lasttimeisaw French filmmaker Claude Sautet's sixth feature, the title refers to an unmarried couple, César (Montand) is a successful scrap merchant and Rosalie (Schneider), a divorcée who maintains an amicable relation with her ex, Antoine (Orsini), a painter. But the unbidden return of David (Frey), Rosalie's first love, casts a shadow in the status quo, inaugurated by a foolhardy competition of speed. Rosalie becomes oscillating between César and David, a quintessential dilemma of choosing between the one she loves the most and the one loves her the most, any inconspicuous outward sign can alter her inner decision in a trice, and through the portrayal of a magnificent Romy Schneider, viewers is well-disposed to forgive Rosalie's caprice, being a beautiful woman, her trumping card is her absolute freedom, refusing to be mired down in any insalubrious compromise, whether when she is fed up with César's vulgarity and petty maneuver or the time she finds herself marginalized in their ménage-à-trois tryout. David and Rosalie are on the same frequency, they understand each other's feelings, and their rapport has a pure and consonant quality that everyone hanks after with his/her partner, but on the other hand, Rosalie and César's relation is more prosaic and realistic, because of the money factor, an amour-fou César is very much disposed to splurge on all his money just to please her, to buy a painting from Antoine, to recompense the damage he has wreaked on David's studio (incidentally, David is a graphic artist), to buy back Rosalie's family holiday house on the island of Noirmoutier, those costly gestures irrefutably soften Rosalie's resolution, hardly can any woman resist a man's testament of love like that, not to mention Yves Montand imparts eloquent panache into César's almost innocuous single-mindedness, and even evokes an air of sympathy in the long run in spite of his unbearable machismo David is the more ambiguous type, he loves Rosalie but not necessarily wants her, Sami Frey's well-bouffant handsomeness makes him fittingly inscrutable but in fact, he is not dissimilar to Rosalie, has his own volition cannot be violated. To set the film apart from other crops dealing with the love-triangle quagmire, Sautet and his co-scriptwriters go out on a limb to envision a scenario where an equilibrium between the nouveau riche and the artist is miraculously established in the third act (which, ill-fatedly, received a rushed collection of montages in company with a voiceover from Michel Piccoli), contradicts any malignant foreknowledge in terms of its ultimate fallout. Exuberantly tarted up by its retro-flair and throbbing dynamism, plus a beneficent coda, CESAR AND ROSALIE bewitchingly contends against the volatile drama in its center but also plays up a liberal-minded homeostasis, which archly transcends our insularity concerning gender roles and delivers us from the usual deluge of hokum, that is a real blessing.

Haynoosh The calm of the life of Cesar and Rosalie is disturbed by the arrival of David an old love of Rosalie,evoking in Rosalie memories long forgotten or put aside maybe,and in Cesar a flow of uncontrollable jealousy.But all these take a strange turn , as strange and unlimited love can be.One is capable to do all while in love even if it is to convince the old love of your loved one to come and live with them if that is going to make her happy.An engaging film about the complexity of love and its relations with friendship.If in the beginning of the film it is David who stands between the relationship of Cesar and Rosalie at the end it is Rosalie who might be a threat to the friendship developed between Cesar and David.In the last scene of the film Rosalie who had left both of them feeling shattered between her past and present returns to Cesar's doorstep witnessing the friendly chat of Cesar and David.This is Claude Sautet's film and the final move is also his,but if it was left to me I would have stopped the camera before David and Cesar had caught the glance of Rosalie behind the fences,and would not let her open the door,letting the spectator to decide and reflect about how complex are human relations.

Bardotsalvador Excellent movie a great love story the wonderful and inmortal Romy Schneider in a love triangle between Yves Montand and the very handsome Sami Frey by the way sami frey become famous in the 1960s when he became the lover of brigitte bardot, i love this movie as well every movie Romy Schneider was, to me she was a very special actress very beautiful and talented, Romy Schneider at this time was at the peak of her fame she cant do no wrong and in this movie she did not, Sami Frey became famous in the early sixties when he was for a short time Brigitte Bardot boyfriend from then on he became a major french star and even today he still working but this movie is about dear Romy she is fantastic here don't miss IT Yves Montand was a major international singer and actor and the husband of Simone Signoret and in the early 70s he too was at the peak of his fame as you may know this movie was a big hit all over the world

MartinHafer The acting in this movie is excellent--particularly Yves Montand as the middle aged scrap dealer. David is also well-played as are all the other supporting players. But the character of Rosalie was just confusing and flaky and this tended to pull the movie down from time to time. Her character just didn't make sense--acting impulsively and without clear motivation. It was like many of her moves were based on a whim and that made it hard to care about her or see what David or Cesar saw in her (other than her great looks). Yes I could see it would be tough to love two people at the same time but the ways she reacted just defied logic. It's really a shame, as a re-write of the script could have made this a MUCH better film.