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Out at the Movies: "Love Songs" ("Les Chansons d'amour")
An honest-to-goodness gay movie opens in NYC today (though you'd never know it from the rather misleading trailer), and will open in more cities in the coming weeks. A full review is in the works, but here's le skinny... Love Songs, a melancholy French kitchen-sink musical from acclaimed director Christophe Honore, tells the story of a young magazine editor, Ismael (Luis Garrel of Dans Paris), and his beautiful but frustrated girlfriend, Julie (Ludovine Sagnier of Swimming Pool and 8 Women), who have opened their relationship up to a third party, Ismael's colleague, Alice (Clotilde Hesme). The three bounce around the streets of Paris' tenth arrondissiment and sing to one another in twee, breathy tones about lust, selfishness, and love (in that order). If that all sounds rather dull ... well ... it kind of is. But after an unexpected tragedy shatters this odd arrangement, Ismael finds himself comforted by a highschool boy named Erwann (Gregoir Leprince-Ringuet) who is smitten with Ismael and determined to seduce him, no matter how stalkery he needs to get to do so. Eventually Ismael relents, but will he accept the love of this man or return to his selfish ways? Love Songs is odd for a number of reasons, not least of all the fact that the actors wander around and sing to one another for much of it. While it's encouraging to see a universe where sexuality is fluid and largely without judgment (men and women date whomever they feel like, and Erwann, the film's true gay character, is entirely unconflicted about his sexuality), I don't know if achieving that freedom would be worth living around all these exhaustingly precocious people. Still, in a day when gay characters and gay relationships are almost absent from American screens, it's a rare treat to find a film boasting a steamy gay love scene (with singing, of course!) and gay characters that don't disappear into the background. (And it doesn't hurt that Leprince-Ringuet can rock a pair of orange briefs like it's nobody's business.) Here's a trailer for the film ... thoughts? One that tickles your fancy? Submitted by on Fri, 2008-03-21 10:43. |
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I will wait for you
afhickman
"It takes a village (to make Village People)"
This looks like a musical, more lighthearted update of Gilbert Adair's "Dreamers," which also starred Louis Garrel, as Theo. "Umbrellas of Cherbourg," anyone? I'm looking forward to seeing it!
Umbrellas
At least ...
... it reminded me of "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg" and not "8 Women" ...
- Kirby, moviedearest.blogspot.com
How is the trailer misleading?
Aside from the fact that, like the best trailers, it gives you a taste of the film without spoiling the plot (What Lies Beneath is the peak of plot spoiling in the trailer), I think it's also pretty clear that Leprince-Ringuet's character is gay and has the hots for Garrel, and that Garrel just might return the attraction.
I'm wary of Honore as a director; Regular Lovers was beyond boring, and sometimes rather inept.
Check out my blog: http://radicalsexy.blogspot.com/
I found a clip from this on
I love French films anyway
I will definitely be waiting for this one. The only problem I see is that there are 2 to many women in it.
Louis Garrel - Better in Threes - Premiere Mag Interview/Article
Louis Garrel - Better In Threes
http://www.premiere.com/features/4471/louis-garrel-better-in-threes.html
"The social message of the film is important to Garrel and he does not shy away from expressing that a more positive portrayal of homosexuality on screen is needed: "Because if I were gay, [and] I'm not gay yet — maybe one day — but if I were gay, I'd like to see movies where homosexuality isn't always a problem." Asked what he thought the message of the film is, Garrel's response is nothing if not romantic: "I was reading a book of Jewish proverbs and we found this little phrase that we put in the movie. 'Love me less but love me long.' I mean that's a perfect conclusion, no?"
Love me less, but love me a long time - Les Chansons D'Amour
Gregoire LePrince-Ringuet
Mon amour!
LePrince-Ringuet
Yes, he is truly beautiful isn't he?
But I liked the guy that played his brother Gwendel even more!
Great movie
I'm usually not fond of musical movies and find a lot of French films dull but I actually loved that movie. The songs are beautiful (I hope they will be subtitled), the actors fantastics, the story beautiful and I found it pretty original.
I definitely thik people should go see it even if they're not sure they'll like it, it's a must see.
Love Songs
I just scored the DVD and this movie is AWESOME!
Musicals are generally not my thing but I really, really, enjoyed this one. The first song (Ismael and Julie) was really fanastic and the last one (Ismael and Erwann) was all-out amazing. French really is a very beautiful language, especially to sing in. Beaupain did a fantastic job on the songs.
It was also interesting the way that questions of sexual orientation never really came up in the movie. Bisexuality was a core element but nobody discussed it as such. Instead the sole real focus was on emotions and relationships.
Also, Louis Garrel and Gregoire Leprince-Ringuet are both extremely handsome men which I am shamelessly willing to admit helps with the movie's appeal.
People who like to nitpick about movies needing to be "realistic" will hate this. But those who are willing to suspend disbelief and slip into a little French artsy escapism will enjoy Love Songs immensely.
Les Chansons dAmour - "the Sweater"
I just got my Breton striped sweater today- it shows up starting in Chapter 7 and gives a hint of Ismael's interest in Erwann, because he never returns it. My sweater is a bit heavy for the Desert, but then I wore my heavy wool kilt to dinner on my B'day last Thursday. Suffering for Style.
To say I am obsessed with this movie is to realize that I am back studying French so I can memorize some of the songs, have the DVD and the CD, seen all of Gregoire Leprince-Ringuet's other available roles, and have the book, Fou de Vincent, which I got from Canada. It appears in the second meeting between Erwann and Ismael-(That book is by Herve Guibert, a hottie who is no longer with us.) Lots of slang make this a difficult book to translate for me.
Les Parapluies de Cherbourg is often mentioned in conjunction with this film. From the ravishing color in that movie and the singing of every line, that film was groundbreaking. Chansons shows a Paris in greys and whites, with little of the automatic heart-tugging showpieces that is Tourist Paris. There is a great restaurant in the Place Bastille, Bofinger, which looks like the set for Hello, Dolly! and the food is great. Instead, Honore places Ismael in a scene like an Edward Hopper painting in brolwns and greys. the mise-en-scene is complemented by the nearly monotone songs, whose lyrics are really integral to the film. Both plot and poetry, we are told of killing twice the girlfriend, police codes, worms in the mouth, and lemon pancakes. We even get to see the composer Alex Beaupain sing "Brooklyn Bridge" in the nightclub scene. Way hot.
Erwann seems to be the adult in the relationship, saying, "If you want to screw in the sheets, OK, but you gotta hear "I love you'" and Ismael seems to give in with the last line. BTW I think it is "Aimez-moi moins, mais aimez-moi longtemps." Anyone know?
From what we learn in the film, I don't think they will, indeed, last a long time. But I still cry. Gotta leave this blog and go watch it again. Wearing the new "Sweater." (It's "Pull" in French.)
There are sites with the lyrics in French and the addresses of all the places used in the fillm. I'm not the only fanatic.