A great movie that shows true feelings of very special people in their life where you can see in great close-ups that they have lived quite a lot. A mix between inter cultural differences (american/french) and show time entertainment. Fun girls in a hard life and a great male protagonist who fights his career- and family-disaster and who is impossible to read. The view from behind the curtain towards the audience shows you the view of the smiling actors behind the scene. Clever running gags and emotional characterizing of the people and cultures in focus gave me something to think about before going to sleep. Loved it for being perfectly different!

Sustained by a steady direction and a camera that moves confidently to capture every single, significant twinkle, the result is a dry, harsh movie, always carefully focused. The environment is that of squalid burlesque shows, with ageing and decadent women, selling old-fashioned and sad shows, in anonymous theatres of anonymous French towns. Their daily routine is sad, the contrast between the excess of their shows and the nothingness of their real lives sounds depressing. They are taken on tour around an absent France by Joachim, a former TV producer, who abandoned by everyone, now makes a living by finding a suitable theatre for their performances, in a way using them in order to come back to Paris as the successful man he'll never be. All these women feel alive only when on stage, where they can play the game of seduction and forget the sadness looming over their lives, with no family, no relationships, no roots. Joachim's character is a living failure, to the point that those women become his only family, more than his own children. A decadent and depressing humanity, depicted with mercilessness but also inspiring compassion. The cast, made up of real new burlesque performers, proves indeed authentic and capable of conveying pathos. In particular Mathieu Amalric as Joachim delivers a strong and emotionally involving performance, which goes hand in hand with his skillful direction.

On Tour is a gloriously elusive film. Temperamentally it's as happy-go-lucky as the burlesque troupe, though a turbulent undercurrent of regret and self-doubt often blisters the surface.This emotional perpetual-motion is probably the most consistent element of the film. The titillation of the performances rely on the fleeting moment, glimpses offered then cut off. Similarly the camera-work is invariably in some sort of motion, often hand-held, looking from a large number of different perspectives. The frame of shot and depth of field focus also act to beckon the imagination where the eye cannot go. Other characters along the way are fickle too - a gas station attendant, or a just- married couple who cannot sustain a fixed grin in the way the troupe girls can.So it's a very adult film. The eddies of life's disappointments are the main tension of the film, its principal drama. Yet no-one tries to uncover another's source of disquiet. Everything is laid bare. A running joke is Joachim's irritance with piped music, the sonic junk that's designed to distract from the abyss (ironically, the one song escaping his censure, performed by one of the girls, is a typically introspective Radiohead song). There's no prying as to what's in that abyss, in the same way that there's no worthy-but-pointless digression concerning the size and shape of the women. Fury and tenderness blast out from unexpected moments but are then gone again with neither apology nor explanation. This is a true documentation of existential collateral: like the black dog with a lead in its mouth poised for a walk, occasionally barking for attention. I found it disarmingly real, charming, sexy, dry and without pity. 8/10

I loved this film. This glorious film is moving and hilarious by turns as it narrates the misadventures of a troop of five aging American burlesque dancers(they are actual strippers all making their motion picture debut) and their acerbic manager (Amalric in perhaps the performance of his career) as they tour France with their risqué show.The dialogue which includes English spoken around the 5 American performers and French for the rest of the characters is realistic and witty. The screenplay is very loose and allows for lots of digressing interludes which are endearing. There are many burlesque acts shown in full in the movie and they are very entertaining.The movie is bawdy with the dancers often behaving in a loud crass way and of course there's plenty of nudity, on stage and off stage, but the entire film and its performances are just so genial and ingratiating that you can't help but have a good time at the cinemas.ONE OF THE BEST FILMS OF THE YEAR. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.