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Rating:  - It takes an iron will to sit through this one
Jeremy Irons makes this worth a look, but it takes 45 minutes too long to get where it's inevitably going. There are some good comedic bits, but most of the movie is given to French characters reciting their lines in ennui-laden tones. A lot of screen time is spent on lounge singing numbers; it might be more pleasant to listen to the soundtrack than watch the movie.
Rating:  - An international jewel thief and a chanteuse have blackouts in common
Pay no attention to the title of this film because the more I think about it the only purpose it has is to put this at or towards the top of any alphabetical listing of the films of director Claude Lelouch ("A Man and a Woman") or star Jeremy Irons. So without regard for the film's title we are introduced to Valentin Valentin (Irons), a jewel thief who comes up with creative but simple ways of robbing jewelry stores. But then Valentin's life starts to come apart. His relationship with his lover, Françoise (Alessandra Martines), has gone sour, he is suddenly feeling guilty about every crime he has ever committed, and to top things off he is suddenly experiencing blackouts. Meanwhile, in another part of Europe a French chanteuse, Jane Lester (Patricia Kaas, a real-life French chanteuse whose songs provide a counterpoint to the story so pay attention to the lyrics each and every time she sings), also has just ended her romantic relationship and is also suffering from unexplained blackouts, usually while singing.
Jane travels to Morocco because assuming the worse from the blackouts she decides to seek healing instead of going to a brain surgeon. Valentin also ends up in Morocco, literally by accident, but their common ailment has cause to bring them together under the misery loves company rubric. He is staying at the same hotel where she is singing, and when Madame Falconetti (Claudia Cardiale) reports the theft of her jewelry, Valentin becomes the obvious suspect. To make things interesting, when he says he had a blackout and does not know if he did the robbery or not, he could be telling the truth. Then again...
This is a story for grown ups, mainly because Irons bring a certain gravity to the proceedings because of his age. The fact that his criminal career rests on his brain and that is what is betraying him lends a irony to the tale as well. Then there is a question of whether or not anything we are seeing represents the blackout themselves. The two best parts of this 2002 film are the bank robberies and the songs, even if the former involve people not recognizing Irons in disguise and the later are sung in French (with substitles), and they tend to make the rest of this slowly developing film seem even slower in comparison.
Be forewarned that "And Now...Ladies & Gentlemen" is one of those films that you are probably going to need to watch twice to make sense of it all. That is not because it is confusing per se, but rather that the ending is open to interpretation depending on how you read the various layers that Lelouch reveals during the final real. For me the journey was more interesting than the destination since I am not sure how much projecting I was doing on what was happening at the end. Still, this is a change of pace film and if you are looking for something different you could do a lot worse. Also, there is ample evidence that this film really resonates with some viewers, which would be great if you are one of those people.
Rating:  - Love, memory (or amnesia), but romance most of all
For most US citizens, this is the best motion picture you have never heard of.
It got no play in the United States, yet was frankly one of the best pictures of the year.
There is so much beauty and romance in this movie, that to describe it is to give away the wonderfully tangled plot.
I will simply say that you should watch it, and listen to Kaas. You'll know what I mean.
Suffice it to say, I would have liked to live the rest of my life with these characters.
Also, direction and cinematography are gorgeous. As if that mattered in this case.
Rating: - Five Stars for this Sexy Torchy French Film
I had to give this movie 5 stars because it's so French and steamy and visually beautiful. Jeremy Irons is your typical suave dapper kind of guy with the morals of a skunk. Patricia Kass is the young tortured new love interest. Pretty typical fare as far as that dynamic goes and the film did tweak all my hip and now beliefs about real relationships but I decided to stop taking it seriously and once I did that I jumped in for the lovely ride. Jeremy Irons was preeeeteee sex-EEEE. Patricia Kass released a CD called "Piano Bar" that has lots of songs from this film in it - I love the CD and highly recommend it. Claude Lelouch is such a master story weaver with images that bounced back and forth in time and made me forget I was watching a sub-titled film - just like "A Man and A Woman" did.
Rating: - What Is The Dream and What Is Simply A Memory Of The Future?
And Now... Ladies and Gentlemen begins with the following epigraph: "Life is a deep sleep, and love is the dream." With that characterization as his point of departure, Claude Lelouch (who produced, wrote and directed this quiet masterpiece) provides an utterly sophisticated two hour cinematic meditation on all of the subtle ways reality, memory, and dreamlife intersect to create the verisimilitude of the present and a fantasy of what is to come. The narrative for this visually breathtaking excursion into metaphysics and the psychology of love centers on Jeremy Irons as Valentin Valentin (he was born on Valentine's Day), a whimsically inventive jewel thief who relies on disguise and deception to ply his trade. But a large and growing tumor of the brain is playing its own set of tricks on the master illusionist. In a parallel universe Valentin's destiny is tracked by that of a Parisian chanteuse, Jane Lester (Patricia Kaas), who also may be afflicted with a brain mass that is affecting her ability to discern what is real from what is imagined. The two cross paths in Fez at the halfway point of the film as each in their own way runs aground upon the hallucinatory shores of the primitive, light-blasted landscape which is Morocco. And Now... Ladies and Gentlemen is European cinema at its most disarming. Evocative and convincing, the film propels you on a journey you would rather not see come to an end.
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