James Bond at Cinema Tuesdays – Pages Monaco
Tuesday January 11 at 8 p.m., Théâtre des Variétés
Never Say Never Again – United States – 1983 – color – 134 min. – VOSTF
- Director: Irvin Kershner.
- Screenplay: Lorenzo Semple Jr., based on a story by Ian Fleming, Kevin McClory and Jack Whittingham. Dialogues: Dick Clément, Ian La Frenais.
- Original music and songs: Michel Legrand.
With: Sean Connery (James Bond), Klaus Maria Brandauer (Maximilian Largo), Max von Sydow (Ernst Stavro Blofeld), Barbara Carrera (Fatima Blush), Kim Basinger (Domino Petachi), Bernie Casey (Felix Leiter), Alec McCowen ( Q), Edward Fox (M), Pamela Salem (Miss Moneypenny), Rowan Atkinson (Nigel Small-Fawcett).
THE STORY
James Bond has aged. His superior finds him in bad shape and considers it useful to have him undergo treatment in a private clinic. In this clinic, Bond crosses paths with a certain Jack Petachi who leads him to the specter, a criminal organization which has stolen two nuclear warheads from the US Air Force. Bond then tries to approach Petachi’s sister, Domino, who is also the girlfriend of the theft’s sponsor, a certain Maximilian Largo.
CRITICISM
From the Côte d’Azur where we are witnessing a breathtaking motorcycle chase, passing through the Bahamas and Africa where the secret lair of the bad guys is nestled, this astonishing mixture of fairly discreet modernism and rigorous, slightly retro realism provoke a kind of tasty humorous distancing amplified by the play of a Sean Connery visibly happy to put on the 007 uniform again and perfectly at ease in this role of spy with a human face. (…) Never again ever is one of the best James Bond of the series; this return to basics and this reassessment of the individual in the face of technology takes on symbolic value in these uncertain times when the supergrands of this world are also having fun sowing engines of death and destruction on our good old days. planet.
Philippe Ross, La Revue du cinéma n ° 389, December 1983, p. 22.