I have generally enjoyed the films of writer-director Christophe Honoré, although there are one or two that are far below the usual standard of his other explorations of love and other emotions, often messy ones. Love Songs is a good one, and it's interesting to see it so soon after my recent rewatch of Past Lives, a film I noted as being all about a specific kind of grief. Love Songs is also about grief, but it's a more traditional grief, even if it is intertwined with love and sex.
Louis Garrel plays Ismaël, a young man in a relationship with Julie (Ludivine Sagnier). Julie ends up leading them into a playful love triangle with Alice (Clotilde Hesme), which seems like a win-win situation for all involved, until the whole thing is broken up by circumstances outwith their control. Ismaël struggles to deal with the best way to move forward, as do those who end up caring from her, whether close to him or standing a bit further away.
A film full of punctuation, in terms of both main plot points and occasional songs that the characters break into (hence the title), Love Songs is an engrossing and well-handled study of someone processing a whole load of conflicting feelings that are all hitting him from different directions at the same time. Garrel doesn’t so much play a young man as he does an actual buoy, staying in place as the choppy waters around him make him bob and shift around without being able to drag him under.
Honoré makes use of the chosen format to lighten what could have been a very draining viewing experience. The songs are sometimes rough, and you get no dazzling choreography or super-witty wordplay here, but they successfully show people bursting out emotions that they simply cannot keep to themselves any longer. What could have been tiresome and pretentious works brilliantly thanks to the committed cast and the juxtaposition of the form and content.
Garrel is very good in his main role, but the rest of the cast are just as good, and all cast a large shadow over his life. Sagnier and Hesme are both sweet and interestingly connected with different kinds of energy, Chiara Mastroianni is excellent in the role of Jeanne, Julie’s sister, and Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet is a good addition when he comes into the movie in the second half to provide some extra potential confusion and/or comfort.
It’s hard to think of who else will enjoy this as much as I did. I guess those who are familiar with other films from Honoré will get plenty from it, especially as he is using a few people he has worked with numerous times before, but some may be frustrated by it tip-toeing between darker themes and scenes often played out with some positivity being put on display for the benefit of others around the central character. It worked for me though, and if I end up being the only one who loved it . . . so be it. I hope that isn’t the case though.
8/10
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