The film presents, in terms of narrative construction (crossed, parallel actions, ably tied one to the other) and in terms of direction itself, an extraordinary arabesque of characters and situations. Minnelli makes fascinating use of CinemaScope: at the edges of the shots he at times places ten characters together, or he creates intense sequences with two characters and at others he meticulously prepares his favourite shots on solitary characters, after a group or a two-character shot. This adult and modern film puts on the same level, without the minimum oratory precautions, doctors (with their entourage) and patients. […] The inadaptability to the world is, evidently, Minnelli’s key theme and the fundamental problem of his characters, drawn with a wealth of detail and accuracy, worthy of Balzac. For the author, this problem can only find a solution in creativity.

Francis Lacassin, Dictionnaire du cinéma. Les Films, Paris 1992