Armand The Deneuve's film. The story has not any original element, the action is confuse, the theme of widow in rout is very old. But, the value of this movie exists. And it is present in every scene.Catherine Deneuve's art is the solution. The art to transmit gestures of an ambiguous fight is subtle and powerful.The elements of resignation are pieces of beautiful miniature.The tiredness, relation with the past, limits of memories, color of words, revenge's intentions, search and fear, gems and victims are episodes of an essential trip .Marianne is not only a character of a French actress but reflexion of a magnificent art, in every acting detail is a touching drop of precision.A film with faint brightness and misty soul.

sharkfinsoup I love French movies, and Catherine Deneuve is one of the actresses I like the best. In the 90's, she has done outstanding work in Thieves/Voleurs and My Favorite Season/Mon Saison Favori.I was extremely disappointed in this film...a diamond scam film that has been done before, and better. It does have some good points: there is a very nice vintage noir atmosphere, and Deneuve gives a nuanced performance has the alcoholic wife of the owner of an upscale jewelery store (in Place Vendome...Paris, hence the title). He commits suicide and she is suddenly thrust into a world where there is no one to take care of her and she must find her own resources.She does a nice job of this, but unfortunately, the film didn't make me care very much about her or any of the other characters. The plot involving stolen diamonds is convoluted, and doesn't appear to make make much sense. It looks like it was re-written too many times and some of the motivating scenes and explicatory scenes got left out. I really wanted to like this movie, but I felt like this was perhaps the worst movie I've ever seen Catherine Deneuve in.It's not bad like a really bad Hollywood movie is godawful bad, with explosions and trash talk trying to fill the emptiness, but it's just dull and not fun.Two stars.If you are looking to rent a film with Catherine Deneuve, try "Thieves" or "My Favorite Season"-Bruce

masked film critic "Place Vendome" makes a few strange decisions early on. You would expect a thriller set in the Paris jewel industry to be glamorous and sexy, but Nicole Garcia has other ideas. Instead, she presents the industry as corrupt, jaded and full of downbeat, sleazy people. Deals take place behind closed doors, in cheap hotel rooms, and dimly-lit office suites. Garcia does everything to make this atmosphere suffocating - there are few outdoors scenes initially. When the action shifts briefly to London, there are no establishing shots. The only clue that we're no longer in Paris is that the dialogue switches to English.This, no doubt, is an attempt to add realism to the milieu. It succeeds, but at the cost of draining the film of interest. Little narrative momentum is created, and the low-key lighting, presumably aimed at creating a noir atmosphere, ends up murky instead.The main interest lies, predictably enough, with Catherine Deneuve, in yet another mid-life crisis role. Of course, she holds the attention like the old pro she is, but this is itself a problem. We're introduced to various mysterious characters when Deneuve is off-screen, but they seem lifeless and uninteresting by comparison.And yet, the final half-hour actually works. Much is explained about the characters' motivations in a haunting flashback scene, set in an unforgiving wintry landscape. Following on from that the film finally develops some tension. However, this seems to be too little, too late. This is a wasted opportunity.

stanton-7 The plot of this film may centre around scams in the the diamond trade but don't expect slick plotlines and witty, glamorous characters. The film offers instead a look behind the glamour at individuals worn down by their lives, by wrong decisions and damaging relationships. These relationships have developed between characters involved at some time in questionable aspects of the trade and appear to suffer as if mirroring the dishonesty and deceitfulness of the scams. It is a story told at a slow pace allowing the details to unfold and to enable us to get to know the characters and understand their motivation. The acting is superb, particularly Catherine Deneuve, and the film ends on a note which suggests some kind of atonement and reconciliation.