"An Almost Perfect Affair" tells the story of Hal Raymond, an young American independent film director, who travels to the Cannes film festival in order to try and interest distributors in his latest film. While there, he meets and has an affair with Maria, the attractive wife of Federico Barone, a wealthy and successful Italian film producer.I was interested in the comments from the reviewer who worked as a sound editor on this film and who states that the original intention was to make it as a satirical comedy about the movie industry. Although we cannot be sure how the film would have turned out if this plan had been adhered to, I can't help thinking that it would have been a better film than the one that was actually made. The best things about the film are the comic characters and episodes- Hal's more materialistic black friend Andrew, who tries to market his film as a "blaxploitation" action thriller, that French bureaucrat who combines exquisite politeness with exquisite uselessness, always more concerned with defending the honour of his nation than with actually doing anything to help anybody, and the scene where Hal successfully puts down a patronising wine waiter.Unfortunately, the decision was taken to concentrate more on the romance between Hal and Maria than on the satire. There is an attempt to raise a potentially interesting point about the value of art: can an object, even a work of art on which its creator may have lavished great pains, ever have a greater moral value than a person? The question is raised when Maria, who has seen Hal's film and does not care for it, accuses him of caring more for his film than he does for her. He sees himself as idealistic because he cares more for artistic values than material ones; she regards his idealism as suspect because he cares more for artistic values than human ones.As I said, this question is a potentially interesting one, but in the film it becomes less interesting because it is placed in the context of what is only a very shallow, brief romance. Maria is the sort of person who regards extra-marital affairs as a sign of "sophistication", which is a polite way of saying that she will always value her own gratification before the needs of anyone else, be that the needs of her husband or of her lovers. It is always quite clear that Hal is not the love of her life, that their romance is no more than a brief fling and that she has no intention of ever leaving her husband for him. (Hal, also, does not seem in any great hurry to abandon his steady girlfriend Karen for Maria). She cannot therefore complain if Hal values his film, on which he has spent two years of his life, more than he does a relationship which is doomed to fizzle out after a few days.One thing I did like about the film was the attractive musical score by Georges Delerue, part Viennese waltz, part romantic piano concerto. Overall, however, I thought that "An Almost Perfect Affair" was not a great success. As a comedy it is only fitfully amusing and as a psychological study or exploration of philosophical issues it lacks depth. 5/10

This is a disappointing film. We never find out why Monica Vitti suddenly decides to betray her husband nor why Keith Carradine betrays his girlfriend in the United States. Raf Vallone portrays a powerful Italian Producer who may be a portrait of Carlo Ponti and/or Dino de Laurentis, but is puzzlingly passive when he discovers that his wife is unfaithful. Keith Carradine portrays a man with the emotional maturity of a high school student. It is puzzling that Monica Vitti's character is drawn to him. The only character which is drawn in some depth is Monica Vitti, Raf Vallone's wife. She had been very poor as a child, and is afraid of getting fat and losing her money. She says that when she was an actress - she was a bad actress. She tells us that this is the first time she has ever lied to her husband of many years (they also have a teenage daughter). Monica Vitti's dialog is the flawed words of an Italian who does not have a large English vocabulary and who has difficulty pronouncing English words - this is charming, but sometimes difficult to understand.

I, too, was in this bomb; my mother and I were the only people in the theater as it completed its short run here! What a shame that my brief career in Hollywood was in such a poor example of Michael Rithchie's work. But, just having heard of Ritchie's death a couple of weeks ago, I got to thinking how it was one of the most pleasant experiences of my life, just being an extra in one of his movies. Michael Ritchie was not only a talented director, but I can attest to the fact that he was a genuinely fine person as well. I feel immense sadness knowing that he is no longer with us.Peter

It's usually not a good sign when the supposed subplot of a movie is far more engrossing than the main storyline. Such is the case with "An Almost Perfect Affair," a romantic comedy about the brief encounter of a struggling young independent filmmaker from America (Keith Carradine) and a successful Italian producer's wife (Monica Vitti), set against the backdrop of the Cannes Film Festival. Although Carradine and Vitti do make an appealing couple, their romance is never as interesting as the scenes regarding Carradine's efforts to get his film shown.Fortunately, those scenes are entertaining enough to make the movie worth seeing in its own right. Dick Anthony Williams is a scene-stealer as an enthusiastic blaxploitation filmmaker who appoints himself as Carradine's partner and shows him the ropes of marketing, hype, and self-promotion.And speaking of self-promotion, another highlight of the film is a brief quasi-documentary interlude (filmed at the Cannes Festival itself as it happened) with notorious sex kitten Edy Williams pitching a self-scripted vehicle for herself. I wonder why that picture never got made...?