Life Love Death

– François Toledo, married businessman and father, falls head-over-heels in love with Janine, a work ..

Type:
Movie
Rating:
7.00 / 10
Duration:
One Hour and 55 Minutes
Release Year:
1969
Original Name:
La vie, l'amour, la mort
Life Love Death (1969) - Also known as La vie, l'amour, la mort

François Toledo, married businessman and father, falls head-over-heels in love with Janine, a work colleague. However, he is soon found out: after three dates, he strangles some prostitutes, when, the victim of blackmail, he becomes dishonored. He is taken to court, and sentenced to be killed by a guillotine.

Story Timeline:
Producing Country:
Filming Locations:
Genre:
Release Date:

29 Jan 1969

Language:

French

MPAA Content-Rating:
R – Restricted

Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian. Contains some adult material. Parents are urged to learn more about the film before taking their young children with them.

Director:

Claude Lelouch

Writer:

Claude Lelouch, Pierre Uytterhoeven

Main Actors:

Amidou, Caroline Cellier, Janine Magnan, Marcel Bozzuffi

Plot:

"Life, Love, Death" was made before the abolition of capital punishment in France. Its central message is the inhumanity of the guillotine. The film, which is shot somewhat in a cinema verite style, divides roughly into three acts. In Act One, there is a series of murders of prostitutes in Paris. An obviously deeply disturbed man is hiring these prostitutes and then strangling them. Suspicion falls on François (Amidou), a married man with a child. The police put him under surveillance. (Viewers will recognize the inspector in charge of the team as Marcel Bozzuffi, who would play Popeye Doyle's nemesis in The French Connection a couple of years later.) Ironically, François is experiencing spiritual healing and renewal through the power of love---not with his wife, of course, this being a French film, but through an affair with a beautiful young woman he has met (not a prostitute). But just as this is happening and François seems to have lost the need to commit violent crimes, he is arrested. Act Two is the arraignment, trial and exposition of François's life and history. His recent transformation, of course, makes no impression on the court, and he is sentenced to death by guillotine. Act Three is a documentary-style record of François's last days in prison and his execution. The last scene in the film is an image of the guillotine's blade beginning its descent; it slows and freezes and there is a fade to black, as a voiceover issues a passionate plea for abolition of the guillotine.

Ratings:
Internet Movie Database:
7.0/10