As fascist tension builds across Europe, free-spirited flapper Gilda enjoys a carefree lifestyle with friends/lovers guy and Mia until principles threaten their never-ending party.

Guy’s friendship (and sometime affair) with happy go lucky Gilda starts at university and picks up years later in Paris, where she’s a successful photographer. Now a schoolteacher, Guy finds the invitation to join Gilda’s lavish lifestyle of bathtub romps and champagne too good to resist, especially with her nurse friend — the tasty tamale Mia — in the bargain.

As Spain falls under the iron fist of Franco, neither Guy nor Mia can ignore the call of duty despite Gilda’s protestations, so when he returns to Paris under the auspices of British intelligence, she won’t have a bar of him. Guy keeps her in sight while trying to do his job helping the French resistance, but the war arrives in more ways than one, and Gilda hides her own secrets’

Duigan paints a gorgeous looking picture of Europe’s heady pre-war days, and with the three beautiful and competent leads, it’s hard not to be drawn in. He also handles scenes of battle well as war descends, and while the plot lags here and there, it will carry you convincingly to its startling conclusion.

Occasionally overlong but engaging and sumptuous thanks to charismatic leads.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 1st, 2005 at 12:00 am and is filed under Empire, Film, Film Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.