"Peindre ou faire l'amour" is a film light like a feather. There is nothing dark about it. It is a film about spontaneity, a film about getting back enjoyment in life through art and sex, through friendship and sex, and through sex. Almost all characters in the film are blessed with a constant level of sexual desires, which results of their carelessness. Our main characters for example (played by Daniel Auteuil and Sabine Azéma): The husband has just retired and has a lot of time and his wife's nature seems to be very sexual in general. Or their new friends (played by Sergi Lopez and Amira Casar): It looks like it has always been their plan to get to bed with Auteuil's and Azéma's character. Or at least to gather different sexual experiences. Moreover, nearly all characters, who appear in this film come twosome, as a couple (which says a lot about the world it plays in). All in all a light and very good film, funny at times, touching at times, and for the characters always interesting.

I watched this movie accidentally and I wish I had saved my Euros. You see very good-looking people, enjoying their lives fully, stereotypically named (Adam & Eva), a newly remodeled house that looks like it had been in use for months at least... The problems in this movie are no real problems, everything is easy and at the end we choose between some paradisiacal island and an idyllic home. This movie looked like one of those 'Better living at home' magazines to me. Everything is sooo very pleasant and tasteful. Daniel Auteuil seems to be the only one who realizes he is totally out of place, but he can't find a way out from the set. Don't watch this, unless you need some ideas for how to decorate your home or where to go for vacation.

This is a movie that just begs for someone to observe how FRENCH it is, the implication being that other countries somehow can't get their celluloid souffles to rise quite like the Gauls. Be that as it may this IS, I suppose, typically French, whatever that means. Sabine Azema and Daniel Auteuil are a well-heeled couple of the 'early retirement' school. Azema likes to dabble in landscapes and whilst she is thus occupied a blind man (Sergi Lopez) tells her and shows - if that is the right word - her a house that is for sale. In nothing flat she and Auteuil are installed and beginning a new life in which Lopez and his wife (Amira Casar) quickly become their new best friends and in the fullness of time - probably about two or three months - it's wife-swapping time. Azema and Auteuil take to this like ducks to water so much so that they're soon advertising for like-minded couples. If it sounds sordid on the page it doesn't come across like that on the screen, possibly because it's French. All the principals are on top of their game and Casar proves that there IS life after Catherine Breillat. Well worth a look.

I went to see it unexpectedly yesterday evening. It's absolutely amazing. For all of us 30, 40, 50 somethings out there, it's a real breath of fresh air. Sabine Azema never looked so stunning (to say the least!). The appearance of Philippe Katerine at the end as well as scores from Jacques Brel (an incredible echo at the moment when they play "Les Marquises" made me cry straight away). Even Daniel Auteuil whom I really don't like most of the time plays well here, as well as all the other actors. I would advise all of you to go and see it if you'd like to follow Borges' advice :"wash your eyes between each looks". It's what this movie will allow you to do, no more, no less.