bkoganbing Bloodline opens with the billionaire founder and president of an international drug conglomerate being shot off an Alp. It goes further downhill from that.The deceased's daughter is Audrey Hepburn who now is in charge of the family owned business and she is being pressed by other family members to have the corporation go public. The family is Jewish and they seem to bare no small resemblance to the Rothschilds. This issue about whether to start going public with their stock is what got Dad killed. He refused to do it and when she does likewise, Hepburn also is targeted. Sounds like a straightforward enough story, but the telling of it was botched beyond belief. There are a string of snuff murders of prostitutes being investigated by the same inspector, Gert Frobe, who is investigated Dad's murder, in the film just to give it exploitation value. Also a rather needless flashback to the father's younger days and the founding of the company.A really great cast is wasted here. Making the film somewhat bearable in his scenes is Omar Sharif, one of the cousins and board members whose philandering ways have made him a legend of sorts. Looks like Omar's determined to repopulate Europe all by himself.The climax involving a burning villa in Sardinia is exciting enough. But you have to endure a lot of boredom in Bloodline to get there.

nickrogers1969 ...which makes this movie interesting to watch. It looks expensive and cheap at the same time. The money probably went to pay the stars, their wardrobe and to rent airplanes because the characters keep landing at airports. There seems to have been no money left for setbuilding or a proper editor! There are some really bad continuity gaps in the film. The film is just trash! I thought it would be a serious study of a business empire run by a family. Instead it's a murder mystery without mystery and also a soft porn killer thriller! Did poor Audrey know about the naked ladies? She looks classy in her Givenchy clothes but the film is garbage; beneath her! She tries to pretend to care about the plot but the other stars (with the exception of Romy Schneider) are terrible!!!! I'm astounded at the low level of movie-making in "Bloodline"! See it for that reason only!

sh0ck-wave Exactly what anyone was thinking during the making of this movie isn't actually clear as the movie has no idea what it's trying to be, or the audience it's trying to attract.The list of well known actors coupled with the story line of inheriting a multi-million dollar company (ie. instant wealth) read like a trashy $2 novel, which is what I'm assuming this whole thing was based on, but then they thrown in a snuff-movie sub plot with splashes of nudity. It's like they have one aspect to get in the 70's era middle aged tabloid mag reading women, and then the other so that their bored husbands will have something to oggle and remember the movie by as well.For starters the editing of the movie is terrible. Scene's just happen, and then are followed up by completely different scene's in different locations. At the start of the movie they actually tried to provide some flow to the story, but by about a third of the way through no attempt to portray any sort of time scale or transition between scene's is provided.Audrey Hepburn, the main draw card for the movie, is treated almost like a child actor in this. The film tries to re-live scene's she's played out in older movies when she was much younger: eg. when she jumps onto the bed to make a phone call only to find that the phone is dead. This might have worked if the film was a light hearted music love story like the films which made her famous, but this was meant to be during a dramatic and dangerous scene, so it just ends up looking extremely staged and comical (bordering on silly). The one saving grace is that you get to hear her call Ben Gazzara a 'bastard', which in her distinctly European tongue sounds just gold. So roughly, the movies lead actress's high point is when she calls another actor an expletive. Not exactly star studded cinema here.The biggest gripe I have with ANY of the acting in this movie is how no one actually says anything to anyone. People are dying, mullions are being lost and a huge global enterprise is crumbling .. but everyone DEMANDS that they speak about things 'later'. Why did the brakes fail ?? .. I'll tell you later. When are we going to make a decision ?? .. we'll do that later. Who's the killer ?? .. I'll tell you later.For people who are fearing for their lives they certainly seem to have more important things to do then actually work out what the hell is going on around them. 'I'm sorry I'm too rich to die now, please kill me later on when it's more dramatic'.Then we come to the movies snuff-p0rn sub-plot. Exactly what the hell is going on in these scene's is hard to say. They contain NONE of the major actors and so look like they were tacked onto the movie in the editing stage, and seem to happen only through-out the course of the movie to keep some sort of 'threat' level present since the actors are so busy worrying about minor things that the audience might forget that DEATH AND MURDER is actually occurring.The whole point of the snuff-movie sub-plot it seems is to show that one person is, in fact, the killer. But this, in fact, makes almost no sense since the supposed killer didn't actually kill any of the women, and thus far no one has even been able to pin any of the other deaths on him either (or anyone else). So he's shot because he has a red ribbon in his hands.'Inspector can you prove this man killed anyone or actually did anything bad ?''No your honour but out of all the circumstantial evidence I've collected and been bam-boozled with, this guy's right at the top of the list.''Good enough for me Inspector, your free to go. Please feel free to shoot anyone else you think could possibly have maybe done something.'If you really feel it warranted that you MUST watch this movie, please look out for the following highlights of cinematic and acting glory : 1. Audrey Hepburn sitting on a bouncy seat in a studio while a car crash scene plays out behind her (hilarity on a grand scale) 2. The Inspector talking with a computer .. again and again and again .. all of which is inconclusive.3. Ben Gazzara displaying his obvious American-ism to Europeans by saying 'Jesus' at inappropriate times.4. Really bad stock footage of an old F1 race edited seamlessly (cough) into the movie with the volume cranked up to 11.5. The Inspectors hilarious attempts to hold a rifle during the final climactic scene (seriously, you can see the fear of god in the eyes of the police officers standing around him) 6. The 'building burning' scene which looks like a photo with a match under it.7. The fact that the entire building looks like it has exploded and burnt down the previous scene / photo .. yet no one seems to really care in the following scene's.8. The snuff-movie sub plot which makes no sense and seems to be the movies only real talking point (both for it's strange inclusion and for the way it sticks out like a sore thumb compared to everything else that's going on).9. The cut scene's to Roffe's senior's early life .. which just sort of 'happen' to a back ground of Audrey walking around an old castle looking confused (I was looking confused after watching that scene as well though).10. The 'over this way there's much the same' comment from Ben Gazzara during Audrey's tour of the drug factory (The actor summed up a pointless scene even before the audience had a chance too).

Frederic E. Kahler I had the good fortune as a teenager to sit through "Bloodline" each day or night for the week it ran in Freeport, Illinois. Later, when I ran away to NYC, I watched it again on my first little screen in a tiny, sloped theater-in-a-complex. I scoured Central Park for one of the scenes shot there against a graffiti-dusted bridge. Ahh... It was my last fix for a while on what chic is, what perseverance, trust and fabulous Parisian locales can do for a lost soul... Then I ran away to France. It would a few more years before I made it to Paris, but when I did I searched out Hotel de Crillion, Maxim's, Notre Dame. The Sydney Sheldon book was a bore compared to the film. Seeing these great international actors together -- Romy "Shrew in Silk" Schneider and Irene "Show me your back!" Papas, for example -- gave me a great shot of what it must be like to tread life's waters in Gucci and Bulgari (back when Gucci didn't seem so silly (watch out! is Chanel next?)) This film, about the Roffe Pharmaceutical heiress (Audrey Hepburn)tagged for murder because she won't go public with the stock market, has a great soundtrack, with lovely resolution, and if you can get the album or CD you'll catch a funky tune not used in the film. All those bits of different languages, different people: "Kennst du dieser Mann?" "They make cheese!" "Poland? This time of year?". What about that tacky snuff-murder sidebar (Roffe's film stock is being used to discredit the company)? You have to admit that that bald man is a hotty. I am in a whirl of support for this little picture and I'd see it again and again. Sometimes the best teachers in life are lurking in the cinema. It's not just about art! Look at Audrey's friendship with her Dad's aide, Beatrice Straight. What about that "senseless" death when Audrey goes back to get earrings? The cool unfolding opening credits and shocking change in music? And I could write a book on all that absolutely fabulous Givenchy clothing!!! The velvet applique and crystal-studded gown she wears to meet Gazzara (another hotty) at the "Guess who?" restaurant? How about the OD green wool cape as she meets about a new formula that can save Roffe? How about her chic sweater and cords as she crawls across the imbricated roof of that villa in Sardinia? Reprising the Jewish ghetto in Crakow? Horses and syringes? The ubiquitous tied-up silk robe Audrey wears? Count me in! This was one of her best "adult" roles. She got a million bucks to do it, it gave her family even more security, and I say she infused the project with inestimable elan. It is a satisfying and slightly sickening love story. Long live Audrey Hepburn! (May she rest in peace.)