La Bande des quatre (1988) from Tuna
La Bande des quatre, or The Gang of Four was, for me 155 minutes of boredom. It is the story of a group of female drama students all studying under a great teacher. Four of them live together. They keep getting better at acting. A former member of the household is involved with a man sought by the police, and a mysterious man befriends each of the girls in turn, giving them a different name, telling each a different story, and asking each about their friend. 

NUDITY REPORT
Laurence Côte showed her breasts. No titillation value - and precious little nudity for a film with so many young actresses in it.  

DVD info from Amazon.

  • bare bones
The criminal boyfriend and the mysterious man are supposedly there to give real life experience to the drama students, which they can then incorporate into their performances. According to the only review I could find, the film is really an advanced acting class. Unfortunately, subtitles didn't convey much of the information. The film did have some visual appeal, and . I can't recommend this film to anyone who is not fluent in French, and even then, rent it at your own risk. No pace, thin plot, and no peaks of excitement.

 

The Critics Vote

  • no major reviews online

The People Vote ...

  • With their votes ... IMDB summary: IMDb voters score it 8.8, based on only 21 votes 
IMDb guideline: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence, about like three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, about like two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, about like two stars from the critics. Films under five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film, equivalent to about one and a half stars from the critics or less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

My own guideline: A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. C means it will only appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover appeal. D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre. F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well.

Based on this description, this film is a C-.

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