Because I could not stop for Death, he kindly stopped for me; the carriage held but just ourselves and immortality” – Emily Dickinson
If Death took a holiday, the guns would go silent in Iraq, the slaughter on our nation’s highways would cease, and the news media would be compelled to cover positive events in the humanities, arts, and sciences. Unfortunately, Death has not had a vacation in recorded history, but Mitchell Leisen’s 1934 fantasy, Death Takes a Holiday, allows us to consider the possibility. Co-written by Maxwell Anderson and Gladys Lehman and based on the play "La Morte in Vacanza" by Alberto Casella, Death Takes a Holiday stars Frederic March as the Grim Reaper who takes on human form in an attempt to discover why men fear him so much. Why he has waited 5,000 years to satisfy this curiosity is not explained.
[Spoiler] After a brief tryout as a shadowy figure who scares the daylights out of those that cross his path, Death shows up at, of all places, an upscale party at an Italian villa, posing as the mysterious Prince Sirki. Only one person knows who he really is, the host Duke Lambert (Guy Standing), and he is sworn to secrecy. Sirki proceeds to fascinate the guests. Given to bursts of wit and poetry, he can just as quickly turn sullen and threatening, and some soon find out that it is better not to look too deeply into his eyes. During the three days in which the Prince is at the villa, however, people all over the world miraculously escape death and potential suicides are doomed to frustration.
To see what’s behind all the conversation about love, the suave but naïve Prince Sirki falls for the irresistible Grazia (Evelyn Venable), the daughter of one of Duke’s friends. Grazia knows who Death is but does not fear him, much to the chagrin of her fiancé, Corrado (Kent Taylor) who has developed a strong disdain for Prince Charming.
More sinister than Brad Pitt in the 1998 remake Meet Joe Black, March turns in a very convincing performance as the creepy yet strangely appealing guest. Although the ending is melodramatic, the emotions are very real and the suggestion that Death may in reality be a friend disguised as a foe is quite touching.
(Howard Schumann, talkingpix.co.uk)
In this wearisome and predictable plot line, Death falls in love and bores us to death talking about it.
(Dennis Schwartz, homepages.sover.net)
I've heard DRACULA was advertised with the tag line "The Weirdest Love Story ever told!" (this is probably a paraphrase), but at heart, I've never felt that you could honestly call that movie a love story. The tag line would be much more appropriate for this one, since it ultimately boils down to what amounts to a love story. This movie is very good indeed, particularly if you consider that it is built around a concept that could have easily been handled in a cute or facile manner. Instead, it is handled as seriously as possible, with some real thought put into how death would try to come to terms with a life and an outlook that was to that point totally unfamiliar to him; much of the credit does go to Fredric March in the title role. It's quite scary when it needs to be, particularly during the first twenty minutes. From then on, it deals with its themes with subtlety, a quiet wit, an enduring sadness, and an everpresent tension on how Death might react if crossed. It's not perfect; some of the dialogue is self-conscious and artificial, as if the writers knew they were dealing with weighty issues and were trying to be profound. But I am certainly glad they didn't try to turn it into a musical comedy of sorts.
(Dave Sindelar, scifilm.org)
See also the remake: Death Takes A Holiday (1971)
个么豆瓣这个十三点，嘎西早粗榜单，好了伐，上勿去了伐
我可太喜欢倪虹洁了，尤其是说上海话的倪虹洁，又魅又迷人
灵啊，有哭有笑，不上价值，意犹未尽，就是好片子了。
摩登和复古的绝妙融合 好久没觉得上海是一座这么好的城市了
怎么能差成这样：視角混亂、鏡頭語言一塌糊塗、音樂濫用、美學東拼西湊、各種段子和抖機靈、導演功力為0全靠演員演技支撐。
看一半的时候觉得这部电影有点模仿伍迪艾伦而不得的样子，少了点知识分子式的精致，有点太乡土味。看完后则恍然觉得，有时候观感还是得遵从本心，不得不承认本片拍上海拍的很到位，我所知道的上海，本来就不那么曼哈顿，不那么精致。几场餐桌戏让我意识到本片剧本的精髓并不在于它技巧本身有多么的老练，而是它恰到好处的知道如何利用上海人本身就有的一点点小造作来遮掩剧情衔接处的生涩，反而迸发出一些意想不到的喜剧效果。
个人一直偏爱方言电影，很舒服的文艺中年片，不油腻不抓马不喜剧。虽然很多台词跟核心的爱情神话故事本身都有很重的缝合痕迹，在这些中年演员自然表演下不会违和。精沪一本满足。#上海影城cinity
4. 李小姐和格罗瑞亚的微信使用习惯：李小姐从来都是文字输入，而且一两个字的回复也必用句号结尾。格罗瑞亚从来都是语音输入。
要素过多。。健身不练腿 早晚要后悔 非礼你看不下去切了个bgm是M83吗？？
中年人的浪漫～一切都是那么精致 最喜老乌在餐桌前谈论艳遇的那一段 我信了
几场群戏都很惊艳。观众顺着老白眼光来到展览馆看到李小姐和格洛瑞亚在一起宛若知心好友聊天时，老白荒谬的像个外人，那一幕简直了。
这个电影微妙的地方在于，它既是生活更是想象，比现实更浪漫。如果方言换成标准普通话，那肯定不能这么出彩。导演的镜头调度、演员分寸拿捏都恰到好处，看似平淡的剧情却华彩频出。电影中的许多场景我都去过，跟朋友们虚度许多时光，站在老乌给老白找的第一个展览空间面前说：“XXX和XXX最爱在这个地方办展览，因为场地免费。”这是外地人的上海想象与上海本地人的市井面貌的完美嫁接，所以电影并非上海文化的还原或推广，而是对上海生活之期待的具象化。
还有老乌那罗马的爱情神话，韵味的画作和结局，十分的浪漫主义。
年轻小两口演的太拉
悲哀在于，情感和日常需要靠那些遥远的符号（费里尼/索菲亚/土耳其/英国/红拂夜奔）才能串联起有意义的链条，这无非是另一种偶然与想象。如此语境之下，精致的海派生活倒显出一种自欺欺人的况味，仿佛老白对小皮匠问询的变体“你的咖啡里有麻木的味道吗？”一边是悬置的能指，一边是实际是所指，双方在迷影式的致敬中少见的没能达成影像上的统一与和解。于是，爱情在本片中像一场精神上的屠杀，目标是这些或单亲带娃或有暧昧过往的中年男女，这里没有爱情的青春热血和蓬勃朝气，只剩拖拖拉拉的消极和孤叹。电影在准确描绘出中年爱情状态的同时，也将这些中年人抽象化了，因为他们在这场屠杀中的所有反抗与逃亡，皆是以有钱有闲为基础的。而更多的普罗大众，连被这种爱情蹂躏的资本都没有。这当然是一部好电影，但生活的底色赋予了它某种失败的气质。
可可爱爱！或许是人到中年，一半颓丧、一半看开之后，才能拥有的更幽默、更宽广、也更松弛的友爱。
被购票网站骗了，标的都是国语版，其实几乎完全都是沪语版本，但也真的只有听得懂上海闲话的人才能明白这部电影的妙处。全片充满了上海人才有的机智、幽默、得体、品味、腔调、包容、通达，也有看透人生以后的悲悯，马伊琍、倪虹洁、吴越三个女人当然也演得很好，但演得最好的还是徐峥，把一个上海闲人的劲儿呈现得很放松很呼之欲出。灵额！
红拂夜奔的爱情神话消磨至死，此地不谈乳化，不作承诺，临期商品烹调情爱弧光，清粥小菜也当地久天长。余生恰恰可以谈天说笑着闲话浪荡过去。命题的沉重在昏昏欲睡的费里尼鉴赏被轻轻掸落，又以情景喜剧追踪时代编年和城市性情的手法，构建无数具体生活物件和上海坐标组成的时空记忆，共鸣与认同附着稳定周期循环的舒适空间——正如老白家那张象征化解冲突，生活继续的沙发——真正神话再度落地生根被制造。毫无影像语法和摄影审美可言，但依然，隐形审查的固存常态里能看到这样嘲笑中年男性的精致文本已属惊喜。编造的笑谈瓦解神话的罗马，下坡路仰望月亮，何必爬山苦等日出。小人物日常叙事虽然琐屑安全，自有不必挑明的对抗宏大和谐乐章的讲述意义和内在力量，的确是回避大象的奇观迷恋，但如果连想象浪漫的卑微都要斥之以悬浮高空，我们还剩下什么？
两男三女的四段一夜情，都在诉说着不同的故事，在我看来，也许老乌和索菲亚的那段才是真正的神话吧。金句频出的文艺片，不错。
勉强可以上五星了，挺有意思的。全片上海话必然是最大的亮点，方言电影有必要支持。前面还在想为啥叫爱情神话呢，看到后来才懂。爱情里其实没有神话，但每个陷入爱情的人都在渴望神话。没想到老乌最后成功逆袭，抢走老白的C位。台词很有意思，尤其第一次三个女人一桌互呛那段太好玩了。马伊琍和倪虹洁都很灵的，尤其倪虹洁，表现亮眼。
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