Well, call it a western or historical fiction, but this film definitely has both of those elements. Claude Lelouch excellently directed this film, which i believe was his first English-speaking or bilingual film. James Caan shines as Dr. David Williams, a widowed American vet, and Genevieve Bujold's performance as Jeanne, a widowed photographer's assistant, is equally impressive. After David's wife, Mary, is found brutally beaten to death, he takes his infant son and moves south where he places him in the care of Alice, an inept schoolteacher, wonderfully played by Susan Tyrrell. Jeanne and her photographer boyfriend, Francis, played by Francis Huster, flee France and come to America for a better life. They set up a photography studio in the West, and get married. But then tragedy strikes, and Jeanne becomes a widow with a baby girl. It's not until several years later that her and David's paths cross. Beautiful love story.

A Frenchman and his wife come to Old West America circa 1870 in search of new lives for themselves, but he is soon killed and she becomes acquainted with a shy, gentle American widower. Director Claude Lelouch whips up an appropriately dusty, windswept scenario, and the film's keenly-observed atmosphere is bracing and real. Unfortunately, the film, in both English and French, is woefully lumbering and overlong, and the promising casting of James Caan and Genevieve Bujold fails to set off sparks. Fascinatingly detailed, with beautiful camera-work and art direction, but the narrative might have stood some tightening. ** from ****

Rediscovering Lelouch on DVD, not having seen his films since they were aired on TV in the 70s and 80s, I enjoy them even more than expected.This is not a western, not a love story, not a historical picture... it is all of it and none of it, it is about how lifes cross depending on random changes of fate. If you like mindless action, down-to-earth westerns or tear-jerkers pass your way as you will not have the patience or the "gusto" to watch (just rent any mindless Stallone or Schwarzenegger movie, that should do). If on the other hand you can be moved by the little things of life and you want a real story, with lots of content and brought with great skill, this is definitely for you. This is not an artsy movie, it's a great movie!Lelouche has a knack of developing his characters over the duration of his movies, so you feel like you are part of the environment and not someone peeking in on what happens or a distant spectator. In "Un autre homme, une autre chance" he bridges the ocean to tell us about a french woman and an American man that could not be more different. The way they both evolve and finally come together through ups and downs, is made very special exactly by the fact it is so common... a reality show without the voyeuristic element that often leaves a bitter after-taste. It is told with such ease and with great performance of the actors.Definitely one of Lelouche's best movies and a must-see.

I am studying sound design and this movie blew me away. Watched it late night only because of the excellent James C. The most striking thing is when ever there is a violent scene, the director choose to fade out and loose all natural sound and simply play a simple but striking piece of piano. It distances you from the horror of the violence, it seemed to me to be as if I was being sheltered from the full effect. Powerful and poetic this was a revisionist western way ahead of its peers and only to be matched by Clint Eastwood's High plains drifter and Beguiled.