia").
But this is not a one-joke book... It is told so directly, with so little attempt at overt exaggeration (the voice is incredibly true to the Diva-Dictating-Her-Memoirs we all know deep down inside) that there probably never was a truer example of "camp".
Look no further for a send up of all things Hollywood. And three cheers for the new edition!
353005
The characters of "Ridicule" walk a tenuous line in a setting where wit is the only currency. They lead lives filled with shallow hypocrisies and carefully planned jokes. Every pleasantry is two-faced; earnestness is shunned in favour of irony. They exchange scathing bon mots and comebacks, ridiculing each other in order to be accepted. They embark upon passionless affairs to climb socially. Gravitas is frowned upon, and there is always the knowledge that one day they will lose their sharpness or go too far, and be ridiculed themselves.
Gregoire Ponceludon de Malavoy (Charles Berling) comes to the court of Versailles to see the king. He needs money to drain a disease-riddled swamp where his people work and die. His chances look slim until it turns out that he has a quick tongue. He is taken under the wing of an elderly courtier, Monsieur Bellegarde (Jean Rochefort) and trained in the ways of the court (never laugh at your own jokes, never laugh with your mouth open - and never pun).
Ponceludon is soon captivated by Bellegarde's beautiful daughter Mathilde (Judith Godreche), who has plans of her own - she is designing a diving suit and marrying a rich old man to finance it. Meanwhile, Madame de Blayac (Fanny Ardant), an affluent widow of the court with great social placing, spots Ponceludon herself and they embark upon an affair of mutual convenience. His only desire for her lies in the fact that her bedroom leads to the king, and therefore to financial gain for his project. They both know this, and there is a scene where she laughs at him and tells him, "Learn to hide your insincerity so that I may yield without dishonour".
Beautifully shot and wonderfully acted, "Ridicule" is a treat for the senses. Fanny Ardant in particular is outstanding: she is a captivating actress who should be seen more often here, and to better advantage. The film itself is perhaps a little like the French version of "Dangerous Liaisons". Filled with sharp wit that isn't necessarily coming out of the mouths of the characters, it serves as a reminder that perhaps we have more in common with the shallow butterflies of this film that we might care to admit.
808984
I saw this movie at home last night and I was appalled.  They took Jane Austen's simple, exciting plot, marvellous characters of the kind only Jane Austen can create, and ruined it completely.  Where was Aunt Norris' gnawing nastiness?  Sir Thomas' dignity (the movie makers made him into some kind of lecher who abused slaves in the worst way in Antigua!)?  Lady Bertram's humorous lassitude?  Fanny Price's father's embarrassing (but to us highly amusing) vulgarity?  And am I the only one who noticed the slightly lesbian tones in Mary Crawford's attentions to Fanny, especially when Fanny has to take off her wet clothes?  Good grief!

Jane Austen must be turning in her grave.

The only reason I am giving this movie one star is because of the costumes.  They are beautiful.  Everything else about the movie is appalling.
3802527
these women might as well be in a hip hop video with no clothes on since they are being paraded around as a spectical.
this family is not an interesting family to watch.... white yes, different yes, no way.
942882
This is a Camilla panegyric. After the best childhood in the world and being the most popular girl in school and the most popular debutante, Camilla has the rotten luck to fall in love with an absolute rotter, but she is still the perfect wife and mother. She even cooks. Though the Prince loved her, she stays true to her cheating husband, until she can't take the heartbreak. By the way, the Prince is an autocratic, but weak willed ditherer, who was forced to marry the beautiful teenaged Lady Diana. Who, despite her charm and beauty, was an absolute psychotic b****h, and made the Prince's life miserable. By the way, she cheated first. And while her husband gave his former girlfriend expensive presents, wore her gifts on his honeymoon, and kept her picture with him, his new bride was wayyy too jealous. This ranks up with the worst of Lady Colin Campbell's biographies/ tell alls. I would rather have a root canal without anesthesia than to finish this. I will never buy anything written by Ms. Junor.
Ms. Juror fancies herself an amateur psychiatrist. She is not even a good amateur writer.
The Duchess and Prince got a happy ending. I was hoping to read a biography of a real woman not a hagiography of the newest 21st century saint. Glad I returned this book.
3034900
Meryl Streep can shine in anything don't get me wrong. She was the best thing in the film. The story was so depressing. They basically destroyed all the fairy tales in one fell swoop. The music is repetitive, boring, bleak and frankly none of it stands out in my mind.
3124501
Do not support this evil woman by buying her products. She is abusing a dead man and his family in the most vicious way imaginable.
3460044
I love Melissa Francis and watch her daily with David Asman on FOX BUSINESS NEWS CHANNEL. She is a  witty, beautiful and very intelligent  woman whose childhood was robbed by her mother who used Melissa as the "cash cow" for the family income.  The story of her beautiful sister and the sister's ultimate fall into drugs was the fault of an insensitive mother who played "favorites" openly and cruelly.  I read this story with sadness because Melissa's mother was obviously mentally ill before the two girls were born but no one seemed to see the behavior as such.  The story ended on a really disturbing note because the mother's behavior was so horrible toward the family that Melissa had to break all ties with her-----permanently.
873182
Every other character in this 300-page clich is a cajun, from Jake Santou, the dark, dreamy homicide detective, to Hillard Williams, mayoral candidate and former leader of the local Nazi party.  Strangely enough, though, none of the cajuns in this book have French names.  There's even a Gonzales, for heaven's sake.

 The story is roughly this: when the nude, razored body of Valerie Vaughn, a cajun stripper/prostitute is found next to a dead alligator, the Fish and Wildlife Service is called in (!) to dispose of the `gator corpse.  Not content to let Santou and the rest of the New Orleans Homicide detail do their jobs (because they're all crooked and incompetent) Rachel decides to solve the murder herself.

 Chief suspect is Hillard Williams, who used to date the stripper.  As a matter of fact, he's the only suspect.

 If there were such a thing as a "Central Casting" for authors, Jessica Speart would have maxed out her credit cards ordering characters for this book.  Her boss, Charlie Hickock, is the tough, hard-drinking loner who refuses to warm up to a woman yankee.  Hillard is the blustery southern good-ol'-boy politician who smokes cigars in the office of his opulent, Garden District home.  Hillard is married to Dolores, the faded beauty queen who - get this - actually carries around a three-legged French poodle named...Fifi.  Gunter Schuess is the sinister German terrorist.  Hillard's body  is guarded by the hulking Vinnie, an Italian mobster who loves to cook.  Oh yeah, Rachel's upstairs neighbor is the gay, transvestite performer, Terri.  These characters are nothing more than a potpourri of New Orleans books of the last two years.

 Weaker than Speart's casting is her plotting.  Whenever Rachel is at a loss for direction, Speart employs the old "Deus ex Machina" trick, dropping Hunky Delroix, a backwoods poacher who seems to know everything, in the middle of the action.  For example, Rachel decided she needs to capture Trenton Treddel, her boss' old 'gator-poaching nemesis, in order to get in Charlie's good graces.  Charlie, in all his years as a Wildlife agent, has never been able to capture Trenton.  Rachel nabs him in a day.  How does she do it?  She asks Hunky where he lives.  Ol' Charlie should have been slapping his forehead over that clever trick.

 I wanted to like this book.  Honest.  The cover, showing a 'gator in bright pink sunglasses made me expect a light, amusing read.  Instead, I found myself grumbling through the whole thing.  But, his is not the worst book I have ever read.  Robert Walker's "Pure Instinct" holds that position, hands down.

 The bright spot is that, as the book progressed, I found myself more entertained.  It was as though Speart was finding her voice before my very eyes.  I think with a better editor and a little more practice, the Rachel Porter series could become a solid staple of the New Orleans mystery genre.  Few Spenser fans will admit that Robert B. Parker's "The Godwulf Manuscript" was an unholy mess.  But the series grew up as Parker did.  Maybe Rachel will turn out okay after all
1117168
Because I love Paris and crime fiction, I've hung in there with Black across the years, but I've had it with Aimee. I've had enough of her second hand designer clothing, her impulsive idiotic judgement, her self-justifying rationalized guilt, and her blind use and abuse of her friends. And now her thoughtlessness extends to her six month old baby, Chloe, the product of yet another ill conceived erotic fixation on a jerk. (It never ceases to amaze me how infants can be used as plot devices while being happily tossed hither and yon to this or that 'caregiver', with nary a problem for the neglectful preoccupied mother.) It's all become just too much to bear.

Is it necessary to be reminded every single time she applies lipstick that it's Chanel red? Or that every time she checks the time, it's on her Tintin watch? I mean, every time. How could we possibly forget? It strains credulity that she could remain so willfully ignorant of Rene's feelings for her over fifteen books--forget her complete lack of concern about his chronic pain. I really don't care enough about her to continue here.

I'll take Cara Black off my annual list, along with Sue Grafton and Janet Evanovich, and turn to the new Jussi Adler-Olson volume, whose characters have depth, texture, and moral dilemmas, even though bereft of fashion taste.

American superficiality applied to Parisian life has unique irony.
117787
The thin and trite plot of a 16 year old damsel in distress given credit only for her beauty and "lovely voice" is sickening.  Beautifully animated as I am a fan of Don Bluth's style.  Horrifically sexist with Thumbelina being treated as a prize possession stolen by a series of disgusting male characters.  "I'm ugly?!"  she exclaims to the beetles.  Really?  After how she's been treated before landing in her current predicament this is her concern?  Please.  Spoiler alert:  prince to the rescue.
1135958
One should read this novel to gain an understanding of a modern France devoid of purpose and faith. Submission is a best seller in France and the NYT book review of November 3, 2015 was favorable. The theme of a Western democracy yielding to the domination of Islam is hugely important. But, if this is what the French consider to be a good novel, then the French don't have anything worthy of preserving from Islam. The potentially riveting storyline is subsumed by Michel Houellebecq's obsession for vivid descriptions of pornographic sex. It is ridiculous. I read this book simultaneously with Don Quixote and couldn't help but wonder at the feckless modern state of France, devoid of Christian faith, unable to find collective reason to resist the domination of Islam. Houellebecq's protagonist, Franois, knows nothing of the love described by Cervantes' characters Chrysostom and Marcela in Don Quixote. Literally, the only thing Franois loves is his dick. Submission is a pathetic presentation of an important topic. It does help you appreciate the virtue of Cervantes' Don Quixote.
2171320
I repeat the comments I made about the near same name movie staring Camille Keaton. These Lowlifes exist among us , and pray on the weak or defenseless .  The criminal justice system is often ineffective because of so many Loopholes in the morass of legal  contradictive mumbo jumbo. Hurrah to Jemma Dallender  in her portrail of a badly abused victim. She deserves high recognition.
1245218
I want a refund. The supposed heroine was a selfish, uncaring bitch. She was a bastard of the marquis, but still grew up in a mansion. Her father was not good to her. This in turn made her the most hateful, selfish bitch alive. The  hero was beaten with a WHIP for something she did. She could have stopped it and finally did after he was bleeding and scarred. Her sister loved her so of course she had to treat her like dirt. She called the hero the stable hand and treated him like dirt under her feet. But, miraculously, as soon as she found out he was really a duke, she loved him. Of course, she kept this from him and he found out from someone else. She was a miserable person and was never redeemed in character. I had to force myself to read this after the first few chapters I hated her so much. I will never purchase anything from this writer  again.
2521880
Lovely film, paced nicely and with a delicate touch conveying the subtleties of social convention of the time. In the end, the world changes because of the personal relationships we all have with each other. I was feeling claustrophobic as Belle tried to walk along an acceptable path which reconciled her race and her aristocratic status. Had she chosen alternate paths, her uncle might not have interpreted the case as he did. It would have been better had there been a scene during which Belle confronts her fiance in the presence of her family and his about his brother's almost brutal manhandling of her which he did to demonstrate that, for him, she was nothing more than a slave. That would have been a chance for the decent brother to gain some resolution. I can't see why it was not written and/or filmed that way. In another 500 years, we still will not know everything we need to know about British American slavery.
876729
ESPECIALLY THE SMOTHER MOTHER. BOTH MOTHER AND DAUGHTER DOING THE SAME THING ONLY ONE HAD MONEY THE OTHER DID NOT. I DO NOT ENJOY READING ANYTHING ABOUT DRUGS AND THE DAUGHTERS LIFESTYLE!
1716185
This version of Joan of Arc was a complete and utter disgrace. The apparent point of this movie is to depict Joan as completely insane and no real saint.  So insane, in fact, that this character of Joan was completely unable to have a normal conversation with anyone.  None of the other characters in the film have even a smidgen of respect for her.  The closest thing to respect would be amusement to the fruits of insanity to have one's way.  One goes away with the feeling that not a single worthwhile human value was in place.  A story of a traumatized and visibly very insane woman inducted by the elite of the time as a useful fool and then completely discarded in her time of need after literally saving France and restoring the crown.  To add insult to injury, Jesus was depicted as demonic and hideous with bulging eyes, looking like he was in drag, covered in blood, and frightful. A brutal murder-rape was "added" to the story to make it known that Joan was not speaking to saints or doing God's work but a severely traumatized, very immediately visibly mentally ill person who ultimately chose her own death to appease her delusions.

One must wonder what kind of corruption is behind this completely soiled and devaluing version of the story of Joan of Arc and this disgraceful depiction of Jesus.