Post by luckyluc on Jul 7, 2008 9:05:54 GMT -5
Last Saturday we rented a French movie at our local video store and since it is still playing in my mind this morning I share it with you.
It is not everyone cup of tea, especially that the English subtitles does not do justice to the delicate lovely metaphors and do not render the vague, odd, witty touching poetic atmosphere of the songs lyrics. I would call it a new “ Old Nouvelle Vague” film. I simply adored it; my English hubby had to view it twice, he “got” it but he mostly enjoyed the Paris ambiance and could not understand why I ran over to Amazon to buy a copy!
Without spoiling the surprise…The plot is simple and complicated at the same time: A girl-boy-girl threesome, (Julie, Ishmael, Alice)turns out to be short-lived after one of the girls , Alice — who insists early on that her primary sexual interests are in women and celibacy — takes up with a young Breton man named Gwendal , whose younger brother, Erwann develops a crush on Ishmael, who is also the object of nonsexual attention from Julie’s older sister, Jeanne (Catherine Deneuve’s daughter in real life)
It is mostly spoken drama but what set the movie apart is that the actors bursts into recitative style songs (genre Parapluies de Cherbourg) where lyrics fill in for what the characters are uncomfortable to speak plainly. None of them are singers and ignoring my perfect pitch trained ears was not easy, but the result is enchanting.
It is quintessentially French in that it does not club us over the head with its message: All shades of sexual preference are treated with the same romantic poetry; focus on the person not their gender, the film seems to say. And is it unashamedly non-commercial.
The director, Christophe Honoré embraces Paris much like Woody at his best embraces Manhattan. The film benefit from the setting in a non touristy area of Paris, the 10th arrondissement, with its shops, you will not see the standard, Gigi, 7th and Eiffel but some great visual moments in remote gleams of the ville lumière. A must see for any Paris lover’s.
It is not everyone cup of tea, especially that the English subtitles does not do justice to the delicate lovely metaphors and do not render the vague, odd, witty touching poetic atmosphere of the songs lyrics. I would call it a new “ Old Nouvelle Vague” film. I simply adored it; my English hubby had to view it twice, he “got” it but he mostly enjoyed the Paris ambiance and could not understand why I ran over to Amazon to buy a copy!
Without spoiling the surprise…The plot is simple and complicated at the same time: A girl-boy-girl threesome, (Julie, Ishmael, Alice)turns out to be short-lived after one of the girls , Alice — who insists early on that her primary sexual interests are in women and celibacy — takes up with a young Breton man named Gwendal , whose younger brother, Erwann develops a crush on Ishmael, who is also the object of nonsexual attention from Julie’s older sister, Jeanne (Catherine Deneuve’s daughter in real life)
It is mostly spoken drama but what set the movie apart is that the actors bursts into recitative style songs (genre Parapluies de Cherbourg) where lyrics fill in for what the characters are uncomfortable to speak plainly. None of them are singers and ignoring my perfect pitch trained ears was not easy, but the result is enchanting.
It is quintessentially French in that it does not club us over the head with its message: All shades of sexual preference are treated with the same romantic poetry; focus on the person not their gender, the film seems to say. And is it unashamedly non-commercial.
The director, Christophe Honoré embraces Paris much like Woody at his best embraces Manhattan. The film benefit from the setting in a non touristy area of Paris, the 10th arrondissement, with its shops, you will not see the standard, Gigi, 7th and Eiffel but some great visual moments in remote gleams of the ville lumière. A must see for any Paris lover’s.