net3431 Never dull, always alive with authentic and rich scenes; unpredictable and interesting. The wooden acting of the leads is appropriate for two young people who are fresh out into the world. They are surrounded by an extravagant variety of characters of the late Middle Ages, all well portrayed and decently acted. The scenery is picturesque, the music is lilting and fair, and the plot veers between barbarisms and nobility. It has been beautifully filmed and the direction keeps the plot moving briskly. There is no fat, no wasted scenes, no stupidity. The story is believable and moving, a story of sensitive youths trying to survive in a world suddenly gone mad. The creatures who seek such chaos are trying to turn the world upside down; they seek their own order through chaos. They seek to rearrange the world into their own hideous image. This is a story of how civilized people deal with the carnage of progress.

Michael_Elliott Walk with Life and Death, A (1969) ** (out of 4)When people discuss the great or awful films in the career of John Huston, this effort here rarely gets mentioned and that's probably because even the most die-hard Huston fan either hasn't sat through it or simply can't make it through. Apparently Huston selected to do this as something small and personal and one does have to respect him for trying a poetic movie like this but in the end the thing just didn't work for me. A man (Assaf Dayan) "hears" the "calls" of the sea and decides to leave Paris and walk to it. Along the way he encounters various forms of violence and a blooming relationship with a young woman (Anjelica Huston) who soon joins him on his journey. This film wasn't popular when it was first released and it seems very few people have bothered checking it out since then even though we've got a legendary director and his famous daughter in her first role. From the reviews I've read there appear to be a few fans of the film and it's poetic vision but for me the thing was a pretty big misfire. One of the biggest problems is Anjelica who is simply way out of her range in this type of part. This would have been a challenging role for anyone let alone someone making their first acting appearance. At times she seems all over the place while at other times she seems as if she doesn't know where to turn. Dayan doesn't fair much better but at least he seems at ease going through everything on this journey. The film moves at a rather slow pace, which I didn't really mind as Huston was trying to build some atmosphere out of it. The dialogue, cinematography and even the music score are all used to be dream-like but it just never really came together for me. This isn't an awful movie or an embarrassing one but it just felt too empty for me.

dbdumonteil ....through the MIddle Ages in France.A voice over warns us: this is the story of a boy and a girl.Something had begun (the Hundred Years War):they had not seen the beginning and they would not see the end.Who would anyway? It takes place in France and it was not meant to be realistic;its closest relatives are arguably Bergman's "the seventh seal" (1957) and Marcel Carné's "les Visiteurs du soir"(1942) .The three works are fables ,the MIddle-Age being an alibi- ,and the three of them feature a stunning ending:the dance macabre in the Bergman's work,the hearts still beating in stone in Carné's and the "return to the sea" in this one.Many of the permanent features of the great director emerge in "Walk": the odd pair (Assaf Dayan is childlike ,naive and chivalrous whereas Huston -who was only eighteen- seems a mature woman who still believes in a society which would survive till 1789! those who fight,those who pray and those who work),the absurdity of any quest (what's good going to Paris?the heroine says.What's good escaping again?),the presence of death (which predates Huston's last film -the Dead- by fifteen years;and A.Huston is in that film too),the stranglehold religion had on the minds and on the souls .The 1965-1975 years were a period of barren inspiration for Huston,they say,but it did provide at least two masterworks :the underrated overlooked "Reflection in a golden eye" which is looked upon as a classic in France and which was very faithful to McCullers' novel and the grandiose "Man who would be king" ."A walk with Love and Death " is second only to these ,being more original than "fat city" and beating hands down the harmless "sinful Davy" and the muddled "Kremlin letter" and "Mackintosh Man" .Beautiful luminous cinematography.

harleyquinn220 Brilliant evocation of youth in a time of social disruption. Angelica Huston's best work. Fascinating direction by John Huston. Based on an excellent novel. Well realized. Good depiction of medieval society. All in all, well worth seeing.