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Love Songs: "Les chansons d'amour" (2007) by Christophe Honoré
Aloysius J. Gleek:
Love Songs
(Les Chansons d'amour) Trailer (2:31)
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s54vpKAFmS0[/youtube]
http://movies.nytimes.com/2008/03/19/movies/19love.html?scp=1&sq=%22Love+Songs%22&st=nyt
From the New York Times:
Movie Review
Love Songs (2007)
From left, Clotilde Hesme, Ludivine Sagnier and Louis Garrel, a threesome in “Love Songs.”
Parisians Singing From Bed to Bed
By A. O. SCOTT
Published: March 19, 2008
The Paris of Christophe Honoré ’s “Love Songs” (“Les Chansons d’Amour”) belongs unmistakably to the present. Its residents talk on cellphones and drop the name of Nicolas Sarkozy (still an aspirant to the Élysée Palace rather than an occupant when the movie was being shot). But they also dwell, just as noticeably, in the Paris of classic French movies — in a vague, bracing atmosphere of good old Nouvelle Vague. The opening titles present the surnames of the actors in unadorned block capitals, à la mid-’60s Jean-Luc Godard, while the camera poetically prowls the streets of the city. And, among other sly quotations, an early shot of a couple reading in bed evokes a memorable, much-reproduced image from François Truffaut’s “Bed and Board.”
Except that, in this case, the couple is a threesome. Ismaël (the mischievous and soulful Louis Garrel ) and his live-in girlfriend, Julie (Ludivine Sagnier), have expanded their arrangement to include Ismaël’s co-worker Alice (Clotilde Hesme), an addition that fascinates Julie’s mother (Brigitte Roüan). But the girl-boy-girl threesome, which turns out to be short-lived, is perhaps the most straightforward emotional configuration in this odd, witty, touching film. Eventually, you see, Alice — who insists early on that her primary sexual interests are in women and celibacy — takes up with a young Breton man named Gwendal (Yannick Renier), whose younger brother, Erwann (Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet), develops a crush on Ismaël, who is also the object of nonsexual stalkerish attention from Julie’s older sister, Jeanne (Chiara Mastroianni).
And I haven’t even mentioned that, every now and again, one or more of these attractive, articulate, love-addled people bursts into song. What do they sing about? What do you think? About love, naturellement, and also — pourquoi pas? — about Paris. (A nightclub singer croons some verses about Manhattan, but who’s he kidding?)
The songs, written by Alex Beaupain, belong to a strain of contemplative, literate French pop that is, for music fans not from France, something of an acquired taste. The English subtitles may not help, as they sometimes turn Mr. Beaupain’s delicate erotic metaphors into lines like: “Keep your saliva as an antidote/Let it trickle like sweet venom down my throat.”
The melodies are charming, though. And so, for the most part, is “Love Songs,” even if it doesn’t entirely work. It takes some nerve nowadays to conceive a musical that is both realistic and earnest, frank in its emotions and cognizant of the complicated states of feeling encountered by frisky young city dwellers. There is nothing mocking or knowing in Mr. Honoré’s fusion of sexual comedy, intellectual seriousness and music, and he is not shy about throwing strong, even shocking moments of drama into the mix. Hovering over the generally good-humored sexual confusion is the specter of mortality, as the bed-hopping is interrupted, at the end of the film’s first act, by a sudden, senseless death.
But even though Mr. Honoré is trying something very interesting — and even though his nimble cast executes it with grace and more or less in tune — the execution doesn’t quite live up to the concept. No single element (apart from those song-lyric subtitles) is bad, exactly, but an element of coherence is missing. The musical numbers are restrained and not especially showy, but their tact makes them feel more rather than less self-conscious. The songs don’t sunder the naturalism that surrounds them, but they don’t quite enhance it either, and the result is a movie that feels, curiously, at once modest to the point of diffidence and feverishly overwrought.
Still, for all its imperfections, “Love Songs” is a worthy and intriguing experiment, the latest sortie in an international rescue operation aimed at saving musical cinema from extinction or self-parody. Like other movies that have been involved in this undertaking — “Once,” say, or “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” — Mr. Honoré’s film is likely to inspire ardent love among its admirers. The rest of us may envy their passion.
Aloysius J. Gleek:
Love Songs (2007)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0996605/
Ma mémoire sale (4:32)
Louis Garrel (& Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet, silent)
Love Songs: Les chansons d'amour
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lX3GIhWNxbU[/youtube]
La distance (3:16)
Louis Garrel & Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet
Love Songs: Les chansons d'amour
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6eP7VsqQnM&feature=related[/youtube]
As-tu-déjà aimé? (2:54)
Louis Garrel & Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet
Love Songs: Les Chansons d'amour
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkZnH82_7v0[/youtube]
Louis Garrel with Ludivine Sagnier, left, and Clotilde Hesme in “Love Songs.”
Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet and Louis Garrel in “Love Songs.”
Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet in “Love Songs.”
Aloysius J. Gleek:
http://www.list.co.uk/article/5858-les-chansons-damour-profile-of-christophe-honore/
Les Chansons d’Amour - profile of Christophe Honoré
Source: The List (Issue 592) Date: 13 December 2007 Written by: Tom Dawson
PROFILE
Name Christophe Honoré
Born 10 April 1970, Cahaix, France.
Background Having grown up in Brittany, Honoré studied literature and cinema at Rennes university, before moving to Paris in his mid-20s, where he contributed to Cahiers du Cinema. A novelist, playwright, screenwriter and author of children’s books, Honoré has already directed several films: these include his sexually transgressive George Bataille adaptation Ma Mere, for which he cast Isabelle Huppert and Louis Garrel, and the critically acclaimed Dans Paris, a playful hommage to the Nouvelle Vague, which starred Garrel again and Romain Duris.
What’s he up to now? Honoré’s latest film is Les Chansons d’Amour (Love Songs), which played in competition at last May’s Cannes festival, and is now gaining its British release. Featuring an exciting young cast including Garrel, Ludivine Sagnier, Chiara Mastroianni and Clotilde Hesme, it’s a naturalistic musical containing 13 songs, which unfolds in Paris’s bustling tenth arrondissement and explores how lovers and family members deal with an unexpected bereavement.
What he says about the inspiration for Les Chansons d’Amour ‘It was inspired by the death of somebody whom I loved as a friend and whom the composer Alex Beaupain loved as well. When that person passed away, Alex wrote some songs, and I referred to the feelings of grief in my novels. But we came together with the idea of transforming this grief into the joy of making a movie.’
What he says about Jacques Demy ‘I love the work of Jacques Demy, to me he is a godfather of French cinema. You can’t make a French musical without acknowledging Demy, but I didn’t want to make a copy of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. In my film love is threatened not by war, but by everyday tragedy.’
Interesting Fact Honoré lost his own father when he was 15 years old.
Aloysius J. Gleek:
From
Les chansons d'amour:
J'ai cru entendre
by Alex Beaupain and Doc Matéo
Listen:
http://moulou.imeem.com/music/ord5zAqt/grgoire_leprinceringuet_jai_cru_entendre/
(2:54)
Ismaël
(Louis Garrel):
Mon petit depuis ce matin
J'ai traîné comme un crétin
Au niveau du caniveau
De Montparnasse à Château d'Eau
J'ai bu des verres, des verres, et puis des verres
Zubrowska, Riesling, Piper
À court de tout à bout de moi
Je suis revenu chez toi
Moi je voulais juste un corps
Je cherchais seulement des bras
Un lit de réconfort
Des délices sous les draps
Mais hélas au lieu de ça
J'ai cru entendre "Je t'aime--"
J'ai pensé c'est son problème
J'ai cru entendre je t'aime
J'ai pensé c'est son problème
Peu importe que tu y croies
Peu importe que je sois
À bout de moi, à court de tout
Mais pas de ça entre nous
Erwann
(Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet):
Être un corps je suis d'accord
T'offrir mes bras pourquoi pas
Mon lit, ok, encore
Pour rire en salir les draps
Mais je crains que pour tout ça
Tu doives entendre "Je t'aime--"
Tu doives entendre "Je t'aime!"
Ismaël:
je suis vieux, veuf et sectaire
Un pauvre imbécile secrétaire
Erwann:
Je suis beau, jeune et breton
Je sens la pluie, l'océan et les crêpes au citron
Ismaël:
Tais-toi un peu petit trésor
Erwann:
Tu as tout faux une fois encore
J'suis très précieux, épargne moi
Ismaël:
D'accord, mais--entre nous pas de ça
Erwann:
Être un corps je suis d'accord
Ismaël:
Je cherchais seulement des bras
Erwann:
Mon lit, ok, encore
Ismaël:
Des délices sous les draps
Erwann:
Mais je crains que pour tout ça
Tu doives entendre...
Ismaël:
(Je t'aime!)
"You need to hear 'I love you!'"
;)
Aloysius J. Gleek:
From
Les chansons d'amour:
Au parc
by Alex Beaupain
Listen:
http://profile.imeem.com/xkvPbUO/music/IDlPhAPl/chiara_mastroianni_au_parc/
(2:16)
Jeanne
(Chiara Mastroianni):
Même soleil d'hiver
Mêmes bruits de brindilles
Le bout des doigts glacé
Le givre sur les grilles
Mêmes odeurs d'humus
La terre qui se terre
Tout y sera, tout y sera
À part toi
Parc de la Pépinière, fin de semaine,
Encore une heure, encore une heure à peine,
Encore une heure de jour et la nuit vient
Même température,
Le mercure à zéro
Même mélancolie fauve
Au portillon du zoo
Mêmes parents pressés,
Leurs enfants en manteaux
Tout y sera, tout y sera
À part toi
Parc de la Pépinière, fin de semaine,
Encore une heure, encore une heure à peine,
Encore une heure de jour et la nuit vient
J'aurais beau décalquer
Refaire les mêmes parcours
Reprendre les mêmes allées
Au mêmes heures du jours
J'aurais beau être la même
J'aurais beau être belle
Tout y sera, tout y sera
À part toi
Parc de la Pépinière, fin de semaine,
Encore une heure, encore une heure à peine,
Encore une heure de jour et la nuit vient
Et puis... rien.
:(
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