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The online film magazine Combustible Celluloid offers new movie reviews, DVD reviews, film reviews, actor interviews, actress interviews, director interviews, film books and all things cinema related for the thoughtful and passionate. Online for ten years! Over 3000 reviews!

SEARCH MOVIES / CELEB

Don Juan (1998)

Rating: 2 Stars (out of 4)

Don Yawn

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Buy Don Juan on DVD.

Based on Molière's Don Juan, this vanity project by little known actor Jacques Weber (Cyrano de Bergerac, Beaumarchais the Scoundrel) was probably meant to ignite his career, but his ponderous presentation stifled any potential sparks. Weber plays the story's hero, a grand lover who abandons the beautiful Elvire (Emmanuelle Beart) and hits the road, pursued by her angry brothers. He continues his quest for pleasure and ignites the flame of love within two new women (Penelope Cruz and Ariadna Gil). Weber has a giant-sized, barrel-chested body and a physical power that reminds one of Orson Welles or Marlon Brando, but without their magnetism. For a while, you can buy that this Don Juan could conquer a few women, but he's far too dull to be the most notorious scoundrel of all time. Even having two of the world's most beautiful women (Beart and Cruz) in the cast does not raise the film's sex quotient. It just gets duller and duller as it moves away from Don Juan's lovemaking and drags more and more into his personal struggles. The great Denis Lavant (Beau Travail, Les Amants du Pont-Neuf) shines in a small role as a jealous buffoon.

DVD Details: Koch Lorber has tried to resurrect this forgotten film on a new DVD, letterboxed with optional English subtitles, but it comes with no other extras. The transfer makes it look like a TV movie, just a little fuzzy and flat.

Starring: Jacques Weber, Emmanuelle Béart, Penélope Cruz, Denis Lavant
Written by: Jacques Weber, based on the play by Molière
Directed by: Jacques Weber
MPAA Rating: NR
Language: French with English subtitles
Running Time: 91 minutes
Date: June 29, 2005